Stress triggers and food

What are your dangerous points where food is what you use to overcome stress, anger or upset? I have realised it is when I stop the mad rush of the day - usually late in the evening and that mid afternoon dead spot between 3 and 5pm. This is when I start snacking as a way of avoiding or anaesthetising the stress.

However, awareness is the first step before you can even hope to alter this behaviour. I am ensuring I have healthy alternatives available - fruit, crudites or nuts and seeds. I am also thinking about why I deal with my angst in this way - was this a taught behaviour and can I adapt a different to it?

I am also continuing with my plan to relax and chill out more. If I am less stressed then I will have not need to have snack attacks. Maybe a bit of stronger willpower will work too. This is something that needs to be learnt and built upon. Most importantly do not beat yourself up if you find you have any of these vices. Just get on and change what is not working and keep what is. How is your plan proceeding?

Reducing stress can be difficult

Reducing stress can be difficult when life does not co-operate. It is something that you have to be mindful of and manage for yourself. I have decided to keep a diary to see what my stress trigger points are and then decide what I can do to avoid them. An alternative route to my previous approaches that really did not work or help me.

I have been able to recognise the stressful points during the day and with a bit of planning, adapt how I respond to them. So instead of comfort eating after a stressful day I keep my needlework to hand and have some alternative healthy snacks ready to go. Instead of a glass of wine when I can not sleep, I am trying camomile tea and a relaxing bath. I am also making my bedroom more of a relaxing haven. Hopefully it will all add up to less stress in my environment.

What are you doing?

Reduce stress and increase weight loss

I have discovered that the main thing that may be stopping me (and many others like me) from losing weight could be stress. Apparently if you reduce the stress in your life then the weight could drop off. So how does this work?

The main reason for this is that the hormones that are released when your body is stressed permanently put your body into survival mode. Your body thinks it is under threat and holds onto resources in your body that could be useful in fright or flight circumstances that the stress indicates. In other words, it holds onto your fat deposits. It is an ancient, biological stress response that has taken on negative connotations in our stressful modern lives where stress can be a constant factor rather than a short-term threat. Stress also encourages us to reach for 'comfort' foods that we might not require if we were in a better frame of mind.

So if you can reduce your stress then the rest could follow - increased weight loss and better food choices. Reducing stress is a good idea for many other reasons as longterm exposure to stress can also be harmful to your cardiovascular system amongst other physiological damage. So my first step in my body transformation plan is now "how can I reduce my stress?"

My plan is to increase exercise and make it fun. I also want to plan in more 'me time' in my diary so I can have time out to relax. Finally I am also considering meditation lessons. I will let you know how I get on. How is your Body Transformation plan going?

Positive Dieting

Those of us who are unfortunate enough to gain weight all have reasons why. Illness, pregnancy, medication, sedentary work or just being plain greedy. Whatever the reason we all need to consider how we lose this weight again as it usually has a negative impact on our lives.

So how about making losing weight a fun and positive thing rather than a negative thing. We really do not need any other sticks to beat ourselves with - life does that for us enough as it is. So I am going to talk about my and my friends' personal experiences of losing weight and give you fellow 'dieters'!!! out there a bit of support, a few tips and hopefully a laugh too if I can.

I thought I would start by re-naming the term 'Diet' to be more positive. Hope you can join me for my Body Transformation club ongoingly....