A question for you...have you ever seen your insides before? ;-)
I'm not talking limbs...I'm talking your torso...seeing what's lurking under your skin?
Some of our fitmums have had the privilege just lately via a bioscan...and it really is fascinating!
One thing that's measured if you ever have a bioscan (which I would highly recommend!) is the fat you carry and whether it's subcutaneous or visceral.
Do you know the difference?
Subcutaneous is the fat you see under the skin - it's what gives us our bums and boobs, our hips, our curves and a softness in our tummy...the bits our kids love to grab hold of when they're little :)
How much subcutaneous fat you like to have on your body is really kind of a personal thing - some women like to be voluptuous, some like to be lean.
And of course our genetics, our diet and exercise pattern will hugely influence how much we do have.
But how much visceral fat we carry has significantly different ramifications.
Visceral fat sits around our organs, not superficially under the skin like subcutaneous fat.
It sits around our liver, our stomach, our intestines...and even in our arteries.
Worryingly, too much of it puts you at a much higher risk of developing heart disease, type 2 diabetes, certain cancers, Alzheimer's and having a stroke.
The good news is it's very receptive to lifestyle changes so the same shifts in exercise and diet that will get rid of subcutaneous, will get rid of visceral too...but there a couple of other things to note if you're trying to reduce the amount you carry.
And here's a significant one...
Stress less.
Yes, we all know stress isn't good for us (thanks for the obvious Karen!) but when it comes to visceral fat, it really isn't good.
Stress is a bugger though eh?
If you want to change your diet or pick up a weight and exercise, it's a relatively easy action to take.
When situations come at you in life from all directions and these induce a stress response, that's less easy to handle.
Poorly parents; anxious teenagers, arguments with spouses, a demanding workload...the list goes on.
The stresses will NEVER go away...and that's really important for us to remember.
Life's stresses will NEVER vanish.
But we can change something...
...our RESPONSE to them.
Two people can have an identical incident driving into work.
One person can experience that as "road rage" and all the stress that goes with it.
The other can simply let it wash over them and not give it another second's thought.
The difference those two reactions will have on our internal physiology are HUGE.
So what can you do to help yourself?
If you know you get affected by "life" too easily and you know it's affecting your health?
Here's a really simple tip.
Taking time to do some deep breathing throughout the day can be SO effective....breathing out for LONGER than you breathe in.
For example, breathing in to the count of 4, holding it for a few seconds, then breathing OUT for the count of 8...slowly!
Exhaling for longer than inhaling accesses our parasympathetic nervous system...and when we're there, our stress levels DROP...simple.
Daily meditation, yoga...all of these things can help but breathing is something we do every day anyway right? ;-)
We just don't do it very well a lot of the time ;-)
And it can make a huge difference to our physiology when we intersperse our days with some DEEP, belly-breathing big breaths in...and looooooong breathes out.
Try it now for 5 breaths and see how it calms you.
Another tip I'll leave you with is a read.
A book I read YEARS ago (probably 20 now!), given to me by a dear friend and ex-colleague.
Many of us are so used to reacting in a certain way to situations that we don't even know what the alternative is any more.
This book (it's so easy to read!) opens your mind to a better way to travel through life...a calmer way... a more chilled route.
It's called "Don't Sweat the Small Stuff...and It's All Small Stuff" by Richard Carlson.
You can grab a used copy on Amazon for less than 3 quid!
So whether you know you're carrying too much visceral fat or you don't...you DO know if you get stressed more than you should.
And if that's you...for the sake of your health, PLEASE do something about it!
£3 and some intentional deep breaths might just be a step in the right direction.
