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Sadly stress (boredom, loneliness,
anxiety etc can all be stressors too!) is a learned response — and
so is eating under stress. People have learned to cope with negative
emotions and make themselves temporarily feel better with food.
Every time we engage in a behaviour, the more we do it, the more it
becomes a pattern, then it becomes a habit. To tackle that habit
you're going to have to learn a new habit.
Adding to the above if you grew up in
an environment where food was used to manage emotions, you're more
likely to stress-eat. If you learned healthy stress management
techniques growing up, you probably turn to something other than
food when you're stressed.
Stress also triggers hormones that
can cause hunger. There is evidence that there are complex hormonal
symptoms involved in hunger, the feeling of fullness and appetite
that are influenced by stress and by sleep. This combination of
coping mechanism and biology is why some people automatically turn
to food to ease stress, while other people find different solutions.
Breaking the Habit
Because stress eating is an emotional
response that over time becomes automatic, start by fight the urge
that threatens to send you into the kitchen or nearest delicatessen
with the tips below. Managing your stress in healthier ways will
help keep you from responding to it by eating.
Step 1:
First feel the sensation of stress or
the emotion. Stop, sit down, do some deep breathing, feel it, then
just see what happens.
It's important to stop and think
about it: Are you actually hungry, or just craving food in response
to a stressor? What typically will happen is that the feeling will
dissipate and then you realise you can let go and you don't feel
that hunger any more. This is the pattern you have to follow and
repeat until it becomes a new habit.
Step 2:
New Positive behaviours
Create a list of
things you find relaxing — things that take about
the same amount of time as your emotional eating. They can include
pausing and doing a deep-breathing exercise, taking a five-minute
stroll outside or around your building, doing yoga or stretches,
listening to music, take a hot shower/bath, exercise, cleaning your
house, polishing your nails, surfing the Internet, scheduling
outstanding appointments, watching television, looking through a
photo album, journaling, smsing a friend etc. Write these ideas on a
piece of paper and keep it handy. When you find yourself feeling
stressed, reach for an idea before you reach for food.
Keep a food journal.
Logging your food will help to identify your toughest timeframes. It
also will make you accountable... so perhaps you'll be less likely
to reach for unnecessary food.
Three-food
interference. Make the commitment to first eat
three specific healthy foods before starting on caloric comfort
foods (i.e., an apple, handful of baby carrots, and yoghurt). If
after that, you still want to continue with your comfort foods, give
yourself permission. However, most of the time, the three foods are
enough to stop you from moving on.
Get enough sleep. Research
shows that sleep deprivation can increase hunger by decreasing
Leptin levels, the appetite regulating hormone that signals
fullness. With adequate sleep, you'll also be less tired and have
more determination to fight off the urge to grab foods for comfort.
Exercise.
Regular exercise can help prevent stress and has found to improve
mild depression. Exercising when you are stressed will help manage
the emotion and burn calories, instead of putting that into your
stomach. Rather than running into the kitchen, lace up your shoes
and head for a run, or walk outside!
Give yourself a
break. Whatever you're doing that's causing you
stress, just step away from it for a while. If you're thinking about
a situation that's creating anxiety, distract yourself with a more
pleasant topic.
Think positively.
Come up with a plan to resolve the situation that's bothering you.
Nothing beats stress more than solving the problem that's causing
it.
Relax.
Meditate, visualize a peaceful place, or listen to some music to
calm yourself down.
Do something fun.
Take an impromptu shopping trip, play a game of golf or tennis, call
a friend, or watch a movie that you enjoy.
Know when to seek
professional help. If the stress and emotions feel
overwhelming and nothing above appears to help – seek help! Whether
it’s an accountant, garden planner, psychologist, lawyer, doctor or
hypnotist etc you need, often just by being able to share your
issue, will decrease the stress!
It may take some time, but you can
retrain yourself to eat only when you're hungry, not when you are
stressed. Learning to tell the difference between the two is your
first step. Then, finding another outlet instead of using food to
satisfy your emotional hunger will take you to a new level of
balanced living.
Please send any questions, comments
or queries to
info@weight-masters.com. I will endeavour to return your mail
within 48hours.
Best regards and wishing you a happy
OctoberJ
Lesley Wood
021-4182843
082 3 782 782
www.weight-masters.com
Please feel free to forward this
email to anyone you feel may be interested.
Our
greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed
is always to try one more time. Thomas Edison
1847-1931, Inventor and Entrepreneur
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