Stress and food

The most effective thing for me is to take a minute to just sit and try to figure out why I am feeling so stressed/ upset/ sad/ whatever. If I can identify the feeling and work out what it's all about, it seems to relieve the desire to just shovel food in my mouth. Another thing I've learned is that when I'm focused on food as a stress reliever, I can sometimes distract myself with other things (music, reading, messing around on a message board, etc). The problem with that is that it can be hard to do when you are at work and expected to actually do work stuff so you can get paid. If you can put some ear buds in and listen to music or just get up and go for a walk to talk to a coworker for a few minutes or something, that might help derail the food cravings long enough for you to forget about them..

The first step is realizing why your eating and bravo for that!... To stop cravings like that is tough... I agree with drinking water or distracting yourself from thinking about food... One way to distract yourself and loss the stress is to relax and slow yourself down... One technique I use is called combat breathing... It is nothing more than breathing in while counting to 4 in your head slowly, holding your breath for a count of 4, exhaling for 4 count, holding for 4 count and starting again... All the while you are clearing your head and thinking positive thoughts... Now if you can do this somewhere quiet or just the sounds of nature, all the better... Ultimately dont let the things you need to get done drive you to stress... Manage your time as best as possible and realize that it will get done one way or the other... Good luck!

It's important to deal with stress in a positive manner and there are great ideas about that above. Remember to tell yourself that the food supply is not running out (as stress sends signals to your brain telling you that you're in danger of starving to death which is one of the triggers of cravings).

That being said, there is little reason to not have chocolate/salty/crunchy in moderation. You can start planning a serving of something (at TOM I go for skinny cow, chocolate mini rice cakes, or one of those special K snack treats) for a certain time of day. Either save room for it in your diary or figure out how far you need to walk or exercise to "earn" it so you can add it to the normal foods for the day. When it starts to pop up in your head, tell yourself you're going to have it at 7pm or after an hour after dinner or after you had 16 cups of water, whatever. Then have a drink of water, eat some celery, go for a walk, do 10 squats, go through your mental mantras, etc. When the time comes around, enjoy it because you earned it.

Back in "the day" it helped prevent binging. Instead of never again, it's wait a while longer or get through this part first --then we'll enjoy a treat. On days I did binge, I got in an extra workout to help offset the extra which was a good form of negative reinforcement.