Which kind of stress do you experience? There are two kinds of stress: Distress, and eustress — bad stress and good stress.

According to the Mayo Clinic website,

bad stress can have the following effects on your body, your mood, and behavior respectively:

On your body: Headaches, muscle tension or pain, chest pain, fatigue, change in sex drive, upset stomach, sleep problems, getting sick easier due to weaker immune system.

On your mood: Anxiety, restlessness, lack of motivation or focus, memory problems, feeling overwhelmed, grumpiness or anger, sadness or depression

On your behavior: Overeating or undereating, angry outbursts, drug or alcohol misuse, tobacco use, avoid friends and staying at home, exercising less often

According to Daniela Jaret at UC Berkley:

“Our research shows that moderate, short-lived stress can improve alertness and performance and boost memory.” Jaret uses rats to study stress in humans. She and her colleagues found that “When rats are exposed to moderate stress for a short time…stem cell growth is stimulated, and those cells go on to form neurons or brain cells. A couple of weeks later, tests show improvements in learning and memory. We think the same thing happens in people.”

Studies on Holocaust survivors found they had higher levels of stress hormones. These higher levels have been found to be passed on to their progeny. Extreme stress can lead to P.T.S.D. (post-traumatic stress syndrome). Normally, people under short-term stress can forget, but if someone has P.T.S.D., they can’t. Why this occurs has not been answered yet.

In other words, “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” It all gets down to attitude. People [and rats] who feel resilient and confident “are much less likely to be overwhelmed by it” [stress] (Jaret).

Having social support from family and friends helps a person under stress to handle it better. Other factors are adequate sleep and physical exercise. Rodents that are allowed to exercise create new brain cells while sedentary animals don’t.

So, how can you use this information? All of us need to monitor our attitudes, develop and maintain a support group, get physical exercise, get enough sleep each night— 7-9 hours, and eat healthy foods — lots of fruits and vegetables, limiting processed and sugary foods. We all know this, but putting these behaviors into practice is easier said than done. Our past habits come back to defeat us.

I’ve noticed that as I get older, losing and keeping off the weight gets harder and harder.

I’ve seen people go on diets, lose the weight, and then go off the diet and put the weight right back on after a few months. The lesson we learn from this is that changing our behaviors must involve long-term modifications, not short-term changes.

Develop a habit of putting yourself under short-term stress. I found that I lost weight when I flew to and from South Africa to visit my daughter and her family. After studying information about eustress, I discovered it wasn’t the result of any changes in my diet or exercise program. Stress from flying 25-hours each way was the cause.

I found that I also could lose weight by climbing Mt. Peak on a regular basis, but the feeling of discomfort was too much and I didn’t continue it. I exercise daily, doing aerobics and weights, working out at a health club three days a week, and walking 45-minutes the other four days. But the more I exercise, the more my body adapts. After a while, I get used to the stress, and while I can maintain my weight, I have difficulty losing internal fat.

I talked to my physician who suggested I could take cold showers or ice baths for short intervals on a periodic basis. I’m not into cold showers or ice baths, but he suggested fasting 18-hours a couple of times a week. I begin after dinner at around 6 p.m., not eating until lunch the next day. I’ll see if that approach works. Research shows we should not eat after dinner.

If we do something on a regular basis, our bodies adjust. I have to find a way to fool my body into being stressed on an irregular basis.

We all have to endure stress in our lives. We don’t always have a choice as to the type — distress or eustress. We can control our reactions and our attitudes. We can develop close support groups, and, we can exercise regularly, get enough sleep, and eat healthy foods. Each of us make choices. How long and how well we live depends on the choices we make a hundred or more times a day.

We can’t avoid making decisions. Making no decision is a decision.