Day 3 - June 2009 30 Day Self Challenge

3. Stress Eating!

One of the major obstacles in your journey to lose weight and stay thin is stress eating. We, as people, have a tendency to overeat whenever we feel tension or other negative emotions. Some of us eat out of boredom, other out of loneliness, and some out of stress. This is all emotional eating and you need to overcome it to have any chance to really get or stay thin.

So what are some possible stress eating solutions that you can put into practice today?

1. You need to write down your stress triggers, the situations in which you become stressful and turn to eating. Unless you know your weaknesses, you will never overcome them.

2. You have to eliminate all possible stress triggers. Naturally, if you get stressed out at work, you can't quit your job, but there might be other situations which are easy to eliminate from your life.

3. Practice the breathing method before eating. Once you begin stress eating, you will not stop until you've stuffed yourself silly. To give yourself a chance to not overeat, you must pause before turning to food. You do that by counting to 30 and breathing deeply in the process.

4. Each of us has his or her comfort foods which make us feel good and calm. The problem is that these foods are usually very fat and unhealthy. To make sure you don't succumb to temptation, eliminate the foods you eat the most, or cut them down drastically. If it's not in the fridge or cupboard, it's much harder to overeat.

5. Practice yoga, meditation, and workout regularly to reduce overall stress and tension. This is a process which will take time but will have tremendous results.

If you do the 5 tips I've written above, you will gradually overcome your stress eating and never be controlled by food again.