Stress and Eating

I want to wish each and everyone of you a very happy and healthy holiday. I hope Santa brought you a wonderful gift that warms your heart and does NOT contain any calories. Enjoy your friends and families and as you are feeling the warmth of the gatherings,, this will help you remember all the reasons why it is si important to you to stay as healthy as possible in order to be at many more of these loving events.

Yesterday's entry about serotonin and stress eating prompted several comments of interest. One of the issues brought up was about the chronic nature of the business stress environment. There are clearly some jobs (NOT dermatology...laughing) where the stress levels will be always very high because of the nature of that position. On the physician side a surgeon who specializes in high-risk cases will feel more stress than the radiologist. Perhaps on the legal side, an attorney who practices family law involving tough issues like child custody may feel more stress than the government attorney who reviews contracts. An educator teaching in a very difficult school may feel stressed than a music teacher at a ritzy private school.

In any event, the more stress the more propensity to turning for immediate gratification sources such as food and alcohol. These of course will lead to weight problems.

Certianly, if you struggle from weight issues and have the chance to chnage stress environments, this is a great solution. However, for many people under stress, they cannot. These people then have to learn how to approach stress in ways other than derailing eating and drinking behaviors.

Exercise is a stress reliever for many including me. NOt only does exercise prevent stress eating, it also burns off calories. Meditation, yoga, self hypnosis and other methods may be employed.

Find ways of not turning your stress into a feeding frenzy. Eating the food sources helps nothing long term other than making you unhealthy and unhappy.