A slightly digger deep into body composition. Let’s talk about cortisol.

Calories in vs calories out is the ultimate name of the game. That’s the bottom line. But before we get to that bottom line several factors play in. Sleep, stress, hydration, genetics and mindset.

Some of us have had days where we wake up, everything falls in in line. We’ve planned out our workout, it goes great and everything is awesome.

Then, there are the more real life scenarios:

• Working late
• Got home from work didn’t have time to cook so we settle for fast food
• Stressed out from a work filled day, now you and your significant other are talking about said stressful day(ie: not relaxing)

The next day:

• Poor sleep= sending the kids off to school
• Battling through traffic to get to the workplace
• Dealing with stress factors on said poor sleep

Before I was a personal trainer I worked an office job for 17 years. I got into fitness in 2014 as an adult. And I’ve learned a lot along the way. We all know that if we eat too much we’ll gain weight. And if we work hard in the gym and maintain a strict diet we’ll lose weight and get let. But the human body is very complicated. So lets go a little deeper than that.

And our brain(central nervous system) communicates with the body based on lots of factors. Sleep is one of them. But sleep correlates with stress and hormones.

Cortisol is produced in our adrenal glands with several roles. Those including:

• Energy source management
• Sleep/ wake cycle
• Energy boosts to handle and restore stress.

In the real life example ( lots of us), working late , battling through traffic to a job and poor sleep, cortisol levels will be low on a regular basis. The result will be struggles to achieve your fitness goals.

When cortisol is low:

• We’re sluggish to start off the day. When that happens we respond differently to stress factors. Our bodies are fatigued and the central nervous system recognizes that. At that point we don’t wanna think about much, other than that comfort food. Hey we’ve all been there!

When cortisol is high(at the right time):

• We’re alert to start off the day
• We handle stress much better
• Our Mindset is in a much better place.
• We GET OUR workouts and they’re great

How does this apply to you:

• Prioritize your sleep
• Relax, drink plenty of water
• Get moving

Lets all be pumping out plenty of cortisol upon waking to handle this world and be relaxing when the day is over! When we get into this pattern of behavior we’ll hit our goals.