We are always going to have stressful situations come up in our lives. For some reason, many of us take that as an excuse to blow our healthy living style. I just don't understand it! Sure, in the past I did the same things but this time I see how crazy my thinking was. When you are under stress, that is the best time to take care of yourself. If you don't, it just makes everything so much worse. For example, you overeat one whole week because there was a death in your family or your kids were sick. What happens?
1. You completely beat yourself up because you did it.
2. You have a much harder time getting back on track because of the vicious slip up cycle.
3. You feel worse physically because of the stress and you aren't properly fueling yourself.
4. You quit exercising and your body gets sluggish and starts holding onto fat to preserve your energy for the new stress.
Just don't do it. I have made a personal committment to myself that nothing is more important than my own health. If I'm not taking care of myself, I can't take care of the people around me. I get cranky if I'm not eating right or exercising and that doesn't help anyone.
My best advice for handling stress and dieting/exercising is:
1. No matter what is going on in life, you should be able to find 30 minutes that you can move each day. Get up at the crack of dawn, workout before bed, or take walks during lunch and bring your lunch. If you are staying at a hospital (which I did for over a week) take the stairs everytime you leave the room no matter how many flights it is, do walking lunges in the hall or waiting rooms, sit-ups, push-ups, jumping jacks, tricep dips on a chair...just anything that will keep you moving and your body used to working out.
2. Always make good choices when you eat. If you have times when you can't eat on program, you just have to do what you can do. That means leaving off fattening dressings, skipping buns, bringing water with you, packing a backpack full of healthy snacks and keeping it in the car for emergencies, looking for the healthy choice and not the well-since-I'm-here choice.
3. Find other ways to deal with stress. Write, blog, call a friend, anything other than doing what you've always done.