Don’t Let Stress Stuff You Up

Stress eating has thrown most of our diet plans out of gear and caused us further stress by overeating and offered no relief at all. When emotional disturbances hit us, we end up eating just to distract ourselves from unpleasant feelings. The feelings would still be there even after we fill ourselves with food, because we’d more or less be disturbed again over the fact that we overate and ruined our diet plans!

Stress eating can be cut by keeping a check on the emotional habits that have made us break away from our diet plans, when we do that we can exhibit control over both the F’s (food and feelings). Continue reading to understand the elements that can trigger emotional eating and the alternate ways to manage stress without overeating.

Sometimes when you are stressed out completely, cortisol a stress hormone is released in high levels, which will trigger your craving for foods which are sweet, fried and salty. If you don’t deal with issues that stress you out, it will lead to more health problems in life.

I have seen people who sometimes try to avoid feeling any pain or sadness, by trying to stuff up with food, so that they don’t have to experience unpleasant emotions like fear, anger, shame, sadness, all of which can soon have serious health repercussions.

Another important aspect of stress or emotional eating is your childhood formation. Remember when we were children, our parents and elders used to reward us with food, especially sweet treats when we excelled in academic or non-academic performances? They even gave us something we loved to eat, when we were down in the dumps. This pattern of eating could be a potential health hazard.

When you feel down or upset, the best thing to do is to call someone who is willing to listen and spend time with you.If you have a pet go for a long walk with your pet, listen to music or play a game to distract yourself. These may not only bring you relief, but also prevent you from eating a lot. Pick up a good book to read, something light like comics, fun stuff and if you still feel stressed go out and explore the world, watch a movie, volunteer at events, keep yourself occupied in any useful way. This will definitely help turn your focus from food to other simple social activities and keep your mind free in the process.

If you are stressed out and can’t find a solution, please get help from trained medical professionals and spread the message of wellness to others.