What comes to mind when you hear the word stress? For most people they have negative connotations with the word.When someone is stressed this may mean they are anxious. Or maybe in an uncomfortable situation. This could mean having too much on their plate. Sometimes this can be associated with tight traps, headaches and overall body tension.Stress might be related to someone pushed to their limit. And feeling as though there is no end in sight to the work or tough times.But the truth is that stress is not all bad. When stress is beneficial for the individual we would refer to this as eustress as opposed to a distress that has a negative effect.And this is similar to our autonomic nervous system (ANS) which can be divided into the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. Just as when we talk about stress in general most people associate this with distress so too when we think about the branches of the autonomic nervous system we are probably more familiar with the sympathetic nervous system.Think about it this way. What sounds more familiar, 'fight or flight' or 'rest and digest'?For most people they are more familiar with the term fight or flight. Although the words 'rest and digest' are uncommon we don't use this expression as commonly. And this is telling as to where the needle tends to sit for most people.So what do we mean by the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems?The graphic below does a great job of illustrating how the physiology of the body changes depending on whether we are in a parasympathetic or sympathetic state.[caption id="attachment_5648" align="aligncenter" width="300"] An illustration of how the physiology of the body changes depending on whether it is in a sympathetic or parasympathetic state.On the left are the physiological functions associated with being in a...

Hi there: Hope you're doing well. This has been a great week. You want to know why? I think it's because I've had great perspective lately. I've been really thankful for the good things in my life while not worrying so much about the distractions that can sometimes get us down. It might be the Thanksgiving weekend that has me in this kind of mood but it definitely ties in to your weight loss or performance goals.'Ok, hold on a sec', you're probably saying. 'Did he just say Thanksgiving and weight loss goals in the same sentence.' Absolutely I did. And here's what I mean by it.Our bodies go through both positive and negative stress. The positive stress is called eustress. Sound familiar? Unfortunately for most people this may be the first time they've ever heard of this word. And that says a lot if the positive aspect of stress is so foreign to us we don't even recognize the word for it.So it would make sense then that the balance tends to be skewed towards the negative end of the stress spectrum.But first we should identify a couple of hormones involved with the stress response. These are cortisol and adrenaline.Adrenaline is the hormone associated with 'fight or flight'  and results in increased heart rate, elevated blood pressure and boosts energy supplies. We are hard-wired for this response to always be at the ready and thus available to protect and keep us safe.Cortisol is another stress hormone and increases sugar (glucose) in the bloodstream, enhances your brain's use of glucose and increases the availability of substances that repair tissues.  It also alters immune system responses and suppresses the digestive system, the reproductive system and growth processes.Let's take a quick look at how stress affects digestion, recovery and training.1. When stress triggers the 'fight or fligt'...