Is stress eating you alive

The time leading up to Christmas is notorious for increased stress! Coming into summer brings with it so many things to worry about, including:

• Bathers
• Summer Clothes
• Christmas
• Family
• Work/office parties
• Drinking and eating

These are just a few of the common things that have many of us freaking and stressing out!

What happens to us when we get stressed?

Well many things, but for so many people it brings with it overeating (generally on junk food) which in turns sees our weight increase.

If this sounds like something you would do in response to stress, don’t panic, I have a few tricks that might help you get through the rest of year without gaining that unwanted weight and possibly even enjoying the summer.

I am sure you have all heard of a journal or a diary before, but how many of you have actually used one before?

Instead of using a diary as a general journal of your everyday life, why not make it more specific to writing down the things that are making you feel stressed?

You can even add a little food journal section in there to note down what you ate. That way, when you sit back and look over it you can see if you reached straight for the chocolate on the days you were feeling particularly stressed.

When you are looking back at your notes, make sure you look to see if there were any recurring stress emotions.  For example, do you work with someone who on a particular day each week drives you completely mad?  You can’t always change their behaviour, but you can look at the way you deal with the emotions that those behaviours stir up in you.

Don’t let their moods affect you, take a few deeps breaths when you see them calling or coming over to your desk. Smile – it is amazing how a smile can make you change your emotions!!

Lists, lists and more lists

Sometimes writing down a list of what you need to buy or do can help you remember where you are and what you still need to do. If you do not have these lists you can end up waking up at crazy times of the night and not sleeping, which leaves you emotional. And we all know what can happen when you are emotional.

Control the situations you can control and forget about the rest– we spend so much time getting upset and angry about things we really can’t control. You can’t control someone else’s behaviour or actions but you can control your own. Don’t let someone else get inside your head!!

If you have a bad day, don’t make it a bad week. We always stress about what we ate yesterday or that we didn’t exercise but what happened yesterday is old news.  Look forward, not backwards. There is no point ruining a whole week because you had a bad day.

Perfection usually means failure! Nobody is perfect, just give it your best!!

Good luck with your weight loss and thanks for visiting weightloss.com.au.

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