. “Ring Ring, ring ring”…

My financial director calls, he asks me for my sales results.

I start stressing, panicking, and sweating.

And of course, as usual, he is not happy. 

I feel super stressed, hang up, and head straight to the cookie drawer, stuffing myself full, trying to forget and feel better.

And the only thing that happens is I feel yucky about myself….

This little story happened many years ago when I was working as a national sales manager in South Africa for the largest recruitment company.

It was a vicious cycle how to stop stress eating and lose weight.

It was shame and guilt, leading to more eating, more stress, and more anxiety. 

One of my big “things” has always been and still is stress. 

Having learned over the years to walk my talk, of course, I have reduced stress to a minimum and hardly stress anymore today. Learning how to not stress eat at all.

After that incident, I learned that through a combination of factors, it’s possible to overcome and how to stop stress eating and lose weight. 

This is really how I overcame it and how to not stress eat. This is what I want to share with you today.

IMPACTS OF STRESS

First of all, stress is a mental and psychological element.

Physically, it can impact our health in several ways, including: 

• High blood pressure
• Lowered immunity
• Susceptibility to cancer
• Hormonal issues 
• Thyroid issues
• Weight gain

But these are just a few of so many effects of prolonged stress. Learning how to stop stress eating and lose weight is important!

Chronic stress poses a greater risk to our health than short-term stress. 

Stress affects our appetite by affecting hormones such as ghrelin and leptin.

Our hunger and satiety hormones are influenced by our adrenal glands, which can lead to hormone imbalances.

In the end, it’s a vicious cycle that has to be broken to allow our bodies to heal, be healthier, be less stressed, and to stop emotional eating, which is also linked to stress. 

It’s really important to acknowledge these things and attend to them. By knowing the triggers and what causes the stress, you can take responsibility and change certain things; and know how to not stress eat, like the factors that are affecting it, or leading to those stressors. 

And sometimes you cannot change it, right? So it’s all about knowing what are the causes and triggers of your stress. Can you do something about it? Then you can work on how to stop stress eating and lose weight.

So let’s go into really what is important to find the right way of addressing your stress.

But before I want to just share one little testimonial of one client who started some while ago. After just a couple of days of working with us, she sent me a little note, and I want to share this with you. 

Her name is Donna, She overcame stress in a big way, she lost a lot of weight and improved her overall health.

Within eight days, we helped many other clients to identify the stress, address it and see results such as feeling better, happier, some weight loss, and learning how to manage the stress in a better way. 

Here are some great ways to get started:

STRESS REDUCTION EXERCISES

Take proactive steps to avoid triggers. 

Sometimes it’s as easy as reframing problems in your mind, and just identifying some positive aspects to the situation that’s stressing you out. So focus on that positive aspect. However, keep an eye on what is already happening. It is often helpful to have this awareness.

Have a healthy, well-balanced diet 

Supporting your body during stressful periods is important.

Maintaining a healthy diet consisting of lean proteins, quality fats, whole grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds will support your body while avoiding certain stress foods.

Because in the end, if your body is more stressed by dealing with unhealthy food, it adds more to your stress. 

Avoid things like processed foods, artificial sweeteners, carbonated drinks, chocolate, fried foods, junky foods, fatty meats, sugar, white flour products, and anything that contains preservatives, because these are adding more stress to your body.

But you’ll also want to pay attention to stimulants such as caffeine, alcohol, and tobacco because, in the end, they usually alter your mood and add more stress than you already have.

Effective Time Management

One of the big things that helped me a lot is to practice better planning, allowing time for relaxation, and balancing my to-do list.

Another tip is you might want to join a stress management program, where you focus on writing your goals, getting clear about the goals, and how to get there. 

Adjust your lifestyle

Lifestyle recommendations are another way of helping your body overcome chronic stressors.

• Get adequate sleep
• Incorporate regular exercise
• Develop some fun leisure activities 
• Making yourself a priority. Always making sure that you spend some time on yourself with like self-care and things that you just enjoy

Are you ready to take action?

The first step would be to choose just one tip from the above.

I’m here if you need a little more help. 

You can book a complimentary call with me. 

It’s a complimentary consultation, where I help you get deeper into your stress issues and how to overcome them.

And in this call, you will develop an action plan and help you also to overcome any struggles and get super clear on your goals. So finally, you can overcome your stress. 

Maybe you are still wondering, what happened to me after I had the stress eating response with that sales director in the past, right?

So with this job, what happened is that eventually….

I got fired…

which was in hindsight, the best thing that could have happened to me.

After the initial shock, I started my own executive search company and never accepted a job again in my life which eventually led me to become a master certified transformational nutrition coach.

And guess what?

When interacting with clients about topics like “why you stress eat and how to stop doing it”, I provide valuable insights and help them get clear about how to achieve their goals. This usually leads people to want to work with me, without any need for sales.

If you want to see it for yourself, I invite you to join my Food Freedom Foundation Workshop!

Embrace Food Freedom! Say goodbye to yoyo-dieting and hi to lasting weight loss!

With our Free Food Freedom Foundation Workshop you can learn how to stop food cravings and instead implement simple, healthy habits for lasting weight loss, even if you struggled before.