STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Experts: Stick to more complex carbohydrates because they digest more slowly
Crunchy raw veggies like baby carrots, celery and radishes reduce stress, dietitians say
Foods high in Omega-3 fatty acids help control surges in stress hormones, they say

Editor’s note: CNN contributor Amanda Enayati ponders the theme of seeking serenity: the quest for well-being and life balance in stressful times.
(CNN) — That foods can soothe, reduce anxiety and boost your mood is well known to anyone who has kept a vise grip on a pint of Chunky Monkey at midnight or dived into the deep end of a party pack of chips at the end of a day gone awry.
In a perverse way, ice cream and chips do represent a fast-track to happiness. A load of simple carbohydrates provides an instant lift because carbohydrates trigger the rapid release of serotonin, the mood-elevating “happy hormone.” When the brain produces serotonin, we experience a calming effect.
But the problem with a simple carb overload is that it sets off a physiological chain reaction that wreaks havoc on the body. It also taxes the adrenals, suppresses the immune system for hours after intake and generally leaves a person feeling sluggish and off-kilter. And then there’s the sugar crash.
Caffeine is no panacea either.
“People who are working a lot and not getting enough sleep often reach for that extra cup of coffee because they think it’s going to help them. But in reality the caffeine makes things much worse,” says Marjorie Nolan, a registered dietitian. “When you’re anxious and stressed out, your body is already stimulated. Add caffeine, which is a stimulant, on top of that, and you’re setting yourself up to crash and burn a few hours later. Plus, you’re dehydrating yourself, which makes you feel even more fatigued and stressed. You also end up depleting valuable hormones in the long run.”
Manuel Villacorta, a Bay Area-based registered dietitian and specialist in sports nutrition, says, “We used to have to run for our lives, literally, but we’re not doing that anymore. Now most of us are sitting for our lives and livelihoods. People think all that sugar they eat is going to their cells — and some of it does. But the extra sugar floating around is going straight to the fat cells. It usually builds up in your waistline. And that’s how stress is related to gaining weight.”
What’s more, says Villacorta, another side effect of stress eating is that your brain becomes conditioned to want the cookies, bagels, chips and doughnuts.
“Over time, your brain creates these reward pathways. And come 2 p.m. to 3 p.m., you’re craving those doughnuts. And that’s when you become vulnerable, because once those reward pathways have been created, willpower alone is not going to work so well for you anymore.”
I imagine my biggest vice, an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie, happily rolling down its very own reward pathway in my brain. So what do you do then?
“You need to create a new pathway, a new happy memory,” Villacorta says. “I tell my clients that when afternoon comes and you have those cravings, maybe what you need to do is get up and take a two-minute walk. Or take 10 deep breaths, which will also help lower cortisol levels. Maybe you really are hungry, in which case you need to eat something both satisfying and nutritious. You have to find other ways of channeling the energy and coping.”
Robin Kanarek, interim dean of the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, speaks to the psychology of stress eating: “Food is more than nutrition. It can have nutritional value, but it also has cultural and social value. Sometimes our beliefs about food may be influencing behavior as much as the nutrition.”
She cites one study in which students were sent either a doughnut or banana, both with an equal of number of calories and sugar grams. The students who were given a doughnut reported feeling worse about themselves and their body image after they ate it.
In a second study, subjects were provided with the same milkshake, except one group was told it was high in calories, while the other was told it was low. The people who thought they had a high-calorie shake were much more likely to indulge in Ring Dings (frosted cream-filled devil’s food cakes) afterward. “The thinking was, ‘I’ve already messed up so I might as well keep eating.’ ”
Kanarek recommends having healthy snacks handy.
“Most people have a lull around 3 p.m. If you’re stressed out and all you can find is junk food from the vending machine down the hall, you may start this cycle that can lead to even more stress,” she says. “Having some fruits and vegetables readily available lets you indulge in something sweet that tastes good and has nutritional value, without the snowball effect.”
According to Villacorta, when it comes to eating to reduce stress, your general goal is twofold: boost the happy hormones (serotonin and dopamine) and reduce the stress hormones (cortisol and adrenaline), which take a toll on the body over time.
Nolan and Villacorta, both national representatives for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, offer nutrition-based recommendations for combating stress, including:
Indulging in complex carbs. All carbs prompt the brain to produce more serotonin. The trick is to stick to more complex carbohydrates because they digest more slowly and keep blood sugar levels stable. Nolan suggests a bowl of oatmeal, whole grain, high-fiber breads and pastas, beans and lentils, which are packed with B vitamins to help keep up energy levels. Villacorta also recommends quinoa, sweet potatoes and fruit.
Crunching some veggies. According to Nolan, crunchy raw veggies such as baby carrots, celery and radishes are great stress reducers because the act of crunching releases tension in the jaw without adding many calories.
Eating the right kind of fat. Foods high in Omega-3 fatty acids — walnuts, almonds, flaxseeds, pine nuts, wild tuna and salmon — help control unhealthy surges in stress hormones. They are also protective against mood disorders such as depression and are important for brain function. “If you are able to think clearly, you will be better equipped to deal with stress,” Nolan says.
Increasing your C. Vitamin C-rich foods, such as citrus fruits, do double duty because they can reduce stress hormone levels even as they boost the immune system, which is often compromised when we are under a lot of stress.
Drinking tea. Studies show that theanine, an amino acid found primarily in green tea, can have a calming (but not drowsy) effect while helping to lower elevated blood pressure.
Ultimately, the big picture that emerges is much less about short-term solutions and more about creating a diet filled with less processed, more wholesome foods that can provide greater health, well-being and energy — foods that can also help shore up the immune system by counteracting the pervasive stress in most of our lives.
“You have people consuming these ‘light,’ 40- to 60-calorie snacks, with lots of additives and very little nutrition,” Nolan says. “With the sight and smell of food, and the chewing, our digestive enzymes are released. But lo and behold, 20 minutes later, there is no actual ‘food’ to be had. Our body isn’t digesting anything remotely nutritious and thus isn’t satiated. That can trigger a low-grade stress hormonal response, and when it’s happening over and over again, it’s really taking a toll on our bodies.”
(If you’re having trouble figuring out how to make better choices as you’re wandering the supermarket aisles, check out Fooducate and ShopWell — two smartphone apps and also websites that offer suggestions for healthier food alternatives.)
“Eat the right combinations of real food at the right time,” Villacorta recommends. “Your body will be less taxed, and it will also be better able to handle stress.”

More: Avoid the afternoon stress-eating

As children become obese, they’re outgrowing school furniture, clothing and growth charts.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
In school, obese teen struggled to fit into his desk
Furniture makers are designing larger chairs and desks for overweight kids
Obese and overweight kids now exceed growth charts

Editor’s note: This is the third story in a series exploring the issues surrounding childhood obesity.
(CNN) — In middle school, Taylor LeBaron struggled to fit into his seat. The desks in class had a ceramic plate attached to the chair.
“I was so large, I couldn’t fit in there,” said LeBaron, now 19. “Every other student could. I couldn’t get my legs to fit underneath the desk or my stomach to fit between the chair without getting the desk stuck with me.
“It was really embarrassing. When class is over, everyone gets up, I would take a few minutes extra, tactfully maneuvering out without looking like a fool.”
But LeBaron, who weighed nearly 300 pounds at age 14, never requested a separate table and chair because he didn’t want to draw more attention to himself.

Taylor LeBaron, at nearly 300 pounds, struggled to fit in his seat during middle school.

As children are getting bigger, their clothing, their furniture and other objects that support their weight must also expand.
Seventeen percent of children are obese, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And one in three kids is obese or overweight. The rate of childhood obesity has tripled to the point that pediatricians say growth charts no longer apply to today’s kids.
Interactive: An obese nation
To accommodate larger kids, some schools have instructions for teachers to provide separate chairs and desks for students who cannot fit into the pupil chairs. And school furniture makers are increasing the size of chairs and desks to accommodate larger students.
“Other students snickered as I would try to get out of my chair,” LeBaron recalled. “You could hear them snickering. You don’t forget how that feels — that embarrassment and that redness in your face.”
Being set apart from peers by sitting in a different chair means “their peers recognize them as large, different,” said Dr. Phil Wu, a pediatrician who leads Kaiser Permanente’s pediatric obesity prevention and treatment effort.
“At all ages, kids don’t want to feel different,” Wu said. “They get ostracized by the peers in subtle and not-so-subtle ways. It’s more of that social psychological impact that’s insidious in a way that’s more profound than what the child might experience than sitting in a standard seat.”

These chairs from Academia Furniture Industries show the range of sizes from 12 to 19 inches.

Hertz Furniture, a company that resells office and school furniture, started offering 19-inch chairs for schools three years ago. The biggest desks available before had a height of 18 inches. The taller chairs have deeper depth and wider seating.
“The desks are getting larger, because if their thighs are larger, you have to move the desks up,” said Amy Hoffman, Hertz’s director of marketing.
Georgia’s child obesity ads aim to create movement out of controversy
Newer student desks with adjustable heights can accommodate bigger bodies. The student seats are designed to look just like the other ones, so they don’t make obese students appear different from their peers.
“That is an obesity trend reflected in the furniture,” said Tom Brennan, president of School Outfitters, which sells school furniture. “For perspective, when we look at import product from China, you can tell the difference from the China market and the U.S. market. The buckets are generally not wide enough. They have to be designed specifically for the U.S.”
Shawn Green, vice president of design and product marketing for KI, a company that designs and manufactures school and hospital furnishings, said the diameter of the metal, the supporting structure and the width, depth and height of school chairs have to be modified to work in the American market.

“People are not only heavier but also getting taller,” Green said. “In general, we’re getting bigger in scale; that affects children as well.”
Chairs made for older and bigger students are being used in middle and elementary schools to comfortably fit overweight and obese students. Schools prefer the “big and tall” sizes for educational furniture, said Tony Ellison, CEO of Shoplet.com, which sells office and school furniture.
In the past five years, the biggest seats have been selling better than the standard sizes, he added. These items also cost more.
Michelle Obama wants to know what your family members are doing to improve their health
It’s not just school desks that don’t fit.
A 2005 Pediatrics study found limited child safety seats for the increasing number of obese young children.
“There was a risk of kids not being covered for safety,” said the study author, Lara McKenzie. “If there are bigger kids, maybe there are some safety devices or equipment that wouldn’t fit them properly.”
The study suggested that car seats should maximize “the protection of obese children.” Another study in 2009 suggested that most children in the study were too heavy to be compliant with child safety seat laws.
Childhood obesity affects their safety in matters beyond child seats and ill-fitting school furniture. Obese kids are more likely to get heart disease, high cholesterol and high blood pressure and are more prone to diabetes, bone and joint problems. Their health problems are also more likely to follow into adulthood.
In extreme cases, pediatricians have reported toddlers with hip displacement problems from carrying too much weight and metabolic abnormalities in their insulin, liver enzymes and cholesterol — usually problems detected in older adults.
Children of this generation have exceeded the growth charts used in the United States since 1977. These charts are a series of percentile curves that illustrate how young children grow.
“Right now, if we say that 15 or 17% of all kids are over 95th percentile for obesity, statistically that doesn’t make sense,” Wu said.
How to make sense of your child’s numbers
But that’s what has happened.
“Compared to a population of Americans when these growth charts were created, more and more people today are exceeding what would’ve been the top percentile for weight and BMI back then,” he said.
It’s not a matter in whether the growth charts need to be redone, Wu said.
“Our population today has become so large that now, it looks like more and more people are over the limits. It just highlights the problem that we have.”
First lady answers questions about childhood obesity

LeBaron, now 19, lost about 150 pounds during his teenage years.

LeBaron, who wrote about his battle with teenage obesity in his book “Cutting Myself in Half,” said the safety bar at amusement park rides barely locked over his abdomen. He couldn’t find T-shirts with the style he liked in his size.
Clothing is often an issue. Many obese kids and teenagers find that the plus sizes aren’t fashionable. At his peak weight, LeBaron wore 42-inch-waist pants and triple-X-large shirts.
People of that size don’t have many choices except sheet-like T-shirts in bland solid colors, LeBaron said.
“It was difficult because I’d go into Walmart or another clothing store, I found something cool, like a video game T-shirt, and I wanted to get it,” he said. “It’s not in my size. If they did, I’d have to dig through special drawer of extended sizes. It really hurt. They’re setting you apart.”
In recent years, the apparel industry has paid more attention to the growing size of kids, tweens and teens. Retailers such as the Gap, Forever 21, Old Navy and Target have plus-sized clothing lines for kids and teenagers. The boy’s plus sizes with bigger waist sizes and baggier tees are called “husky.”
It’s a growing trend criticized by MeMe Roth, founder and president of the National Action Against Obesity.
“Anyone making money off this health crisis for children should be ashamed of themselves,” she said. “I’m not surprised people want to benefit from it. There’s such a demand. That’s a societal failing that there’s a hyper growth for plus-sized children.”
Kids should be able to dress in fashionable clothing, but Roth said the fact that children need special sizes is a major health concern.
“Our kids should be the healthiest,” she said. “If outside influences were causing damage to our children this way, a nation or a group, we would be at war. … We should be angry that this is happening to children.”
The shame and embarrassment didn’t motivate LeBaron to get healthier, he said. Instead, it just made him depressed and overcame the confidence that he could ever change. He would retreat home and eat junk food.
What helped, he explained, was having people around him who brought a balance of honesty and compassion, who wanted him to feel good about himself by encouraging healthy choices. Receiving a gym membership gift from his grandparents and hitting 290 pounds spurred LeBaron to start exercising.
LeBaron, now a college freshman in Georgia, lost 152 pounds. One of his proudest moments was being able to shop at Macy’s instead of a special plus-size store.

The rest is here: Obese kids outgrowing child sizes

Childhood obesity isn’t just a cosmetic issue, although studies show overweight children are often isolated and bullied.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Using junk food as a reward for good behavior derails healthy eating efforts
Environment is constantly pushing children in the wrong direction, pediatrician says
Obese youth more likely to suffer from cardiovascular disease, diabetes
Stress damages a child’s ability for self-control, which leads to a higher body mass index

Editor’s note: This is the fourth story in CNN’s series exploring the issues surrounding childhood obesity.
(CNN) — Lyn McDonald is doing everything right.
After losing more than 80 pounds, she taught her kids how to control their portion sizes, shop at the farmers market, eat vegetables with every meal and avoid a lot of sugar.
Her efforts are working. At a time when approximately one-third of American children are overweight or obese, McDonald’s kids are at healthy weights.
So why is every day still a struggle for the blogger and mother of five?

“I have had to deal with teachers who hand out Skittles, candy bars, lollipops and giant frosted sugar cookies to the children in class … before 10 a.m.,” McDonald says. “I think this is setting kids up for failure and un-teaching the healthy habits I have instilled.”
The fact that doughnuts and cupcakes are given out as a reward after soccer practice or dance class is a paradoxical hurdle in the fight against childhood obesity. As doctors and parents struggle to encourage healthy behaviors, our sugar-filled, sedentary surroundings resist every step.
Think about it, says Dr. Stephen Daniels, chief pediatrician at Children’s Hospital Colorado. Every day kids are exposed to advertising about fast food instead of home-cooked meals. They’re surrounded by vending and soda machines at school. They have hundreds of channels on TV, own three video game systems and live in neighborhoods that were built without sidewalks.
“Our environment is constantly pushing kids in the wrong direction.”
Childhood obesity isn’t just a cosmetic issue, although studies have shown overweight children are often isolated and bullied by their peers.
This is setting kids up for failure and un-teaching the healthy habits I have instilled.Lyn McDonald
Obese youth are more likely to suffer from cardiovascular disease, diabetes, sleep apnea, liver disease and bone and joint problems, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Excess fat has also been linked to many types of cancer. About two-thirds of obese children grow up to be obese adults.
Gary Evans is an environmental and developmental psychologist at Cornell University. His latest study, published this year in the journal Pediatrics, analyzed the effects of stress on weight gain in children and adolescents.
Researchers know that both adults and children seek higher fat foods in response to stress. Evans and his team found that stress also damages a child’s ability for self-control, which leads to a higher body mass index as a teen.
Evans examined children who were dealing with stressful situations, such as poverty, single parenthood, housing problems and domestic violence. In the study, stress hormones hurt the brain’s pre-frontal cortex — the one responsible for our ability to plan and avoid temptations — at the cellular level.
See also: How to stop your kids from stressing
It’s kind of a quadruple whammy, Evans notes. Lower income children have less healthy food stores nearby, more junk food available because it’s cheap, fewer places to play outdoors and, as his team found out, a harder time curbing bad impulses.
“If you are born poor, your life expectancy is less,” Evans wrote in an e-mail. “Perhaps even more striking … upward mobility does not remove the ill effects of early childhood poverty on subsequent health and well-being.”
For parents trying to raise healthy kids, this is all kind of depressing.
“What we need to do as a society is work to make the healthier choice the easier choice,” says Daniels.
There has been movement in that direction. Policymakers are issuing new rules for healthier food in schools and local programs are encouraging more activity. But realistically, an environmental overhaul could take years.
There’s a danger in being too pessimistic about the influence we have on the ways our kids live, Daniels says. Research shows that children who lose weight are less likely to gain it back than teenagers or adults.
As hard as it is to make a change at age 10, it’s that much easier than at 30 or 40.Dr. Stephen Daniels
“As hard as it is to make a change at age 10, it’s that much easier than at 30 or 40.”
Twins Molly and Chris McGann, 15, are perfect examples of this. In third grade, Molly was bullied for being overweight. The McGanns started attending the Shape Down program at Children’s Hospital Colorado.
Shape Down’s instructors taught the whole family how to measure their food, cook with different colors — broccoli, red peppers, carrots — and include exercise in their daily lives. Molly dropped the extra pounds and is still at a healthy weight.
Her twin Chris hit a tough spot in middle school when undiagnosed sleep apnea caused his weight to creep up. As a teenager he is finding it more difficult to stay on track because of peer pressure. His school cafeteria, for instance, has a pizza buffet and a long line of desserts available every day.
“My friends eat the pizza and the Little Debbie cakes and they’re all as thin as rails,” he says. “It’s really hard to walk by that stuff because it looks so good. I just think I want to be healthy, I want to lose weight and I know if I eat those things it’s not going to happen.”
Daniels doesn’t talk about dieting or weight loss with his patients. He talks about getting the entire family on board to eat healthier and be more active.
“You have to understand what kinds of behaviors are leading to the problem and the changes to take,” he says. “It’s helpful to go slow. It’s about simple goals. You don’t have to get to a perfect weight in order to have the health benefits.”
For more help conquering your environment, the Mayo Clinic has suggestions on making weight loss a family affair.

Excerpt from: Why it’s hard kids for to lose weight

By Mark Whitaker, CNN
updated 10:04 AM EST, Tue February 21, 2012

Explain it to me: Addiction

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
In an in depth series of reports this week, CNN looks at addiction
Whitney Houston’s troubled life and death has led to the stories
CNN anchors, experts, will examine what can be done to fight addiction

Editor’s note: Mark Whitaker is executive vice president and managing editor of CNN Worldwide. He is responsible for leading editorial coverage across CNN’s multiple platforms and directing the overall approach, tone and scope of CNN’s reporting.
(CNN) — To watch Whitney Houston’s powerful “home going” service on Saturday was to be reminded that she was a one-of-a-kind talent, with a divine instrument that even in death soared above all the other famous voices that gathered at the New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, New Jersey, to celebrate her. But sadly, Houston was a dime a dozen in another aspect of her life: her dependence on drugs and alcohol.
As anyone who has struggled with it or had a loved one who did can tell you, addiction does not discriminate based on talent or fame or wealth or race. It’s an equal-opportunity curse and killer. I know, because I saw my father, another groundbreaking black talent of his time, brought low by it, a tragic story of brilliance and decline and the pain it can inflict on children and family that took me decades to find the strength to tell.
Mark Whitaker

Read more about addiction
In the media, celebrity and addiction is all too often served up only as a tabloid cocktail of scandal and gossip. But in the wake of Houston’s death, we at CNN have decided to pay one last tribute to her by devoting this week to a series of In Depth stories and discussions about what can be done to fight the scourge of addiction.
We start with Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta. In appearances on “Starting Point” with Soledad O’Brien and our daytime “CNN Newsroom” shows, he will examine the latest breakthroughs in the brain science and biology of addiction and how they have given rise to promising new anti-substance abuse drugs.
On Wednesday night, Dr. Drew Pinsky will appear on “Anderson Cooper 360°” to share his wisdom about the keys to beating addiction and the lessons of Whitney Houston’s fall. Dr. Drew’s own prime-time show on our sister network, HLN, will also address the issue throughout the week.
Celebrities and prescription drug addiction

We will hear from former addicts about how they turned their lives around, including TV sports anchor Pat O’Brien, who is sitting down with Piers Morgan, and ex-NBA great Chris Herren, who is talking to Brooke Baldwin.
We will also air a series of stories about the fastest growing form of addiction in America: prescription drugs, from “gateway pills” like Adderall to heavy duty painkillers like Vicodin and Oxycontin. As Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr reports, the U.S. military this month announced it would start testing troops for hydrocodone (the base of Vicodin) and benzodiazepine, the key ingredient in Valium. When the military, usually the institutional gold standard in dealing with medical and psychological issues, goes that far, you know we have an epidemic on our hands.
Abuse of legal drugs is also an increasing source of accidental deaths, a subject that our medical team plans to follow up on in the coming months. None of us needs to wait for Whitney Houston’s toxicology reports to know that more needs to be done to combat the evils that took her from us so soon, or that we all have a responsibility to join the fight.

Go here to read the rest: In Depth: Fighting the scourge of addiction

Chrissie Wellington competes during the Challenge Roth triathlon in July in Roth, Germany.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Chrissie Wellington: Mental fortitude needed to overcome fear, pain and discomfort
Four-time World Ironman champ writes mantra on her water bottle and on her race wristband
Keep mental images handy to recall during a race, the triathlete suggests

Editor’s note: Chrissie Wellington is a four-time World Ironman champion. She won her fourth title in 2011 after sustaining serious injuries two weeks before the race. Her autobiography, “A Life Without Limits,” is set to be released Thursday in the UK. It will come out in the United States on May 15.
(CNN) — Training for a race is like riding a roller coaster — you experience highs and lows, ups and downs, and more peaks and troughs than the New York Stock Exchange.
Two weeks before I raced at the World Ironman Championships in Kona, Hawaii, last year, I had a bad bike crash. I won the race, not on physical prowess, but on grit, willpower, determination and mental strength.
I hope I showed, through my performance there, that sporting success rests, in part, with having the mental fortitude necessary to overcome our fears, pain and discomfort.
But how does one develop that strength? Is it innate, or can it be learned?
I believe it is the latter. We can all train our brains to be as strong as our bodies.
It sounds simple, but it’s so easy to forget. If we let our head drop, our heart drops with it. Keep your head up, and your body is capable of amazing feats. To plunder the words of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, “Don’t ever forget that you play with your soul as well as your body.”
Follow the Fit Nation team on Twitter or on Facebook
The message is this: All the physical strength in the world won’t help you if your mind is not prepared. This is part of training for a race — the part that people don’t put in their logbooks, the part that all the monitors, gizmos and gadgets in the world can’t influence.
But how do you train your brain to help you achieve your goals? I don’t profess to have all, or many, of the answers. But in the five years that I have been a professional triathlete, I have learned a few techniques that help me keep mind over matter and ensure that I can ride the roller coaster of sporting success:
Have a mantra and/or a special song to repeat

Wellington celebrates winning last year’s Challenge Roth triathlon with a new long-distance world record.

I write my mantra on my water bottle and on my race wristband. Seeing it gives me a boost and reminds me never to let my head or heart drop.
If you use a permanent marker, be prepared for the wording to stay there long after the race has ended (and that you might receive strange looks from colleagues when you return to work with “I am as strong as an ox” tattooed on your arm).
I also carry a dog-eared copy of Rudyard Kipling’s famous poem “If” everywhere I go. I believe the lines of this poem encapsulate the qualities necessary to become a successful athlete and a well-rounded person. Reading it before a race gives me the confidence to pursue my dreams.
Keep a bank of positive mental images
These images can be of family and friends, of previous races, of beautiful scenery, or a big greasy burger.
Draw on these images throughout the race, and especially if you feel the “I am tired. I want to stop. Why did I enter this race? I must be mad” doubts creeping into your mind.
Deliver these negative thoughts a knockout punch before they have the chance to grow and become the mental monster that derails your entire race.
Practice visualization beforehand
In training, when traveling, while sleeping or at work, this is the simple act of closing your eyes (although I don’t recommend doing this at a work meeting or while on your bike). Relax your mind and go through each stage of the race one step at a time — mentally imagining yourself performing at your peak but also successfully overcoming potential problems.
Before Michael Phelps has even entered the water, he has already completed the race in his mind. And won.
You can draw on the visual images (the finish line), the feelings you experience (energy surges) or the sounds you hear (roars of the crowd). That way when you race, you have the peace of mind and confidence that you have already conquered the challenges.
Break the race up into smaller, more manageable segments

Wellington, with Fit Nation participant Denise Castelli, says sporting success rests with having mental fortitude.

I always think of the marathon as four 10 kilometer races with a little bit more at the end.
You might think only about getting to the next aid station, or lamppost or Porta Potty and, from there, set another landmark goal.
Stay in the moment and don’t think too far ahead. I also try to breathe deeply and rhythmically; if you calm your breath, you can help calm your mind.
Remember that training is about learning to hurt
Push your physical limits and overcome them in training sessions, so that when you race you know that you have successfully endured pain and discomfort.
You will draw confidence and peace of mind from this knowledge.
Get people to support you
Some people thrive on the support from their family and friends, while others perceive it as added pressure.
Work out what feels right for you, and if necessary, invite friends, family or pets to come and cheer you on. Have them make banners, wear team T-shirts and generally behave in a way that would get them arrested under normal circumstances.
Mentally recall inspirational people
I recall people who have all fought against adversity to complete the Ironman. These people prove that anything truly is possible.
You might want to consider dedicating each mile to a special person in your life. That makes the discomfort easier to bear and will help give you a mental and physical boost.
Consider racing for a cause that is bigger than yourself
For me, it is to establish a platform on which to spread important messages and be a patron for charitable causes. These force me to put the race in perspective and rise to greater heights.
Champions come and go, but to me the real judge of my personal success will be whether I actually do something positive with the opportunities I have been given.
I really hope that, as four-time world champion, I can be a role model and ambassador for the sport that everyone can be proud of.
I hope that these tips provide some of that sporting gold dust, and enable you to have the race you have always dreamed of.
We will all continue to endure the downs and the dark times, but remember that it is overcoming these that makes the success all the more sweeter.
In the words of the great Muhammad Ali: “Success is not achieved by winning all the time. Real success comes when we rise after we fall. Some mountains are higher than others. Some roads steeper than the next. There are hardships and setbacks but you cannot let them stop you. Even on the steepest road you must not turn back”.
You might not always have the perfect day, but with the right mental training hopefully the roller-coaster ride will be one to remember. Just remember to celebrate with that huge plate of greasy burger! Good luck!
Follow Wellington on Twitter for updates on her training and races.

Continue reading here: Ironman champ: Train your brain