Have you ever felt so low and depressed that you called off all the plans you had for the rest of the day?

Have you ever heard some bad news and then thought it would be best to drown yourself in a bottle of wine or some junk food?

How often has your emotions completely crippled you from accomplishing something important to you?

I believe the answer ultimately lies in our ability to take a more proactive approach to mind conditioning. 

We MUST learn to control our emotions and now, incredible new findings reveal that we can.

Check out this most recent study included 45 students from the University of Oregon who were randomly selected to be in either a study group that did integrative body-mind training (IBMT) or a control group that did relaxation training. IBMT was adapted from traditional Chinese medicine in the 1990s.

A comparison of scans taken of the students' brains before and after the training showed that those in the IBMT group had increased brain connectivity.

According to the report published in the Aug. 16-21 online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, The boost in brain connectivity began after six hours of IBMT and became more apparent after 11 hours of practice.

Moreover, the shifts were strongest in connections involving the anterior cingulate, an area that plays a role in the regulation of emotions and behavior, Yi-Yuan Tang of Dalian University of Technology in China, University of Oregon psychologist Michael I. Posner, and colleagues found.

Psychologist Michael I. Posner went on to say, "The importance of our finding relates to the ability to make structural changes in a brain network related to self-regulation. The pathway that has the largest change due to IBMT is one that previously was shown to relate to individual differences in the person's ability to regulate conflict."

These findings are huge!

Do you realize how this could impact your ability to stay on a healthy diet or workout better or harder?

In the end, your emotions are a wonderful, beautiful thing...but they also cause a lot of pain and hardship for those who struggle with deeply embedded issues.

Bottom line: Are you going to control your emotions or are you going to let them control YOU and YOUR dreams?

Like to hear your thoughts...

Have you ever seen the commercials for Relacore or CortiSlim?  These products claim to reduce high levels of the stress related hormone, cortisol.  Do these products work?  Short answer--No!

However, cortisol and other hormones can present a real problem for those seeking to lose weight and unwanted body fat.

Have you ever wondered why you can be on a diet for long periods of time and still not lose any weight?  Have you ever expended mega calories while ingesting very few and still have seen no change on the scale?

If calories in and calories out is all that it came down to, many wouldn't struggle as they do to reach their ideal weight.  That's not to say that MOST are measuring their food correctly because they are not.  In fact, most ingest hundreds of calories more than they think they do on a daily basis due to less than accurate calorie counting.

Today let's just talk about one hormonal situation that needs to be addressed.  I'm referring to cortisol and it's impact on weight loss--specifically when cutting calories and overtraining.

First off, let me say this, cortisol has its purpose in the human body and in certain instances its release will work to help mobilize fat.  But, it most cases, the opposite is happening.  This is why in the Dreambodies programs and systems we have ongoing "hormonal" therapy through proper nutrition and proven supplementation.

Here is one instance where you're probably in the danger zone and you should be aware that the over-abundance of cortisol is killing your best efforts to lose weight. 

Do you cut calories drastically and do endless cardio in the hopes of losing those unwanted pounds?  Probably feel good about that, right?  Unfortunately, you're operating in a deep stress-induced environment  that is causing huge surges in cortisol.  In other words, your fat stores are swelling and not decreasing--even though--you seem to be breaking your booty to lose the fat.

If this is the case, I suggest increasing calories on a rotational basis, while also keeping cardio brief but intense--intervals would work best.  You should try to raise calories about 500-700 above your maintenance level every 3rd or 4th day.  This helps to break high levels of cortisol release and weight loss often occurs.

You may be wondering why supplements like Cortislim and others NEVER really work at lowering your hormonal levels of cortisol.  The answer is simple, they take a passive approach by trying to bring the body to a relaxed state, so in turn, you stress less.  They do not have a direct impact on cortisol itself and in fact, you may need to take the entire bottle of these supplements for that to happen. DO NOT DO THAT.  That could be very dangerous, if not deadly since some of the herbs in these formulas are potent and have drug-like effects on the body.

Once again, if you're a cardio junkie who seems to be starving yourself silly--BE WARNED