Kickstart Challenge!

When you feel stressed, your body primes itself for “fight or flight.” In the long past, if you felt a spike of stress, it meant something along the lines of “you met a bear, what now?” Your body would release the hormones adrenaline and cortisol that cause an increase in blood sugar so your body has the fuel to either run from the bear or fight for your life. If you’re an avid outdoors enthusiast, there’s still a chance you could run into a bear, but chances are your stress comes more from things like sitting in traffic, work, or last minute bake sales you didn’t know you had to make cupcakes for. 

Chronic or recurring stress can cause your body’s stress response to repeatedly be in the “on” position, keeping your blood sugar high without the accompanying “fight or flight” to use up all that sugar. 

Stress can also have an impact on your appetite and everyone responds differently. When stressed, you may find yourself over or under eating and both responses can affect your blood sugar. 

Ideally we could move all the things or situations we feel stress about, but it’s unavoidable in our daily lives.  Since you can’t eliminate all your stressors, it’s important to find healthy ways to manage the stress in your life to help keep your blood sugar in a safe range.