Stress and Emotional Eating

Diets don’t work

• Diets are almost always a temporary solution to a chronic problem. Research shows you’ll put back on 80% of that weight within a year.

Diets don’t work

• And trying not to eat is like trying not to breathe. You just can’t do it. It’s stressful.

• Emotional eating

Diets don’t work.• There will be no

restrictions on what you can eat, and no foods will be considered “off limits.” As research shows, these approaches only make you want the restricted food even more and of course, ultimately fail.

Webster’s definition of diet• 1. a) what a person usually eats or drinks; daily fare. 2. a regimen of special or limited food chosen or prescribed to gain or lose weight.

Eating well and living well.

• It will thoroughly explore the relationship between exercise, weight management and stress management.

Body image

• America wasn’t always so obsessed with being thin. A 1908 article in Harper’s Magazine advised reader’s “How to get plump” and suggested that fashion models should be “far from thin.”

Where appetite and stress start

Acute stress vs. chronic stress

• In order to survive a famine – or chronic stress - the body goes into fat storage mode.

• During acute stress, the body’s appetite shuts down – who needs to be thinking about lunch when you are about to become lunch – and stored energy is mobilized for fighting or fleeing.

Exercise & fight or flight

• Exercise is like triggering your fight or flight response. It revs up your metabolism and dulls your appetite.

Don’t skip meals

• Any time the body goes more than 12 hours without a meal (including hours spent asleep) it slips into chronic stress mode, reducing metabolism by as much as 40%!

Don’t skip breakfast

• If you normally skip breakfast in the morning, don’t. But you don’t have to stuff yourself, either. Just have a handful of nuts or a soft-boiled egg.

Emotional eating

• When ever we’re stressed, we seek out “comfort foods” that remind us of the foods our parents gave us when we did something especially good or when we skinned our knees or came home crying.

Emotional eating

• Most of us don’t realize how often we reward, console and cajole ourselves with food. One way to increase your awareness of this is by keeping a mood/food journal.

Keep a mood food journal

• Whenever you eat an un-planned snack or a meal make a note of when you ate, what you ate, where you ate, who you ate with, and how you were feeling at the time you ate.

Emotional eating quiz

• Do I eat when I come home from work?

• Do I eat when I get into an argument with a specific person?

• Do I eat at certain times of the day, or when I feel rushed?

• Do I eat standing up and/or right out of the package?

• I like to eat when I’m anxious,

upset, lonely, or depressed.

Emotional eating alternatives• For example, if you know

you like to eat after a tough day, make a point of going out for a walk before heading to the kitchen.

• If there are specific people who drive you to eat emotionally, Call someone on the phone

• If you eat standing up or right out of the package, stop.

Self-medicating with food• Research that

indicates we reach for crunchy foods when we’re angry, sugary food when we’re depressed, soft, sweet foods when we’re anxious and salty foods when we’re stressed.

Self-medicating with carbs• Sugary foods and

simple carbs, like cakes, white bread and pasta are the most common foods used for self-medicating. These foods give us an instant lift – which is why we crave them when we’re stressed

Hypo-glycemia• When the brain realizes that

there is too much glucose in the bloodstream, (commonly referred to as a sugar-high) it releases insulin into the bloodstream which neutralizes the excess glucose. This reaction causes us to crave even more sugar and more carbs thus setting us up for another cycle of high and low.

Insulin resistance

• Eventually the body’s ability to break down the glucose becomes impaired. This is known as insulin resistance. And it’s a precursor to diabetes.

Emotional eating

• So when you find yourself craving sugary foods, or high carb foods like bagels and chips, it’s usually just an attempt to nurture yourself and to manage your stress.

Other ways to nurture yourself

• Go for a short walk.

• Listen to your favorite song.

• Read for 15 minutes.

• Take a shower.

• Play a video game.

• Garden.

• Talk to a friend on the phone

Healthy snacks

• Carrot Sticks, celery sticks, grapes, apple slices, a handful of nuts, or a bowl of vegetable soup. Or try drinking an eight ounce glass of water before you eat anything.

Rewards other than food

• Try taking yourself out to the movies, or buying a good book, or subscribing to your favorite magazine. Some people put money in a jar as a reward for good behavior, and then buy themselves something good when the jar is full.

Stomach vs. mouth hunger• Emotional eating is

driven by mouth hunger. Spend a non-working day where you eat as often as you like, but only in response to stomach hunger. Wait till you are sure you are experiencing stomach hunger and then eat a light meal within fifteen minutes.

Part II:Permanent lifestyle change

• Choose from a variety of lifestyle changes that include raising your metabolism, counting calories, avoiding liquid calories, eating whole foods, getting enough sleep, drinking plenty of water, and of course practicing some form of stress management on a daily basis

Raising metabolism

• Every pound of muscle burns between 35 to 50 calories a day where as every pound of fat burns only 2 calories a day.

Counting calories

• The key to maintaining a healthy weight is to balance the calories you consume with the calories you burn. Multiply your current weight times 10 if you’re a woman and 11 if you’re a man to get an approximate idea of the number of calories you burn in a day.

Eat whole foods• Whole foods are

foods still in their original state – or close to it. The way they grow on the farm. Fruits, vegetables and whole grains that you can actually see in the breads, cereals and baked goods you eat.

Reducing liquid calories

Studies show, that in the average American diet, 22% of total calories come from the sodas, juices, and alcoholic beverages you consume. Since you can always opt to drink water, which has 0 calories, this is a huge opportunity for savings

Drink plenty of water

• Drinking water is good for you and when you drink eight glasses a day, you will be much less likely to eat emotionally, because the water gives you a sense of fullness.

Sleep 7-8 hours per night

• Anything less than seven hours a night is going to make you vulnerable to problems with anxiety, depression, fatigue, stress and will raise the likelihood of emotional eating.

5 methods for reducing stress

• Exercise

• Deep breathing

• Progressive muscle relaxation

• Yoga

• Meditation

Exercise• Regular exercise helps

lower stress, burn calories, decrease the chances of heart attack, diabetes, stroke and certain cancers. If all the benefits of exercise were available in pill-form, everyone would take it.

Deep breathing

• Deep breathing slows the heart rate, increases oxygen consumption and lowers stress.

Progressive muscle relaxation

• Progressive muscle relaxation involves tensing muscles and then relaxing them, one muscle group at a time. Start at the top of your body and move down.

Yoga

• Yoga means union of mind and body. Yoga combines meditation, breathing and stretching all into one practice. You can get a simple idea of how yoga works right in your chair.

Meditation

• Meditation requires attention, patience and practice. The goal in mediation is to calm the body by focusing the mind on a single word or phrase you repeat silently to yourself. Usually people meditate with their eyes closed and allow 15-20 minutes for doing so.

Give yourself a break

• Behavioral change is a gradual process of two steps forward and one step back. If you fall off the wagon of behavioral change, brush yourself off, FORGIVE YOURSELF, and get right back on that wagon, no matter how badly you may have been bruised by the fall.