Living the Lifestyle - Tuesday Sept. 25

savignr

We meet here to explore, share, celebrate, and (sometimes) agonize over how we do (or don't) incorporate weight loss guidelines into our daily lives. "It's a lifestyle, not a diet" is easily and often said, but sometimes not so simply put into practice.

This is a thread for everyone. If you're new to GoaD, or to weight loss, your questions and comments are always welcome. If you're maintaining, or a long-term loser, your thoughts on the topic may be just what someone else needs to hear. If you're reading this, join in the discussion!

Each weekday, a new topic is offered up for discussion. Thread starters for September are:

Monday - Imastar2 (Derrick)
Tuesday - savignr (Bob)
Wednesday - 88olds (George)
Thursday - misterhub (Greg)
Friday - Jimb376mfp (Jim)

Today's topic - When life gets in the way

At some point, things get hectic and stressful enough in our lives that it can affect how you eat, your sleep, and, for some of us, our exercise periods. So when life gets in the way, how do you deal with the stress to avoid turning to food? Will power, rearrangement of priorities, just go with the flow - what works for you?


Bonus question: Does anyone here use MFP Premium? Are the extras worth the cost?

savignr

This does not happen to me so often since I retired the end of July, but it is not gone altogether. The first thing that goes for me when stressed is sleep; I wake up several times a night, and have a lot of trouble falling back asleep. This causes me to drag around during the day, being less effective, falling further behind, getting more stressed about that, getting sleep interrupted.... Well, you get the picture.

Probably not the greatest approach, but I throw coffee at being tired. While it is a short term solution, it invariably gets me over the hump. There are times I would like comfort food, but, being a stubborn old coot, I am generally able to ignore them. In those times I am not, I become more likely to binge. The best thing for me during these times is to just get out of the house - go for a walk, a drive, anything to get out of the way of food. Usually all it takes is a short break and I am back in control again.

Bonus question - I see some features I like there, particularly around nutrition, but wonder if they are worth the cost and effort. Interested to hear your thoughts.

myallforjcbill

Frankly I practice Mindfulness and when I feel the emotions rising, step back and do some breathing for anywhere from a few breaths to a couple minutes if I can't exit the situation. I try to do longer times each day but I am not always successful at making it a daily practice. I learned this during some counseling sessions on depression and my emotional eating due to chronic pain. Previously I had only used it to manage pain flare-ups. The concept is the same to understand that you can be in control of how you respond and not just to be in reaction mode. You are not your pain, you are not your stress etc.

I do pay for the MFP premium. I don't even remember what I pay each year. I customize my nutritional goals per some discussions with a dietician/nutritionist I had last year. I have varied calorie targets during the week and are heaviest on the weekends, that average to my target and have a lower percentage assigned to carbs and switched to protein. I currently have the display showing the WW main 4 factors of Calories, Sat Fat, Sugar & Protein. But as I move away from WW (Wellness that Works!) I will move sugar back and total fat forward. I find it helps with planning and decision making and isn't that much compared to WW.

misterhub

I also practice Mindfulness. Or, I hope to; sometimes things go better than others. I am a stress eater, and a lot of it has to do with the unreal expectations I have for a situation. If I can modify my expectations and accept the situation as it is (not saying not to try and improve the situation - just realize it is what it is at this moment), I find I handle the problem better, and I am less compelled to eat. A good long walk also helps.

88olds

Exercise is overrated as a weight loss strategy, but it’s great for stress reduction.

And it may sound odd, but I found calorie counting provided a bit of stress relief. First, it was something else to occupy my mind. That WL puzzle game, how to make stuff fit within my number. And also, I always had a pretty good idea of where I was in my daily budget. I wasn’t going to double down on stress by adding out of control.

Jerdtrmndone

I do live a stressful life with DW's health issues. I do as @myallforjcbill does in taking slow deep breaths and tell myself everything will be ok and for me that works and calms me down and now I'm controlling my mindfulness fairly good and not over indulging making myself a better person.
Before doing this I was a huge wreck.

minimyzeme

So when life gets in the way, how do you deal with the stress to avoid turning to food? Will power, rearrangement of priorities, just go with the flow - what works for you?

I use a combination of ways to overcome stress-eating. My primary tool though is a realization a few years ago that it wasn't the eating that made me fat, it was what I chose to eat under stress. In order for me to get to that place, I had to be mindful to the stress trigger (which I hadn't been), then break down the steps that lead me to weight gain. 'Then and now', I still stress-eat. I can't really explain why that behavior brings me stress relief. It may just be that it's such an established pattern for me, I won't stop doing it.

What I did change was my food choices. Back in the day, it was chips, pretzels, candy, cookies, and fatty deli meats (or combinations thereof). Having realized THOSE were the choices that made me fat, I switched them up. Now, even though I still stress eat, it's rarely from those foods. Fruits, vegetables and lean deli meats are now my foods of choice when I stress-eat. I've even been known to eat weird stuff like green chiles or salsa just to steer clear of the unhealthy choices.

countcurt

Stress has been good for my weight management over the years. I have terrible difficulty eating when I'm really stressed.

Boredom and anger, however, are different stories. I have found that, with boredom, the mindfulness is extremely helpful. And, sadly, my 'go-to' tool is still a tracker. (Confession- I have used the online tracking tools but recently went back to paper and pen. Somehow having to physically commit to the food makes the caloric intake more 'real' to me.) And I say sadly only because it still frustrates me that the mindfulness hasn't become more automatic. Anger is a little trickier only because if I'm that angry I am often sublimating the anger by eating so it's my eating pattern that tips me off to my anger. Which means that by the time I realize I'm angry and 'anger-eating' I'm well into the process. So that's a work in progress.


As it relates to stress, I could see an analogous tactic where the mindfulness activity acts like a bit of a breaker in the moment. So, even if you're stress-eating, you have some awareness.


I would add one thing- if you manage stress by eating, stopping eating can really eff-upp your stress levels. So it becomes important to figure out effective stress management tools before cutting off the self-medication with food.

myallforjcbill

countcurt wrote: »

As it relates to stress, I could see an analogous tactic where the mindfulness activity acts like a bit of a breaker in the moment. So, even if you're stress-eating, you have some awareness.

Bingo