What is your Go Too food under stress.....

Wine

When I am feeling stress, my "go to" is exercise.

I love cycling, so if I can get outside for a decently strenuous ride, that's the best stress reliever. However, next best is a brisk walk down to the beach and then along the beach listening to the soothing sounds of the waves. And then there's working out in my home gym. I've got a bicycle on a trainer and will ride "commercial intervals" to work off some of the stress. I've also got some weights and can get in a fairly good weights workout.

Even in the middle of the day, when I'm not at home, if I can get up and go for a walk at lunch or something, that can do wonders to relax me and clear my head.

For example, in addition to working full-time, I also take post-graduate classes at the local university. Unfortunately, there's a lot of group work involved (don't get me started on group work!). Last semester, I had a 2-hour lab first thing on Wednesday mornings. Every Wednesday, by the time I got out of that lab, I was ready to run screaming into a remote wilderness. But fortunately, the walk between the university and my place of employment was enough to calm me down enough to get on with my day.

Now, I must admit, I did like my spiced red lentil soup on those days too. It just seemed to hit the spot.

Machka9 wrote: »

When I am feeling stress, my "go to" is exercise.

I love cycling, so if I can get outside for a decently strenuous ride, that's the best stress reliever. However, next best is a brisk walk down to the beach and then along the beach listening to the soothing sounds of the waves. And then there's working out in my home gym. I've got a bicycle on a trainer and will ride "commercial intervals" to work off some of the stress. I've also got some weights and can get in a fairly good weights workout.

Even in the middle of the day, when I'm not at home, if I can get up and go for a walk at lunch or something, that can do wonders to relax me and clear my head.

For example, in addition to working full-time, I also take post-graduate classes at the local university. Unfortunately, there's a lot of group work involved (don't get me started on group work!). Last semester, I had a 2-hour lab first thing on Wednesday mornings. Every Wednesday, by the time I got out of that lab, I was ready to run screaming into a remote wilderness. But fortunately, the walk between the university and my place of employment was enough to calm me down enough to get on with my day.

Now, I must admit, I did like my spiced red lentil soup on those days too. It just seemed to hit the spot.

Yup! I've had some of my best runs after stressful situations.

Carrots and cucumber dill greek yogurt dip. Crunchy and very satisfying!

skinny pop.

bellabonbons wrote: »

Seeking ideas.....I find Cold Stone Sweet Cream ice cream with Chocolate Shavings hard to resist when I am stressed. Have any of you found healthy stress relievers that work well for you? Thank you!

Why not try to fit it into your calorie goal sometimes?

Milky coffee. It soothes me when I'm in pain, I need to replace it with something else and just limit to one or two coffees a day

BioQueen wrote: »

Before I began losing weight I stress ate like it was my job. It got really bad when I was applying for med school and taking my MCAT (the SAT for med students). I would want sweet, then salty, but then I needed sweet, and then salty because it was too sweet. I can't remember when it really started, but it may have been a habit since I was younger.

So now I try my absolute hardest to not eat when I am stressed. I have to force myself to recognize what emotions I'm having and ways of dealing with them that don't revolve around food. It is so hard to realize that I am not actually hungry. I am pretty sure that this was the core of my original weight gain, so it was the real problem that I needed to address.

Ah...the salty sweet. Sunday my family went to the movies and there was the REAL popcorn with the butter and salt...and peanut mnms...I started alternating between the two like I was 8 again. ..had to make myself stop. definitely have a thing there

Absolutely. An 8oz glass of white wine and a serving of Smart Food Delight White Cheddar popcorn (get a food scale - it's actually a decent size serving!). 325 calories. I plan my entire day's worth of food around being able to have that stress-reliever of a snack at the end of the day