Personal Entry: Stress and my progress
Welcome to AlmostFit. This entry is a personal note on my progress with improving my health through eating real food in moderation. If you enjoy reading this article, please consider subscribing to my RSS feed. Thanks.
In my history with maintaining a weight loss program, the single greatest contributor to failure has always been one thing:
Stress.
I am decidedly an emotional eater with a particular susceptibility to stress; i tend to overeat, or eat all the wrong things to a fault when the stress starts to mount. In fact, my food-related conversations often go something like this:
“$5.00 Venti Mocha with 4 shots? No problem – I need the caffeine. And the whipped cream makes it go down easier.”
“Would I like fries with that? I’ll leave that decision up to you, my fast food friend.”
“Do you have those bonus Twinkie 3-packs? No no – not the ones with the extra delicious treat – I want the pack of three, of the three packs. Get it?”
So how have I fared this time, so far? My work is currently at its most stressful; I’m working about 70-80 hours a week, working through the weekend. This does not including writing in the evenings and early hours for my own projects (like AlmostFit). We are approaching the release of our product, and the demands are more than just time; there are also significant pressures to uphold my part of the team equation in terms of providing pieces that the other team members need.
That said, the very good news is that by mid-month in March, although my weight loss has slowed slightly, I am still ahead of the game. I am currently at 17.6 lbs down for the year, and I hope to start turning the corner to speed things up just a little in the next few days through exercise. I have successfully added the beginnings of an exercise regime by getting out of the house for an hour between meetings (I generally don’t have time for a lunch break) to start walk/running at the track.
The exercise of course helps somewhat with the stress; but more than anything, since I’m not approaching this from a deprivation perspective, the stress has not resulted in the usual familiar pathways of fast food and a bag of chips. I am intensely interested in Gastronomy right now, reading everything on the cultural relationship with food that I can make time for. I also have an incredible support structure through my wife, who carefully listens to my requests when she prepares the meals, and helps me to improve the meals that I prepare with sound advice. Not to mention the inspiration that I’m finding all over the Web in people with a very similar situation, who are succeeding in changing their lives for the better.
In other words, I consider my slower weight loss a rousing success over the last few weeks, particularly as the stress has mounted. This in many ways is a first for me; and hopefully a good indicator of the lasting effects of the habits I’m both creating and destroying.
In gratitude, here are a handful of links that I’ve found particularly inspiring:
IowaAvenue.com
AndrewIsGettingFit.com
GetFitSlowly.com
ThisMamaCooks.com
CrankyFitness.com
Thank you to every one of you out there who are documenting your process and in turn, inspiring others.
Related posts:
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
healthranker.com Says: 12.03.08 at 11:59 pm
Personal Entry: Stress and my progress | AlmostFit.com…
This is a personal entry on coping with stress while trying to lose weight….
Personal Entry: Stress and my progress : Anxiety-Stress Says: 13.03.08 at 12:01 am
[...] Original post by Metroknow [...]
Great post, and thanks for including Iowa Avenue with such illustrious blogs. It’s an honor.
I’m a firm believer in the slow route to weight loss, so kudos to your success. Handling stress is one of the most difficult internal conflicts to deal with when trying to lose weight, but from the sound of it, you’re use of exercise is great.
Keep up the good work, and now, I’m off to do my own exercise…………………..:)
Thanks for the link and for visiting my blog. I hear you about the stress. I’ve slowly learned to deal with it but it’s not easy. Like you I have a very supportive wife who has been amazing.
I can totally relate to this – I am just busting out of a big rut but the good news is I haven’t ballooned up, despite the fact the stress lately has been huge and I haven’t been exercising. The good eating habits I have developed have actually been starting to carry me through.
@Lisa: Thanks so much for your hard work over at IowaAvenue – I know a lot of people are really benefiting from such a solid and diverse community. Thanks!
@AndrewE: I consider myself really lucky to have such a great supporter in my wife. I’ve been training our son to buy her flowers whenever we go to the store, because that’s what “we do” in our family. Hopefully that helps to pay her back just a tiny bit for all of the support.
@From Fat to Fit: I am glad to hear you’re breaking free of the rut – I’ve been watching your blog for that breakout moment. Thanks for the visit.
Congratulations on your success. I absolutely agree with LisaN that slow but sure weight loss is the key to long term success. A lot of failed diets are result of people not losing weight instantly, or as fast as they had anticipated. I’ve fallen victim to this with just exercising. I wouldn’t see any muscle buildup right away, or I would feel I’m not improving in my running and I would become discouraged and slowly stop exercising. Your attitude is great, and its fantastic that you realize even moderate weight loss is a major accomplishment. Great job with what you’ve done so far, and keep up the good work!!!
man it is STILL hard for me to avoid stress eating (aside: why does it seem as though men struggle less with this?) so I have no mind-blowing tips.
I just try to eat healthy when I do—–and when I know that I REALLY WANT A DONUT and not some tuna I try to address the stress.
one day at a time huh?
MizFit
@Mizfit: I had never thought about your secondary comment on, “why does it seem as though men struggle less with this?” — For me, it is my second biggest struggle, and its huge, so in my experience I haven’t seen the gender differential, but I also have reasonably limited exposure to it. Great comment though – now you’ve really got me thinking about that.
@Tom: I have to tell ya, I have Definitely fallen into that trap with exercise, particularly weight training. In fact, I’ve never been successful at weight training for that very specific reason. I hadn’t thought of it before, really, as that being the reason, but wow you’ve really opened a can of worms in my mind for what I need to do exercise-wise, mentally! Thanks!
This is such a needed and timely article!! Thanks
Real Food in Moderation: Weight loss results for month 3 | AlmostFit.com Says: 03.04.08 at 7:48 pm
[...] Personal Entry: Stress and my progress [...]