Times of change/ stress

kschwab0203

My fiance and I are preparing for a move this weekend and when I am not at work or caring for my children my time has been consumed with packing and all other moving preparations.

I am finding it particularly difficult to stay on track this week with all the chaos surrounding my life right now. My home is in disarray- half packed/ half mess, and meal prep has been the last thing on the totem pole. Not to mention, I am one of those neurotic people that feels as though I cannot properly function when my space is unorganized.

I ate like crap for the last few days and of course now I am totally beating myself up.

Does anyone else find it difficult to stay on track during times of stress or change? How do you deal?

NEMom80

I have been going through the stress myself lately but I am the opposite, I have to remind myself to eat or I will go all day without.

Amys712

Yes, I find it challenging too. I was staying strong on a real strict diet a month ago and then my boyfriend and I broke up and I started going overboard on quantity.

I think it's normal to sometimes have a rough day or two, but if it begins to stretch out or anything I have to remind myself that my goal is better than the momentary satisfaction of yummy taste.

Luna3386

I aim for maintenance during those times. Try to make the next best choice but don't stress.

nowine4me

Yes. For us high anxiety folks, anything of the routine can be difficult. Make the best choices you can and settle in as quickly as you are able.

Moxie42

I'm going through an extremely stressful (and busy) time right now, after something that happened 4/30. I completely abandoned my goals the first week of May because I felt like I just couldn't handle one more thing, but I ended up just feeling worse because on top of everything else, I was feeling bad about falling off the wagon. So after a week I decided to spend a little extra on groceries to get pre-made salads for lunch, and easy things for dinner (meats that were already marinated and seasoned, stuff to make sandwiches, pasta). It was a compromise between what I was doing before (home-cooking everything, mostly eating "paleo"), and what I found myself wanting to do (ordering pizza or Chinese every night). That second week, as well as the third, I decided not to focus on counting cals or logging- just making decent decisions. I actually ended up losing 2 lbs over those three weeks. This is the fourth week and I started logging again, and making effort to stay under my calorie allotment. However, I'm still not worrying about what exactly I'm eating (because cooking from scratch still feels daunting), and I'm not trying to force myself to stay under my goal. It's more like "Hm, I already ate all my cals today. I'll have a yogurt now instead of the chocolate I originally wanted, but who cares if yogurt puts me 200 cals over."

It feels good to be logging and trying again. On one hand I'm far too stressed and overwhelemed to be back on my plan full-force. But at least this is one thing in my life I CAN control, and that feels good. It also helps not worrying, "Oh God, how much will I have gained after another week of eating like this?" I intend to ease back into things slowly, getting back to just a little meal prepping this weekend, and maybe next week starting my walks again- but just little 10-minute walks every other day to start, instead of the 30-minute-every-day walks I was doing before.

Good luck with everything! Be kind to yourself and try not to beat yourself up Life loves to get in the way of our plans sometimes and it's okay to slip a little. The fact you're asking for advice means you're not giving up- that's the most important thing.