Food Can’t Hug You Back: Overcoming Using Food to Cope With Stress

At some point in most of our lives, there are obstacles to healthy living. They can be physical, emotional or both; temporary or permanent. It’s what we choose to do in the moment of most difficulty that steers our intentions. Different people deal with stress in different ways. When some people feel stressed they lose their appetite and can’t eat. Others however, use food to try and take their mind off the stress, which usually leads to more stress in the long run when the extra pounds start creeping on.

To prevent this extra stress, which is the last thing any of us needs in our lives, it can be helpful to take a moment and simply think about what you are really doing to your body in the long run. When your weight keeps climbing higher and higher in response to binge eating episodes, you are only going to make your self more miserable than you already were. You need to admit to yourself food can’t solve your problems. It can’t keep you company when you are lonely. It can’t give you a hug when you are sad. You need something more.

There are lots of other healthier coping strategies that are also WAY more effective. Exercising your body is one of the best ways to release frustration and tension and to release the “feel good” hormones called endorphins.  Better yet, it burns off extra calories while you are doing the exercise, and your body continues to burn calories at an accelerated rate sometimes for hours after you have finished exercising - especially after you have finished doing an intense weight training session like the Body for LIFE weight training routine or the 20 minute aerobics solution.

Other healthier coping strategies include something as simple as deep breathing when you feel nervous or journaling to cope with anger and irritation. Journaling can also ensure that you are staying on track with your Body for LIFE challenge. Many find it beneficial to write down what they eat each day, the exercise they did for that day, and how this made them feel afterwards. Then if you are not seeing results as quickly as you may have thought you would you can go back and look at your journal to see what changes may need to be made.

Maybe you could try taking up a new hobby such as painting or drawing. Lots of people have great success letting their emotions out in the form of art work. This can allow you to be a child again: splash paint and let your hair down!

Some of these options may seem obvious, and yet how many times do we dismiss them in favor of a trip to the refrigerator? So when you feel stressed and are tempted to use food to “numb away” that stress, just remember food can’t hug you back, and nothing tastes as good as how finishing your 12 week program, being fit and in-shape feels.