Stress Eating

Here's one of my big issues- Stress eating! I believe I'm far from alone and it's one of the big reasons we are getting fatter as a nation.

Let's face it- Life isn't getting any less stressful for any of us. We come up with gadgets and gizmo's and computer programs and other various "stuff" to give us more time and enable us to relax, but it never works. Why? Because if we find ourselves with a few extra minutes we don't sit down and take a break. We find one more thing to do with our day!

But as humans, a basic need we have is a to relax. Enter eating. Eating is easy and can be done on the run. You can even order food and eat it without ever leaving your car. It's an instant stress relief and often about the only pleasurable thing we do all day. So we do too much of it, in both quantity and frequency.

Add to this that, unfortunately, the bad stuff is usually the quickest to grab for the instant-pleasure rush, and next thing you know your girth is increasing. One day you look at yourself in the mirror and think "How did I get here?".

Been there. Done that. No longer fit in the T-shirt.

This is one of my hardest areas to conquer. Unfortunately, there are no easy answers to this one. I wish there were, but learning to quit stress-eating (and I am still learning!) is a process.

Don't worry- I'm not so naive as to think that you can reduce the stress in your life by much. I know as well as you do that if you could, you would. I try all the time to make life slow down and fail miserably. Life hurls stuff at you and you have to deal. Sometimes the only thing you CAN control is what goes into your mouth. So choose to have that control!

Here are a few things that I am finding useful:

- STOP EATING IN THE CAR! I have a strict I-never-ever-ever-ever-eat-while-sitting-in-a-moving-vehicle rule. Plus, if you get out of the car and go in to order your food, even if it's to take it to your destination to eat it (not to eat it in the car!), the moving around helps to raise your metabolism just a bit. And every little bit helps! (Refer to title of blog!)

- Pack food with you. This does take a little extra time, but you are worth those few minutes! I've found that if I have a good quality protein bar (Pure Protein [the small ones] and Kashi go-lean are two of my favs), lo-fat string cheese, an apple or some other kind of fresh fruit, a small pack of beef jerky, bottled water, etc. in the car I am not nearly as likely to stop and get something really fattening if I suddenly feel the need to stress-eat. The trick to this is to only pack a small amount of two or three things. I'd never bring along the entire pack of protein bars, because on a really bad day I might be inclined to eat the whole thing!

- Tell yourself you will wait. If you aren't feeling truly hungry and/or have a sudden desire for something purely sugary (or crunchy, or salty, or whatever your craving is), then you have no nutritional need for food. Assure yourself that you won't collapse from denying yourself for a few minutes. Sometimes it's helpful at this point to seek out a non-caloric drink or a piece of gum. It gives your mouth something to do. Assure yourself that if in 20 minutes you are still needing something to munch on you can always stop and eat. When I use this trick the urge to eat usually passes and I no longer feel the need to stress-eat by the end of the 20-minute period.

- This is an old trick that everyone has heard, but it really has worked for me:
Don't keep fattening snack foods in the house! When I do this I fall into the "Open container, insert face" syndrome much quicker when I am stressed than if the food was not there. If you really, seriously, no kidding want something bad for you, get into your car and drive to eat it. Often the hassle alone makes it not worth the effort. And if you do decide to go out and get a nutritionally low food to stress-eat, don't do it in the car!

- Try to keep this statement in mind: "Long-term guilt is never worth short-term pleasure." I have never once stress-eaten and felt good about it afterwards. The reality of what I have just done to my body simply adds to my stress level. It's a lot easier to resist in the present than it is to work it off in the future.

Notice I didn't say to take a yoga class, jog, talk to a friend, or hit something until your knuckles bleed. Why? Because you don't have any more time to do these things when you are stressed than I do. The best thing you can do, in my opinion, is learn to manage stress in the moment. It's takes some time and discipline, and of course you will do some back-sliding while you are learning to move forward, but it can be done.