Beat the Stress without Turning to Food

Even though there’s only 2 days left in April, I feel that it’s important to mention that April has been National Stress Awareness Month. I really meant to write about it sooner, but alas, I was “stressed” with a lot of work, both in my business and personal life.

Stress is likely a part of your life too. And, we all cope with stress differently. In today’s post I want to address an important topic and that is Stress Eating. Stress is the most subtle form of emotional eating. Are you someone who turns to food when you feel stressed?

Initially in short-term stress, your appetite usually shuts down. But when faced with chronic stress, there is a whole host of hormonal effects that take place in the body that increases your appetite and has you turning to food.

In fact, there have been studies that show that stress, both physical and emotional, can affect food preferences causing an increase in foods high in fat and sugar. You may know these foods by the common term “comfort foods. In addition to turning to food to deal with stress, many people also stop exercising, sleep less, and/or drink more alcohol which can all lead to weight gain.

So, how can you deal with the stress without the weight gain?

1) Set up your environment for success. If comfort foods are trigger foods for you, keep them out of sight. If you have young children and need cookies or the like around for them, then store them in a dark cookie jar instead of see-through containers. A cookie jar where you cannot see the cookies is way less tempting than a clear jar filled with Oreos sitting on the counter top!

2) Start to meditate! It helps calm you down and you will find that you will be more mindful of your food choices.

3) Engage in low intensity exercise, such as yoga, tai chi or Pilates, which can help relax you and help reduce your stress hormone cortisol.

4) Seek support from family and friends. You don’t have to go it alone. Talk to your loved ones about what is causing you stress and see if they can help make things a bit easier for you. If you don’t ask, you’ll never know.

5) Listen to my free mini-webinar 3 Simple Steps to Stop the Stress and the Weight Gain by clicking here for immediate access.

Your Turn to Take Action: What is your most effective technique for dealing with stress?