Stress eating?

[MariamV]

Have you found yourself reaching out for food when you're under the gun? I know I have! In order to manage weight, we need to be conscious on whether or not we stress eat. While having 6 small healthy meals a day can boost your metabolism, stress eating unhealthy foods or snacks such as french fries, cookies or chips can add a couple of pounds to your weight. 

So, tell me guys how do you relate to food when you're feeling stressed or anxious? Stress can make us more likely to overeat mindlessly, skip meals, grab unhealthy fast foods or reach for comfort foods like ice-cream, a piece of cake or candies.

Let's all brainstorm ideas for more positive ways of dealing with the stress in our lives, like deep breathing, exercise (obliviously!), maybe talking to a friend or even meditation. Share what you got! 

[SunsetRunner]

Stress will definitely have me eating more, and want a smoke. But I tend already to have bad eating habits. I'm always getting fast food, cause, well it's tasty, and I do eat more than 3 meals a days. I am actually closer to those 6 meals you mentioned. Except they are far from healthy. 

My redeeming grace is that I have always had a fast metabolism so I have been able to keep too many of those extra pounds at bay. Could not avoid a little bit of a beer gut though.

I would say that one way to avoid this is choose your food better. I don't think I will ever be able to not eat often during the day. My metabolism is fast on it's own and I get hungry almost every 2-3 hours. The best in this case is to choose healthy snacks, that will actually help your body get satiate it and get you better nutrients.

I'm not saying go full salad only. But if you have a good balanced lunch (homemade if possible) then you can eat fruits or vegetables as a snack in the evening and then a normal light diner. If you can avoid meat or hard to digest food before sleeping the better.

I think that with this even if you do stress eat it is still a good thing if you choose the proper food.  Even if chips, cookies, ice cream can be a lot more tempting.

[SilviaFitbit]

This has definitively happen to me. Normally, I eat like 5 times a day but each meal is a healthy snack. So when I was stressed I just told to myself I need to eat but something like french fries or an hamburguer which I don't eat when I'm not stressed. I started to asked me questions like Am I hungry? Do I really need to eat this if I have a salad right here? each time I wanted to eat something that wasn't healthy. 

So, try to prepare your healthy food at home so anytime you're hungry. You'll eat your homemade food because you know how difficult sometimes it can be to prepare it. 

[WendyB]

Sure it happens to me as well. I also tend to have a glass of wine with that stress food.

Im trying really hard to keep good things around. Like fruits and veggies and its helping me a lot. I have also closed the bar during the week.

Its  helping  me

[MariamV]

Thanks for sharing  guys!

@SunsetRunner balanced meals and snacks is key to keep a healthy life. Definitely homemade meals are way better and you know what goes in them. However, it is also time consuming and it requires lots of creativity not to get bored by eating the same thing all the time. I agree with you about you get to choose what you eat when you're stress to calm down. Ideally, it should be fruits and veggies but, the cravings for fast food and sweets is sometimes irresistible, lol.

@SilviaFitbit 5 healthy and balanced meals is pretty neat and your technique about asking yourself if you're really hungry and if you need to eat at that time is wonderful to keep focused.

Preparing healthy food at home is the best way to avoid wasting money on food you're only buying out of stress or cravings. I'd say to substitute chocolate by some delicious fruit.

@WendyB I'm a wine enthusiast, so I get what you say! Sometimes I get a glass of wine when I get home from a stressful day. Great tip: keeping the good things around. What I also find helpful is drinking water when I get stress. So I'm helping my body to detox and to maintain my weight rather than stress eating. Thanks for sharing! 

[SantiR]

Usually, I don't eat when I'm stressed or anxious. I just can't plus I'll get stomachache.

So, I meditate to be chill. Once I'm chill I can eat. So, meditation works for me! 

[MariamV]

@SantiR amazing solution! Meditation has the power to sooth our mood and to keep ourselves focused for our daily activities. Breathing sessions are also fantastic to draw the stress and anxiousness away. Keeping our inner peace in the midst of chaos. 

[DanielleinDC]

I've been trying to cut back on my emotional or comfort eating, as I call it, but this year has been a rough one in so many ways. (In fact, I joked in a number of places on social media that it looks like I picked a bad year to give up comfort eating.)

I try to keep healthy snacks around. I try to keep myself occupied so I don't feel like eating something unhealthy. And every once in a while I allow myself a treat so I don't go overboard.

[MariamV]

@DanielleinDC thanks for sharing! OMG, I so get that! I'd have to admit this year hasn't been my healthiest of years... However, I've already started with my own plan to achieve and keep more healthy habits and even though I've just started (and I mean three days ago, ) it feels good. 

To me yoga has worked to stop the stress eating. It has been fairly difficult, I must say!  

I know you'll be able to keep yourself occupied just like you said and that's actually a great strategy as well! 

Good luck and thanks again for sharing!