Stress, whether it’s physical, mental or emotional, can lead to:

Delayed healing responses in the body, a nervous system that is always “on,” worsened mood, inability to relax or fall asleep, decreased mental alertness or lowered ability to “think,” hormonal imbalances, cravings for sugary foods, and high cortisol levels which increase mental stress, lower our energy levels, and make it harder to lose weight, build muscle or recover fully from the daily load we put on our body

It doesn’t matter much “where” the stress comes from, as any point of stress triggers the same reactions in the body. And stress from any one of these three areas (physical, mental or emotional) raises stress in the other two areas.

But, just as stress in one area creates stress in another area, with each point of stress making the overall worse, it also works in the opposite direction.

Each point of stress we remove lightens the load overall and makes it easier to deal with the other points of stress.

It’s very simple. Let’s see where we’re at!

When our digestive ability is weak, we don’t get all of the nutrition from foods we eat. This is because food, including proteins and minerals, must be fully broken down by stomach acid in order for our body to be able to use it.

In fact, poor digestion of protein is one of the largest causes of muscle loss as we age: our digestive system isn’t working as well as it was when we were younger, and so not enough protein is being broken down for our body to use.

But it’s not just our cells that need this nutrition.

Specific bacteria in our colon are responsible, in whole or in part, for the creation of the neurotransmitters serotonin and GABA, the happy, calming neurotransmitters.

I wanted to talk a little about inflammation.

Because, outside of very obvious causes, such as an injury or infection, few people know what actually causes it in general.

And even fewer know what to do about it beyond taking a pain-killer.

When we’re talking about inflammation, we’re talking about a symptom, not a cause. A symptom that does have a cause.

The body is a complex contraption, full of very exact systems, and a thousand different factors influencing its overall health and performance in one way or another.

But how do we separate out the important factors that allow us to measure our overall health and spot potential health troubles before they become a real situation?

There is something called Heart Rate Variability, or HRV, and it is a literal measuring stick for our health that we can use monitor to ourselves.

Stress levels in our society have never been as high as they are right now. And, while there has been a lot of upheaval in the last few years, there's more here than meets the eye.

Depression and anxiety have never been higher, physical stress in the form of inflammation, auto-immune disease, heart disease and cortisol levels have never been higher.

But this isn’t a recent occurrence. Stress levels have been rising for decades.

And, while some stress is emotional or mental, and some physical, it's all tied together, each aspect affecting the other, pushing each other to new heights.

How do we lower physical stress levels and inflammation?

How do we achieve a more even-keeled mood, more able to calmly face the challenges life presents?

How do we become the most alert and competent we can be mentally, while at the same time being able to relax when we need or want to, or when it's time to sleep?

Over the next few weeks we're going to cover this from every angle, see how it all fits together, and find out what you can do to lower stress levels in your life.

Getting good sleep is one of the most important things we can do, not just for muscle building and fat loss, but for our mood, energy levels and overall health.

As sleep is when our body is able to recover and repair cells, a lack of it even affects our aging process, speeding it up internally, as well as visibly, causing wrinkles and sagging skin.

Yet a third of Americans get poor sleep.

What causes this and what can we do about it to not only get better, deeper sleep, but reverse the effects of poor sleep?

As we enter Week Three of the Lean Bulk Challenge, our hormones are balancing to allow for maximum muscle building and swifter fat loss. 

So this week I want to cover the points that can either prevent muscle gain, or slow it, and the things that allow us to maximize muscle gain and fat loss, and speed recovery from workouts.

So make sure you’re pushing hard in your workouts and lifting heavy, because we want to build as much lean muscle as we can now.

In both women and men, estrogen exists and is necessary.

But when estrogen levels rise too high, it can unbalance other hormones.

This not only causes excess body fat to be built, which can be hard to remove, it lowers key muscle building hormones as well — testosterone and growth hormone.

And it lowers levels of the hormone thyroid, which regulates our metabolism.

Your digestive tract’s ability to fully digest and absorb protein determines, in large part, your body's ability to build muscle and lose body fat.

When protein isn’t properly digested, this triggers a sequence of actions, involving our immune system, which leads to inflammation in the body and higher levels of cortisol, the hormone that prevents fat loss and breaks down muscle.

But also, without full digestion, our body receives less of the protein we consume in a form it can actually use.

As we enter Week Two of the Lean Bulk, cravings for junk food or processed sugars should be lowering or gone.

And you may not have added much in the way of muscle yet.

That’s fine, you’ve just started and it will come. Right now we’re dialing things in and balancing hormones for muscle building and body fat regulation.

You also may have found it hard to eat all of the natural proteins on the protocol. But this protein is necessary.

In the first week of this challenge we have several things happening.

We’re trying to switch our diet so we’re getting what we need to build lean muscle without the other calories or hormone-triggering foods that would cause excess fat gain.

With this comes restructuring our cells so they will use the foods we’re giving them properly and balancing or increasing hormone levels so our body will prioritize building lean muscle over body fat.

Then we’re addressing digestion, which is crucial to your overall health as well as building muscle, as you need to be getting all of the nutrients and vitamins you’re consuming.

And, improperly digested proteins lead to inflammation, which leads to higher levels of cortisol, a hormone that prioritizes building fat and breaking down muscle.

Wow, those are some big claims in that title.

But note the, “over time,” part of the title. Because, no, it isn’t immediate.

But, yes, BCAAs, or Branched Chain Amino Acids, do contribute to building fat over time, as well as reducing muscle gains… and kidney trouble, and type 2 diabetes, and metabolic syndrome, and obesity, and…

Here. Let me explain.