*cue someone popping up trying to sell something promising a dream and likely a load of s*t 💩 These can be dangerous and encourage an unhealthy relationship with food 🚩
Work deadlines, New Year pressures, family responsibilities, financial pressure, social plans. It’s a lot.
Stress or emotional eating, is a common answer people give when asked what influences decisions around food. It’s also what a lot of people turn to when they are feeling stressed and overwhelmed. The ability to control something or at least soothe ourselves in a challenging situation. Food provides comfort.
It can release dopamine and therefore, make us feel better.
Being stressed alone, isn’t the reason you’re seeing increases/decreases in weight.
The effect stress has on our actions, eating behaviours or how many calories we eat that could be though.
Hyper fixation on food
Poor digestion; bloat, pain, inconsistent
Cravings; sugar, salty, fatty foods
Turning to food as a coping strategy
Increased cortisol; which CAN increase appetite
Adrenaline and blood glucose spikes; which CAN reduce or cause irregular appetite
We can’t get rid of stress totally, but we can try to control our response. Here are 5️⃣ things to remember.
You don’t need to avoid or create a banned food list.
Have a list of coping mechanisms or strategies. Things to help distract, busy your brain or allow you proper downtime.
Make a stress journal or do an audit where you write how you react to being stressed; things that help, the foods you turn to, how you feel after those choices.
Understand weight fluctuation is normal. Our body has a healthy weight range and not bang on a number. If this stresses you out more, it maybe poor body image that’s a root cause.
Routine and structure can help, especially when everything else seems out of control. Try to maintain good sleep hygiene, hydration, meal times or having none negotiable actions.
Acknowledging the things causing us to feel stressed, can help us to understand it better which can help us to find methods to reduce it.
I’ve included a link below to a stress assessment file from Precision Nutrition; the company I completed my Nutrition Level 1 qualification.
Hopefully it helps you to identify areas in your life causing significant stress.
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