ELAINE'S STRESS EATING

This week, Elaine wants to tell you a story of her own stress eating, hoping that her story may help some of you change a stressful situation in your own life in order to improve your eating habits.

Here's Elaine's story:

I never thought of myself as a "stress eater" because I rarely felt "stressed out." However, I've noticed recently that my eating habits have improved since changing my stressful schedule.

Although I didn't feel mentally stressed, my body was physically stressed from the demands of teaching five boot camp classes per day and averaging 5-6 hours of sleep per night. Here I was striving to be a good role model for healthy living, but I was chronically sleep deprived.

The lack of sleep not only made me tired, but made it more difficult to think clearly and prevented my body from healing as thoroughly as it should have from all the little aches & pains that often come with being physically active.

Although I'd never been much of a coffee drinker, I found myself getting more & more addicted to caffeine to keep myself going. I was also turning to sugar & chocolate in the afternoons when I felt a dip in energy. Though I didn't think of this as "stress eating" I recognize now that the physical stress was creating these cravings.

At the time, I thought that I had no choice. This was my schedule, so what could I do? Well, as many of you know, after four years of teaching morning and evening BootCamp classes, Narina and I decided to cancel the evening classes.

It was really sad to give up the evening classes, because we knew we would lose some very special BootCamp members plus the income from those classes. However, we also knew that for our own health & quality of life, we had to give them up.

In the past few months since we have stopped teaching evening classes, I've made a conscious effort to be in bed by 9 pm. Averaging 7 hours a night of sleep now has made a huge difference in my energy level and my eating habits.

I easily gave up coffee and I also haven't touched chocolate since Halloween! It is now so much easier for me to stick with my healthy eating habits. It doesn't feel forced & I don't feel I'm depriving myself at all. It just feels natural & satisfying to eat my healthy meals & snacks full of vegetables, fruit, whole grains & protein.

Do you have a stressful situation that is affecting your eating habits? Perhaps with work or family life? No matter how "stuck" you may feel, there is probably something you can do to get yourself out of the situation, or at least to reduce the stress it is causing.

Remember that you do have a choice in whatever you do. Sometimes it's a tough choice and we have to give up something special in order to get where we want to be. But the most important choice we can make is to take care of our health and our bodies.

Please share your stories with us. Tell us about any issues you have now with stress eating, or any lessons you've learned about how to deal with stress.