Hi everyone!
I can't believe how fast time flies when midterm season comes around. Fun, I know...
First of all, I want to apologize on the behalf of T and myself for not regularly posting. We are still students after all and school is our number one priority- but we really love getting meaningful and helpful posts out to all of you so we will try harder to update the blog when we can!
In any event, since we are in the season of midterms, stress, and feeling plain overwhelmed with life, I thought it would be appropriate to discuss how we view food during these times.
Think about your responses to these questions and see how many apply to you:
Does food help you de-stress? How so? What about food makes you feel happy or help you cope with something?
Do you eat more unhealthily and infrequently when you're overwhelmed?
Have you ever skipped meals or fasted because of stress?
Have you ever overeaten or ate nothing at all because of stress?
What did you choose to eat when you were crunched on time? How many times was that option a healthy one?
Okay, so I admit that I'm guilty of a couple of these- I find that during times of stress, I just plain lose my appetite and then experience bouts of hunger at strange hours of the day since my internal food clock is just all out of sync. I seem to always be drinking cups and cups of caffeinated green tea just to calm myself down and so I can stay awake longer to get stuff done!
So, if we are guilty of some or perhaps ALL of these, how can we change our lifestyle and the way we view and interact with food during these times of hardship and worry?
Let me tell you, it's not easy. Often times we sacrifice our health to just "get things done" and we are always in a "go go go" pace of life that never seems to slow down.
But trust me that your body will eventually run out of energy and shut down on you at the most inconvenient moment as long as you continue to abuse it.
You should always remember that stress is temporary, but you only get ONE body- so make it a priority to take care of yourself! No excuses! :)
Here are some healthy eating tips to help you during times of stress:
1) Eat regularly and don't skip meals.
Okay, so most people know this simple golden rule. But why does the majority of the population never follow it? This is beyond me, but it really does make a difference when you're eating three square meals a day and not skipping meals- granted that these are healthy meals!
2) Avoid eating at night- you should be sleeping!
Again, another hard thing to do- but I promise your body will thank you in the long run. In fact, if you have weight loss goals in mind or want to maintain your current weight, this is an EVEN better reason why you shouldn't eat late at night. Your body has an internal circadian rhythm that dictates your biological clock (ie. hours of wakefulness and rest, eating hours and digesting hours etc) and if you screw it up essentially by eating food when you're supposed to be sleeping, it will 100% lead to weight gain!
3) Avoid processed foods, foods high in saturated fat and sugar, fried foods, sweets and foods that you know are just plain unhealthy.
You know what I'm talking about. Even if you're tempted, say bye bye to that ramen, cookies, chocolates and cereal for a late night snack or meal. These foods are calorically dense but full of stuff your body doesn't really want or need. Plus, when you're stressed, these foods do you more harm than you might think. Basically, if you're eating excess carbs, your body will eventually store it as fat (interestingly enough, carbohydrates do not readily turn into fat and vice versa; only in excess does your body need somewhere to store all that glucose, so it's last resort is to make fat).
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| Cute.. but quite deadly |
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