The Goldilocks Effect: More is not always better!

What is a healthy amount of stress and a healthy stress response?

Hormetic stress.

Not too much stress and not too little amount of stress.

I wrote about this in my book LIFE IS NOT A RACE. The Goldilocks Effect.

Now we have been talking about this lately on my podcast and blog as well as conferences this year.

How much stress is healthy stress?

How much stress is toxic?

How much stress can YOU tolerate as we are all unique individuals with different genetics – without overfilling your beaker of stress?

Too much stress as we know create chaos in your body. I have experienced since 2013…on and off. I feel much better these days but I am at “risk” for taking one step forward and two steps back. My personality is always MORE IS BETTER but I have to catch myself and FOCUS and listen to my body.

Less is sometimes more.

How do you know if you are doing too much in life or exercising too much?

Or eating too little or too obsessed with your diet?

Or too must fasting that you end up being afraid to eat?

Too much is not always better. What you do should bring you happiness and joy- as well as be grateful for what you are able to do that day! Not disappointments.

Example today on our long bike ride. We are building up the distance to do century rides this summer and hopefully do a 70.3 Triathlon (me!). The plan today was to ride 80 miles …but secretly my riding partner/husband wished to do 85 to 90 miles to feel more accomplished plus to be more prepared for next weekends Skagit Valley Century ride. Instead of being so happy that we did 85 miles – a distance we haven’t done for around five years because of my health and not racing Ironman triathlons, he was disappointed we didn’t 90 miles. I realized this is how we react in life- a typical Type A overachiever athlete. We are always wanting to do more and we set our goals sometimes higher that we should then never grateful for what we achieved.

I did this in my last year of racing Ironman triathlons. I shared this in my book LIFE IS NOT A RACE (find on Amazon!). I never was grateful for what I achieved in a race especially Ironman Canada- the last year I was in Penticton. I did my best bike and run split in my career as well as best overall female placement but I wasn’t thrilled and excited as I should have been at the moment. All I could think about was my swim split. I had the worst Ironman swim split in my career and that is all I could think about after the finish line- even though I had my fastest finishing time ever.

We should find gratitude, joy, and happiness in our experiences. No regrets. I bring this example back to the topic of this blog post… The Goldilocks Effect. Find the right amount of stress that brings you happiness and personal satisfaction while avoiding the risk of overfilling your beaker of stress. We want more in life but sometimes we need to be grateful that we are able to do what we do and be out there experiencing life.

Maybe the two examples don’t make sense but for some reason as I write this after my 85 mile bike ride in the spring sunshine, I feel that experiencing gratitude is connected to being happy where you are at (as I say as well “meet your body/mind where it is at today”) and not overdoing it in life.

Another example of “The Goldilocks Effect” is your workout intensity. More to come on this topic- MAF training, Black Hole Training, HIIT training, and active recovery. If you are training for an endurance event- what is the right amount of training you can do that isn’t too little and isn’t too much on your body leading to high levels of oxidative stress and mitochondrial damage. How do we train for an endurance event for performance – while not impacting our aging process and longevity goals?