Someone very wise told me that I stress eat. So I thought about it…. And I went back through my food/exercise log…and my SparkPeople blogs. And…she was RIGHT. I do stress eat. ALOT. This wouldn’t be such an issue, but I have alot of stressors in my life. Work stresses me out. School stresses me out. My Total Money Makeover stresses me out. Having a messy kitchen stresses me out. I think that I actually have a giant sign on my back somedays that says: STRESS WELCOME. Of course, I realize that I don’t. But you get the idea. In the past (and currently, although I’m trying to change that), I have dealt with stress by eating. Anything. Chocolate, yogurt, fruit…you name it. As long as my hand was picking up food and shoveling it into my mouth, I didn’t care. It honestly just didn’t matter. Now that I’m on a mission to learn my body, and take good care of it, I really need to change. NOW. The big question is: HOW?
Here’s what I’ve found: I need to find other ways to deal with my stress. It’s pretty simple…except that most of my stress happens while I’m at work. Normally at home I would go outside and run or put in a workout video. At work it’s quite a bit more difficult. I realize that I can call my hubby, or my friends and vent. I can also blog…I can (and do) track every single bite, lick, or taste of food that I take during the day. So what else can I do? These solutions are sort of working…but I’m still eating when my stomach is FULL from lunch (or breakfast) and I experience stress. I think that I’m going to try bringing less food with me for awhile. Right now, I pack enough food so that IN CASE I get hungry, I’ll be able to eat. Maybe that’s not such a great idea. So here’s the plan: bring a lunch, 2 pieces of fruit, carrots and a granola bar for the next week. I’ll see where that gets me. If I am starving, then I need to bring more food…but at least there won’t be oodles sitting in my lunchbag making me feel like they’re fair game. I guess we’ll see!
