Stress is
known as a part of normal life and it is sometimes good for you. In
small amounts, stress may maintain your energy and also improve your
performance.
However,
stress can cause negative effects for you. Trying to avoid dealing with stress
might seem sensible, but it usually just makes things worse.
There are lots
of practical, positive steps we can take to deal with stress. The common stress
response is to eat comfort foods, foods that include high sugar, salt or fat
foods such as chocolate, potato chips, soft drinks and snack foods.
While eating comfort
food, when you are stressed out might actually help, it is not beneficial when
you try to lose weight. You will get benefits in terms of stress reduction, but
it will not support your weight loss efforts.
You can do plenty
of things to de-stress. A good model of stress management is to do something about
it and get beyond it. A bad model is to avoid it and let is accumulate.
Make sure most
evenings include rituals that actively help you unwind.
If what you are doing is not working, try something new. If
you never take a step in the right direction, you will stay right where you
are.
If you don’t know what to do, I can recommend that the first thing you
need to do is to eat real food. Food that supports weight loss.
If you are not
happy with your weight, you can chose to take control or you can choose to do
nothing to change the situation.
You can take action or continue to use defense
mechanism, like thinking that weight loss is too difficult to justify why you
should not do anything to change your situation.
Making a conscious effort to eat
real food that supports weight loss every time you decide what you eat is behavioral
change that will make a big difference. That behavior change can help shift
your attitude.
