Do This When You Are Stressed

Hi SparkPeople Members

Last week we talked about emotional eating and stress. My email started getting long, so I saved what to do when you are stressed for part 2 this week.

If you missed last week's email, I'll make it easy on you and just include it at the end of this week's email.

One of the concepts we talked about last week was practicing the ability to choose your response in a stressful situation.

Using that as your way of thinking, below are specific examples to put this into action when you are stressed. These can all replace reaching for bad food:

* Proactively work to solve the cause of the stressful situation. This is a top choice, but I realize this can take a long time in many situations, so others below can be helpful.

* Physically remove yourself from the stressful situation if necessary (like if another person is being unreasonable)

* Intentionally eat a healthy snack to show you are taking control

* Have a friend or family member on call when you are stressed

* Do some form of exercise, even if it's as simple as walking around the block or office

* Write in a journal (or review past journal entries)

* Work on a project that needs to be completed to get a sense of satisfaction from crossing something off your list

* Meditate or do something spiritual to help calm your body

* Have fewer bad foods around you to lower temptations (especially items like candy jars sitting out in the open)

* Visualize something that makes you happy

* Review your goals or look at a vision collage that represents your goals -- so you keep in mind what you are working towards

* Anything else that works for you to reduce stress

I have used the visualization one with my son. When he is stressed out at bedtime, sometimes I will tell him to use his magic rocking chair to go anywhere in the world he'd like to visit. We used to read books in a rocking chair together, so he likes to rock. Sometimes in his mind he will rock next to the ocean or next to Lake Tahoe -- both relaxing places we have vacationed.

Let me know in today's blog if you like any of these ideas or others that work for you!

BELOW IS PART 1 FROM LAST WEEK IF YOU MISSED IT.

This week in my series of sharing activities I do to reach my own goals I'll talk about stress and emotional eating.

As a person who grew up with anxiety, I dealt with stress a big part of my life before figuring out how to overcome anxiety for the most part by using the underlying SparkPeople program!

When we first started SparkPeople, we were surprised to learn that emotional eating was the top issue for our members. We realized:

What's going on in your head

is usually more important

than what goes in your mouth!

This issue highlights one of the major reasons we like to integrate the best of health and fitness (elements that help your body) with the best of goal-setting, leadership, motivation, and behavioral psychology (elements that help your mind).

You might know everything there is to know about nutrition and fitness, but that can all go out the window in a flash if you are susceptible to stress and emotional eating. This can then quickly turn into a downward spiral causing you to fall off track with many of your goals.

The first thing I like to ask people is to do a self-awareness check about this issue: Are you susceptible to stress and emotional eating?

I recognize that I still do stress-eating to this day on some occasions -- like grabbing chocolate or snack foods when my kids melt down (I've decreased this considerably after dramatically lowering the amount of sugar and simple carbs I eat this year).

If the answer to the first question is yes, then the next self-awareness exercise is to write down exactly what triggers your stress eating and why. The best next step is to start solving those issues one at a time (this may take a long time). For example, if you spend time with someone who stresses you out, either figure out how to confront that issue, spend less time with that person, or actively CHOOSE to not let that person's actions affect your mood. Try to remember that much of the time, you are in control of your response in any situation.

The most dramatic example I've ever seen of choosing your response comes in Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning book where he talks about his experiences in a Nazi concentration camp. He said that no matter what the guards took from him (which was just about everything), he retained control of his response to their actions. At the time I read this, one trait I had from anxiety was a bit of "victim mentality." After reading this, that trait stopped almost immediately. I figured that if this man -- who had everything taken from him in one of the most horrible situations possible -- retained the power to choose his reaction to what others did to him -- then certainly I could do the same thing under my "normal" circumstances.

Are there situations like this in your life where you can choose to control your response including not letting something cause you as much stress?

This is a concept that you can actively practice over time -- working to continually improve your reaction to stress.

I got so excited about this topic as I started writing that next week I will do a part 2 to this topic so this week's doesn't get too long.

In the meantime, take some time to really think about this and become self-aware of how you handle stress.

Let me know if this affects you in today's blog!

SparkCheers!

Chris "SparkGuy" Downie



Chris (SparkGuy)

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