Does Stress Control Your Heating Habits?

How often do you eat in response to stress? And if you do, what type of food do you tend to eat?

For many of us, the honest answer is that we head straight for the ‘comfort food’ – the sweet and salty snack foods that add little nutrition and lots of calories.

Studies around eating habits of those who maintain weight loss following a diet and those who don’t have shown that in most cases, those who relapse do so due to poor stress management skills.

Healthy stress responses include, confronting the problems and immersing yourself in other healthy behaviours such as exercise, productive work, meditation, talking it out, seeking professional help etc. For those whose stress management skills are less developed, the only exercise is the few steps it takes to reach the cookie dough or chocolate bars.

The surprising thing is that most people who do use food as a comfort to stress are largely unaware of how much they are eating, even if they are aware that they are eating ‘bad’ foods. Their reaction is not dissimilar to other addictive behaviours. Many recovering alcoholics or drug abusers find that stressful events are dangerour triggers to returning to old behaviours.

So rather than focussing totally on what you are eating, take some time to learn more about how you respond to stress and emotions. If you know you have a weakness in this area – keep a list of positive responses handy, so you can get a quick reminder of better options – I find cleaning my house from top to bottom perfect. I not only work the stress or emotion out of my system – I feel great at having a sparkling home to relax in.

Nicola

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