I am currently giving my head a mental shake, and let me tell you why. Today, I had a nice, easy 4k run planned. 3.5k is the longest I’ve run since, oh, probably August or September, back when I injured my left IT band, so I’m trying to very slowly increase my volume while keeping my intensity low.
So, instead of maintaining a nice, easy pace for the duration of my run, what do I do? I progressively increase the speed of each km, so that the last km, I’m basically running at as fast a pace as I can maintain – which, let’s be clear, is still quite slow by most standards. Not only that, but the weather here is not particularly nice, so the path was icy, rutted, and/or snow-covered its entire length AND it was getting dark as I was finishing up. Let me give myself a big, forehead-smacking “doh!” (But it seemed like a good idea at the time.)
To compound my idiocy, I came home and demolished a chocolate bar after consuming my relatively healthy meal. And then faced with studying, I polished off another. And then some Mini Eggs. (It didn’t seem like a good idea AT ALL at the time, but I did it anyway.) Emotional Eating, thanks for stopping by.
I’m going to assume I’m not the only one out there who sometimes strays from “the plan,” so I think you may be familiar with the guilt, disgust, and sugar blues I’m experiencing right now. Just, ugh.
There’s nothing to do about it now. At least I have now eaten all of the chocolate in the house – ha! – so there won’t be any for me to stress-eat tomorrow. I should probably review this post on coping with stress eating by Erin over at The Healthy Apron next time I have the urge to stuff myself with Mars bars. You might want to take a look, too. 🙂
What’s your stress-eating food of choice, or do you handle your stress in a much smarter way than Mars bars and Mini Eggs?
P.S. Ate 4 servings of veggies, drank 8 c of water, and journaled my food – just didn’t post it here.
mostly fit mom 
Yes I stress eat, which is why I can’t keep candy and stuff in the house, or I’ll eat it!
Now I try to do other things: exercise, drink tea, take a nap, take a shower, etc, if I’m feeling stressed. Those things help me feel better than food does. But it doesn’t always work, you just have to keep working on it.
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I usually don’t keep chocolate in the house, either, but my husband had bought me some chocolate, being the sweet guy that he is. I don’t think he intended for me to add to the one bar he bought!
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I definitely used to stress eat but exercise helps me most these days. Keep your chin up though friend!! It’s only one day! I read somewhere recently that you can stray something like 300-600 calories above what your body needs on a weekly basis and your body would only fluctuate maybe 1-2 lbs in the entire year!! Now if only I can remember where I read that! haha Today is a new day!
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Feeling guilty and upset is not necessary, just use it as a learning experience and try to take your emotions out in a different fashion next time. Eating to procrastinate… next time try doing something fun or relaxing for a few minutes to give yourself a break before studying. A hot bath, a hot cup of tea, chat with your family, blog… whatever it is you enjoy 🙂
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I’m totally a stress eater. I wrote about it last week in fact – Mini Eggs were my downfall too… I find that the suggestions around avoiding stress-eating are generally useless for me because I don’t realize that I’m doing it until it’s too late to be mindful about it.
So, at least we recognize it and hopefully that will help. And then we balance the little stress binges with generally healthy eating and exercise the rest of the time.
No need to beat yourself up about it (but I know from experience, easier said than done).
Congrats on the water, veg, and food journaling!
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Those darn Mini Eggs! hahaha
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I am The Stress Eater Of The Century. And when I’m in The Zone, there is no method to my madness. It would almost be easier, really if I knew that one specific thing was my trigger.
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I don’t usually eat from stress … more from boredom if anything.
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Complete stress eater I am and the stress has been crazy this past month and a bit. My favs are chips, blizzards and anything and everything related to peanut butter. I try to learn from my mistakes everytime and am sometimes successful at avoiding and sometimes just give in. The one thing I do notce because I too food journal, that the temptations are usually when I am missing something in my diet and then I cave to the stress and emotional eating habits.
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mmm…peanut butter. I think the whole stress eating thing is an ongoing battle. I guess avoiding it sometimes is better than giving in all the time, right?
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