Weight is a touchy subject for many people. For years, they may have been fighting a battle against obesity. They may have tried diets, exercise, and many other ways to try losing weight. In fact, many people in the U.S. struggle with weight fluctuation.
There is a recent study by Melbourne Review(link to http://www.melbournereview.com.au/features/article/weight-loss-and-happiness), which states that obesity doesn’t only affect happiness, but also how happiness, stress levels, anxiety, and pleasure can play a part in the biochemicals that affect our ability to control weight.
According to the study, “One of the most important findings has been the value of pleasure in life, which is clearly related to stress but also to our general sense of wellness and our sense of joy and aliveness in the world. The less pleasure you derive from other aspects of life, the more likely you may be to consume excess food for pleasure.”
The study also states that chronic stress can lead to weight gain and have a direct effect on your body and weight gain.
“In contrast, feel great and seek pleasure and the body will create biochemicals that support our weight management endeavors. The pleasure effect is the stress effect in reverse.”
Finding a balance in your life between pleasure and stress is a key to managing weight. Many people use the New Year as a time to reset and become healthier. Rather than set a goal such as “lose 10 pounds by summer,” choose something like “eliminate the stress that’s making me eat late at night” or “take an hour to myself at least once a week to do something I love.”
It is essential for your health, weight, and overall well-being to find the things that bring you joy in your life. You should be seeking those things out and making sure you are doing everything in your power to do things that bring you happiness.
Let’s be honest, we all want to be happy, and we all want to be in the best possible shape that we can. No one wants to look in the mirror and not like the way they look. Furthermore, everyone deserves to feel confident in his or her own skin. In order to be happy with the way that we look, we need to be happier from within. Pursue activities, people, ideas, perceptions, values, and habits that make you happy, and recognize the small things in which you find pleasure. Seek those things out and you might just be surprised at the results.
