Stress Eating and How I Can Respond

On this journey I have made many realizations about myself and the relationship I have with food.  I know that while on one hand I've developed many healthy habits and my life has benefited greatly from them, the UNhealthy habits never go away, they just go dormant in the back of my brain.

The reason this is important to understand is that the journey will always have its ups and downs, and if I begin practicing unhealthy behaviors again those unhealthy habits will pop up full force and be strong DEmovitators for me.

Stress eating is one area where I still struggle.  I was reminded of this in the last few days, when my son's nephrologist asked us to repeat the labs we had taken a week before, because his white blood cell count had come back dangerously low.

After 6 years of relative smooth sailing post-transplant (kidney) this was the first time we had seen this happen, and it threw me into an emotional tailspin.

I'm being completely honest here, and totally transparent, because I think it helps me sort out my own tendencies and I always want to be "real" with anyone who reads this blog.  Suffice it to say there were a few gummi-bears harmed in the last 24 hours.

Now, I have two choices this morning as I massage my sore neck (too much sugar, causes instant inflammation in my body).  I can throw up my hands and say, in despair, "I can never change!  See?  This proves it!"  OR I can get right back to my healthy habits which I have spent the last 4 years cultivating and developing.  I choose to make the decision (mindfully) in favor of my health (and sanity!).  I choose health.

This is a skill I have developed, one that I have practiced over the last 4 years because let's face it, as Dr. A says in his book "Dr. A's Habits of Health" it is not that ONE hamburger that will kill us.  It is having that ONE hamburger EVERY DAY.  I am not in the habit of eating gummi bears OR hamburgers daily.  I dropped the "all-or-nothing" mentality years ago, which is why I've been able to maintain my weight within a healthy BMI for some time now.

These last few months I have been focusing more on his chapter in his book discussing STRESS because I think that STRESS MANAGEMENT is a HUGE area that I can improve upon.

Stress can cause a whole CASCADE of neuroendocrine responses in the body which FAVOR fat deposition and chronic inflammation.  I know that 7 years ago, when I GAINED back the 140 pounds I had recently LOST (during the time of my son's kidney transplant) stress played a BIG part in that, not only in what I was choosing to eat (stress-eating) but also in how that food was processed by my body (all went to fat!).

I choose to NOT repeat that process.

So, today is about refocusing on what matters most to me.  And that does NOT include gummi-bears.  It DOES include taking some time to relax, meditate, pray, and take care of my family and myself.

Rinse and Repeat!