Do you stress eat? Read this.

Just like bodies in motion stay in motion, when we get into a rut, it becomes easier to stay in a rut.

When we fall into the habit of overeating or eating junk when we're stressed, it gets easier to repeat that behavior.

One episode of late night emotional eating can lead to a whole week of late night emotional eating.

When our brain is under stress there is a vicious cycle that gets created. In a study of chronically stressed rats the brains atrophied in the areas of decision making, while becoming overly developed in the area of habit formation.

Scientists note that behaviors can stick more quickly in stressed animals than in the controls, and worse, the stressed animals can't shift back to long term thinking, rational behaviors when that would, of course, be the better approach. <--- A.K.A. a vicious cycle.

This might explain why when we're under stress we abandon all that we know - and all that we consciously want to do, and fall back into old habits.

Scientists note that we're lousy at recognizing when our normal coping mechanisms aren't working.

Our response is usually to do it five times more, instead of thinking, maybe it's time to try something new. <--- A.K.A. the definition of insanity --> Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome.

So, even though eating junk doesn't really help us feel better, we can't stop ourselves from continuing to do it. Why? Because we're used to doing that when we're stressed. It's simply how our brains are wired to act when we're under stress.

Although stress is a huge killer, it's also necessary for us to survive.

Fortunately, we no longer stress about what our ancestors did.

Our bodies have the most complex systems on Earth.

What's the benefit of our brain being prone to habit formation anyway?

Perhaps to help shift as many behaviors as possible over to automatic pilot so we can better focus on the crisis at hand.

And even if the crisis at hand is our boss yelling at us or our kids being disrespectful - if we feel stressed, we're stressed. Perception IS reality!

What do we do???

Besides, taking a vacation and changing up our routine for a bit which can rewire our brain there is also a big opportunity for us to change...

IF we plan ahead what we'll do before we're stressed.

If we do that, it'll increase the likelihood that we'll actually start doing it when we're stressed. Lucky for us our new behaviors will become a habit more quickly as well!

Our biggest opportunities for growth are always when we're most uncomfortable.

Here are 5 ideas for you to use next time you're stressed:

1. Listen to music.

2. Gather a few favorite emails and read them when you're stressed. Be sure to save them all in one place so they're easy to get to.

3. Get up. Take a big deep breath and go for a 10 minute walk.

4. Read a juicy gossip blog that might make you feel otherwise guilty for doing so. (We'll feel way less guilty reading than eating!)

5. Call your favorite person.

Pick one and try it next time you feel stressed.

Though it might be feel uncomfortable at first (doing anything different, especially when we're stressed WILL feel uncomfortable), if we focus on just doing it the very next time we're stressed, it'll be a tad easier to do it again.

If we look at each stressful situation as an opportunity to create new habits (and it is), it makes it less daunting.

And if you don't like the ideas above (totally fine by me) it's worth thinking of other ways you can calm yourself down. The key, of course, is to think about what we're going to do...before we get stressed.

-Adam

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It's so easy to just say, "Eat less!" The critical and often neglected part of losing weight is the mental aspect of it. The psychology of weight loss.

Most "experts" ignore it because it's way easier to just write articles with top ten lists telling us what foods to eat and what foods to avoid. C'mon now. We're better than that!

For the most part, we all know what to do! It's about actually doing it day in and day out. That's the hard part! There are reasons why we can't stick with it, though. MyBodyTutor will help you understand those reasons to ensure you stay consistent which guarantees YOU results.

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