THE LESSON OF THE DAY

"...constant stress can make losing weight more difficult than it needs to be. Research shows that chronic stress can affect your metabolism, promoting fat storage, and increasing cravings for sugary, high-fat “comfort foods."

This was the message in my Spark People e-mail this morning.  The article was about stress from weight loss expectations, but stress from any source can cause the same issues, as I well know.  The last 7 weeks have wrecked havoc on my psyche and it certainly shows in my weight. 

The article goes on to say "determination for weight loss despite high stress in other areas of your life may indicate that you don’t fully appreciate the difficulties of trying to lose weight, or the importance of modifying your weight loss expectations when other aspects of life become difficult. Sometimes, just holding your own and not gaining (or regaining) weight is a very significant accomplishment!"

That's nice, but when it comes down to it, the stress in my life is not going away anytime soon.  And the fact is, it has been going on for almost 8 years now and has certainly contributed to the significant amount of weight I need to lose in the first place.  So holding steady until it passes isn't really an option I want to accept.

What I see that I need to do is to have more things in place to turn to when the stress ratchets up, as it has in the past couple of months.  Something more helpful than peanut butter cups, that is!

Another article I jumped to said "...eating when stressed is a somewhat learned behavior. Yes, there is brain chemistry involved, but over time, we can rewire our brains to not let stress affect our eating and energy levels."    and  "Then when you're faced with stress, take a few deep breaths, recognize the stress for what it is, and try to deal with the stressor as calmly and effectively as you can. If you have cravings remind yourself that your body's hormones are being tricked and this too shall pass."

This is the area where I have difficulty.  I don't always recognise that I am reacting negatively to increased stress until I have succumbed to cravings.  I need to have more stress reduction activites in place so that I can increase my self awareness and my ability to fight off the negative and destructive ways I try to deal with it.

So I take back my earlier complaint about all the Spark People e-mails - this one was very helpful!

ME, FEELING

Under my surface of calm are the layers of chaos.  Like the duck moving smoothly over the water with feet paddling like crazy underneath.  When all the stress and unresolved feelings build up and I feel threatened by them, then I stuff them down, smooth them over by putting my focus on eating instead.  I am not sure when I started behaving this way, I know that the last 10 years it has become a damaging cycle of behaviour.

I can't believe this is how my life turned out.  We really didn't do anything wrong.  We just didn't, somehow,  do it right.  We are in bad financial situation and I am frustrated and upset and freaking out.

I have written and re-written this post a dozen times in the last week.  I am at turns angry and whiny and at all times feeling sorry for myself - so I have deleted most of it.  It serves no purpose. Life isn't fair.  Bla, bla, bla.

I am pulling myself together and getting back to the gym and healthy eating because not doing so has not helped.  I know that.  When I managed to get myself quiet and face what was going on I could see that right away.  I slipped back to the old response to stress so smoothly that I hardly knew I had done it until I was in deep.  Especially because it all started over the holidays!

My pants feel tight, I am jiggly and can tell by climbing the stairs that I have lost my aerobic gains.  It is all fixable.  Just got to get back to it.  I've done it before.