A very normal human emotion is to feel anger at times. There are many reasons why people may feel angry including:
- Feeling threatened or attacked
- Feeling frustrated or powerless
- Feeling like we’re being invalidated or treated unfairly
- Feeling like people are not respecting our feelings or possessions
- Feeling that we should have accomplished something we did not
- Feeling financial stress
Physiologically, anger triggers the “fight or flight” chemical response, i.e. release of the hormones epinephrine, norepinephrine and cortisol. This translates into a faster heart rate, higher blood pressure, senses feeling acute and flushing of the face.
Similar to any negative human emotion, people will often turn to immediate gratification food/drink items to offset the anger. There is a sort of calming effect of downing some alcohol or ingesting a high sugar containing food item. Of course, these actions only temporarily allay the anger. Clearly, feeling anger does not help weight control efforts.
There are several methods of dissipating anger that are much more compatible with achieving weight control. Exercising, yoga, meditation and other relaxation techniques may help lower the anger levels and not derail weight control efforts.
I have lived on this earth for over 65 years and I do not remember ever seeing this amount of anger present in our country. Personally, I stopped watching news channels because I found myself seething with anger over what I was seeing. For me, working out to a Netflix show or movie is much more calming experience than watching talking heads on a news show arguing about political issues.
If you find yourself feeling lots of anger and believe this is impacting your weight control efforts, please try to find anger management techniques that will work to your advantage. By doing so, the scale will come down more aggressively.
And for those Eagles fans out there (the music group, not the football team), enjoy
Peaceful Easy Feeling:
