Why do we need to reduce stress in order to make healthier choices? Well, the first thing we need to understand is that our body is always trying to keep us in a relaxed state because then it can function properly. In a relaxed state, our body can decrease our heart rate and respiration rate, lower blood pressure, increase blood flow, digest food completely and decrease anxiety and insomnia. All of these things are super important to keep us healthy.
Therefore, when a stressor arises your body does what it needs to bring you back to a relaxed state. If your go-to habit to reduce stress is to eat, then guess what, you are going to get the urge to eat. Your resolve to make healthier choices will become weaker and weaker until you cave and eat the cookie, chips, pizza etc. You will be able to use your willpower for a bit, but eventually, it will run out and your body’s desire to be in a relaxed state will win out.
If you have been soothing your stress (boredom, anxiety, anger, loneliness, exhaustion, etc.) with food for years, then you are likely stuck in The Chronic Stress Loop. (I was stuck for over twenty years.) Let’s take a look at how stress might cause us to abandon our healthy choices.
Stressor
Let’s say you are stressed because you volunteered to make something for a bake sale and you just don’t know when the baking is going to happen.
Panic:
I can’t handle this, I am not good enough, I never have enough time.
Default Habit:
When this panic arises, you rely on your comfort food to make yourself feel better. Maybe that is pizza, fries, soda or chocolate. (For me it was always candy)
Manifestation:
Whatever it is for you, you are eating to soothe stress not because you are hungry and eventually this default habit will manifest as extra weight. Now you have created a new stressor of extra weight and the cycle continues and stress escalates.
I was stuck in The Chronic Stress Loop for years, and it was so frustrating. I got so tired of failing to stick to my healthy eating plan. But you can start reducing stress to make healthier choices today.
Let me introduce you to my
Step # 1: Create Your Stress Inventory
Sit down and brain dump everything that is stressing you out. While some stressors might seem trivial compared to others, no matter what causes the stress, it negatively impacts you and throws you into the Chronic Stress Loop, so it goes on the list.
Step # 2: Identify Your Primary Stressor
While you might have many parts of your life that are stressful, there is usually one primary stressor that is the catalyst for other stress. Once the Stress Inventory is created, give yourself some time to reflect. (I usually do this step on a separate day.)
Ask yourself where you hold your stress. Some common places are the stomach, heart, throat
When the primary stress is reduced, it
Step # 3: Identify Your Default Habit
When the primary stress is activated, what do you reach for to find relief? For me, it was always something sweet.
Step # 4: Develop a Replacement Habit
This is where lasting change begins. You have identified the primary stressor and the default habit, so it is easier to pick a replacement habit that is sustainable. For example, one of my clients always ate a junky snack when she got home at the end of the day and then wasn’t as hungry for her healthy dinner. Through this process, she realized she wasn’t hungry when she got home, she was simply eating a snack to decompress.
She chose to replace her habit of snacking before dinner with a Pump Up Song. When she got home, instead of heading to the kitchen for a snack, she would head to her basement, put her song on and dance and sing. By the end of the song, her stress was decreased, her happiness was boosted and she easily skipped the snack and waited for dinner. In order to ensure she didn’t get too hungry before dinner, she also started eating dinner 30 minutes earlier.
Sometimes finding the right replacement habit takes time. If you pick one and it doesn’t help, try another one the next week. If you love this framework but would like some more guidance implementing the four steps, then join my FREE Crush Cravings Masterclass where I will personally lead you through this process.
Hey, before you go, join the Stress-Free Eating Community. It is an awesome ‘private’ Facebook Group for women who struggle to stick to a healthy eating plan and want exclusive tips, trainings and strategies so they can tap into their brainpower versus willpower and easily choose the healthiest options for them.
Each week there is a mini-challenge to help you build smart habits, strategies to make staying on track to reaching your feel-good weight easier, #healthyfoodtastesgood recipes, accountability check-ins, and opportunities to connect and have fun.
We’re a supportive group of women who motivate and encourage each other to stick with a healthy eating plan …. and best of all it’s completely FREE!
