How To Curb Stress-Eating: When You Can’t Stop the Crisis
Have you been sitting in your yoga pants all day as you binged on anything and everything? Stress-eating is the way you might be responding when you cannot stop the crisis you are going through.
Life can be less than the best and when you go through something so deep and difficult it can cause you to revert back to old ways of eating.
Stress can be caused by:
- The death of a loved one!
- Destructive tornadoes!
- Hurricanes!
- Earthquakes!
- Pandemic disease!
- Many other devastating life-events!
What Causes Stress-Eating
The stress levels are high when you suddenly find yourself stuck-at-home to stop the spread of COVID-19. Not only are you trying to adjust on so many levels as an adult, but you are also dealing with your kids being home 24/7 and you are simply not prepared for its challenges.
All at once you are needing to prepare meals that you have no clue how to plan. There is no choice as all the restaurants are closed and many items are missing at the grocery store!
Are you stuck-at-home as mandated by the authorities so we stop the spread of this terrible disease?
Do you find it more difficult to stick to a clean eating plan and craving food instead?
Are you eating junk food from the moment you get up? Then do you find it impossible to curb stress-eating as you graze the entire day?
Different people respond to a crisis in various ways.
- You might be a binger!
- Or you might ‘graze’ the entire day!
- Stress might cause you to stop eating!
You probably have food in the house for your kids or grandkids. When you’re going through a crisis it might be nearly impossible to resist the urge to binge or graze!
Which of these pulls you the most?
- Donuts or Danishes?
- Sugary cereals or Pop-tarts?
- Unhealthy snacks?
- Homemade Chocolate Chip Cookies?
- Or overeating granola bars?
Your body responds by stress-eating because stress strips you of energy.
There is a lot of energy used up when you are going through a crisis. I’m not talking about the kind of energy you have to get things done. When food is digested it creates energy but stress during a crisis needs lots of this energy to burn into nothing.
Sugary or high carb foods is your body’s way of getting lots of energy quickly. The only problem is that you crash soon after and need to replenish with more carbs and sugar.
When you ‘give in’ during stressful times in your life, you build a pattern that is difficult to break in the future.
But Why Do You Stress-Eat?
I don’t usually pay much attention to the news but this pandemic has caught my attention.
How about you? How do you responding to this crisis in your life?
Stress-eating can be caused by:
- Fear!
- Anxiety!
- Uncertainty!
- Increasing economic realities!
- Unknown trajectory!
Next thing you know you are binging on a bag of chips. Like the whole bag.
During the recent crisis event, I found a bag of chocolate chips and ate more than I ever should have!
These are good ways to sabotage your weight loss journey. You can end up gaining back all that you lost and then some.
Even if you are blessed to eat whatever you like and not gain a pound, is it healthy to be eating like that? Even people who are thin can develop health issues when they don’t remember that their body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.
How Your Diet Affects You Emotionally and Mentally
Did you ever notice that as soon as you ate that cookie (or ______) how much better you felt?
Nevermind that within an hour or two you’ll feel so much worse as your blood sugar drops and you want another boost.
My mind overpowers my willpower and I rationalize why I need that cookie. NOW. Yet what I don’t think of at the moment is the enormous impact it might have on my well-being long term.
Stress-eating is not helping your weight loss goals one single bit!
It’s an endless cycle and especially when you don’t figure out what the original stressor is.
It’s not the obvious crisis-event.
The root is because we are responding to the crisis with fear and anxiety.
When you choose to make healthier choices in your diet, you are taking baby steps that will help you respond to the situation better.
God has the Best Solution to Stress-Eating
The best solution is crying out to God for help just like David did in Psalms.
The crisis is out of my control and there is nothing I can do to stop it! Overeating junk food makes you subconsciously think you are in control and changing the situation. This is totally not true.
When the world is spinning out of control stress-eating won’t change things. God allows these things to happen in your life to draw you closer to him.
Psalm 20 and Psalm 91 will strengthen and calm your worry as you rely on God instead of stress-eating to calm you.
Here are some posts that will give you verses to encourage you as you learn to trust God through this difficult times of your life:
- 10 Comforting Psalms to Calm Anxiety
- Powerful Scripture Memory Cards to Release Worry
- 12 Verses to Calm Your Worry About Anxiety
- When Worry Gets the Better of You
