How to stay Focus towards Eating Healthy when in Stress

We all know that when we are in stress we look for comfort food. Comfort foods tend to be stress relievers, but temporarily. They contain unhealthy fats and are high in calories. Consuming those food leaves us tired, lethargic and so low that we lose our focus and tend to give in to our cravings.

We lack motivation and the result is tremendous weight gain which again adds to our stress. It’s a chain reaction.

I will share with you all how to stay focus on healthy eating when in stress:

1. Most of the time we don’t even realize we are stressed and  I always keep a check on my moods. There is no monitor or instrument to check your mood. But there are some hints that your body gives you about your mood.  For example: you may just feel very tired and uninterested in your daily routine, you may crave for sweets, and you may be irritated or just day dreaming about nothing. These are the signals. So I keep a check on these and many more. The moment I realize I am in the stress mode I take control of my feelings.

2. I try and substitute my cravings for heathy food options. For example: If I am craving for sweets I would grab an apple or banana. If I am craving for fritters I would make my own baked fritters with lots of veggies instead of fried. I would opt for smoothies instead of colored soda. If I crave for cheese I would opt for mozzarella cheese over other cheese.

3. I make an effort to not let stress take over my mind completely and for that I distract myself by going out for a drive, or I may just go out for some shopping.  To be honest shopping helps me stay in the healthy lifestyle track because I want to make sure to stick on the right dress size and not go for my older size. 🙂 .  I may just watch some comedy show  or may be play with my toddler. Distraction helps a lot while in stress. It calms you down and let your mind work in a different way.

4. Some physical activities also help. For example: go out for a walk or a light jog. Do some stretching or just do some yoga. For me personally walking and jogging are very helpful. You may want to find your comfort workout when you feel stressed.  After some physical activity you may not crave for any comfort food and instead you may just want to eat healthy.

5. Build up your will power to stay focus on eating healthy.  If you are confused lay out both healthy and your craved comfort food on the table. Take few bites of both. You will realize that by eating the unhealthy food your taste buds may get satisfied but guilt builds up up inside you which adds to your stress. On the other hand if you make an effort and eat healthy food you may feel it an effort for few minutes but eventually you will feel lighter and happier and have no guilt. You may thank yourself on staying focus on eating healthy.  By eating healthy in this situation you will feel more satisfied because of the good results later on.

6.Exercising everyday also helps to relieve stress.  Exercise would also keep you focused on eating healthy.  You can do any exercise of your choice. But do not stress over a particular type of exercise because you will exercise to relieve your stress and not build pressure on you.

It is always advisable to figure out your stress symptoms before you know it’s very late.  By knowing your stress symptoms may help you in focusing on eating healthy even when you are in stress.  If you know your problem you can always cure yourself without suffering too much. 🙂 .  Try to figure out the root cause of stress and make the situation favorable for yourself.  Whether it’s your job environment, or it’s your ambitions, or whether it is only about daily routine, work towards achieving betterment for yourself.

Health tip of the week

“Know your stress symptoms, stay focused, and eat healthy”