Is Stress Making You Fat and Sick?

“Don’t eat so much.”

“All you need is willpower.”

“Just resist temptation.”

How often have we heard things like this from well-intentioned loved ones?

Often, overeating has nothing to do with willpower or avoiding temptation. It has to do with the level of stress you are dealing with. And the more people tell us to eat less, the more stressed we tend to be.

General stress coupled with emotional stress is associated with innumerable problems including overeating, binge eating and stuffing resulting in being overweight, even obese.

Worse yet, foods that may not be right for you causes you more stress! Accumulated stress overloads the body and is the beginning of all disease.

Manage Stress

Managing your stress is one of the most important steps you can take to reduce emotional eating. Yet, with overtaxed systems, packed schedules and demands we all experience, managing stress is often easier said than done.

Yet, imagine if you could nip your compulsive eating in the bud by implementing a few simple strategies.

First, you must be aware that change is in order. This is key to turning your eating around. Next, look at the various ways to reduce stress including conscious breathing, meditation, walks, hiking and journaling.

One of my favorites is to schedule in time for a break ever hour to ninety minutes. By schedule in a break, I am sure to stick to my stress management plan.

Determine Your Favorite One

Chances are you have your favorites. Whatever it is, minimize emotional eating by implementing a regular stress management strategy.

Additionally, “tune in” to foods your body has a positive craving for. Notice how foods impact you. Do they give you energy, make you tired and sluggish, give you a “high” or make you feel like you have the weight of the world on your shoulders?

These insights can literally save your life.

Eat Intuitively

One of the most beneficial ways to manage your stress is to eat according to what your body is asking for. This is simply intuitive eating. When you eat intuitively, you can toss out the diet books once and for all. In reality, diets set you up to fail.

On the other hand, when you muscle test your food (https://thefoodcodes.com/muscle-testing-foods/) you are giving you are giving your body what it needs, wants and will thank you for.

Eating is meant to be pleasurable, but unfortunately, with our fast-paced lives, we gone from pleasure to panic. This leads to more stress, leading to more compulsive eating, leading to more unhealthy weight gain.

When you tune in to what your body wants, stress eating will be a thing of the past.