Stress!!??!!

This week the topic in my Weight Watchers meeting was how we handle stress.  I'm sure you are all aware of why this would be an important topic for Weight Watchers to cover in meetings.  Afterall, how do most of us who have struggled with our weight deal with stress......eating.

I've heard some people say that they were so stressed that they couldn't eat so that's why they lost weight.  That's only happened to me once in my life.  There was one event in my life that caused me to respond with very little eating and that was many years ago.  Ever since then, my traditional response to stress is, "What can I eat that will make me feel better?" Obviously as a WW member, eating would not be the ideal response to stress.

It has struck me extra hard this week that WW was talking about stress in meetings.  I've realized that God wants me to look at how I manage my stress.  He's talking to me and I need to listen.

My husband recently switched jobs so our health insurance changed.  With the new health insurance we were told that we could take advantage of a Wellness Program.  If we take advantage of this program they will put money in our health account so I am determined to participate.  Taking care of the health needs in a family of 7 is not cheap!!  One of the Wellness activities was to take some surveys online.  In one survey they asked me about all aspects of my health: weight, eating habits, exercise habits, aches/pains, stress, etc.  It was a very well done survey.  I then had to take specific surveys concerning my exercise habits and stress in my life.  With my involvement in WW for so many years I wasn't told many new things about exercise that I didn't already know. WW does a fabulous job of training their employees about exercise and eating.  I learned a ton in my 3 years of employment with them.  Now that I am no longer an employee I actually miss all that I learned. That's one of the reasons that I attend meetings each week.  I'm looking to learn more and more about my body.

The stress survey I took was very interesting to me.  I don't think about stress much.  That sounds silly as I write it.  How can I not think about stress much?  Am I stressed?  Well, let's see.  I have 5 children ages 13, 10, 8, 7 and 8 months.  I home school the 4 oldest children. My husband works 2 jobs with a total of 65-75 per hours a week.  I work at my church one day per week.  I volunteer at my church an average of 2 days per week.  I take my kids to dance classes, piano lessons, gym classes, home school co-op activities, baseball, etc.  Do I  have stress in my life?  Just a little;)

I have stress in my life and have often said or shouted, "Ahhhhhhh, I'm stressed!!" But I haven't often thought of how I deal with it.  Yes, on occasion I think about stopping myself from eating my stress away but haven't thought of the many other tips I was given in the online survey I took. It was very enlightening.

The day after I took that survey I went to my WW meeting to talk about stress yet again.  There was some great conversation.  I hope that those of you who are members make it to your meeting this week to talk out the stress.  Just talking about it helps.  That's one of the tips that I got out of the meeting.

How do you all deal with your stress in a healthy way?  Click on the comment button and leave your ideas for all to read.  I think it would be fabulous for us all to have a list that we can we can copy and then keep in our homes, offices and cars to go to when we are stressed and tempted to eat those stresses away.  Afterall, eating the stresses away never works.  It just adds more stress.

One tip I have is that I keep a running list of to-do's on my refrigerator.  When I think I need to eat because of my stress I turn to my list of to-do's so I can keep myself busy. It takes my mind off of the stress, I get something accomplished which just makes me feel less stressed, and I replace eating with another activity.

Let's see your tips.

Have a wonderful "stress-less" day!

Corinna

"As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and behold the face of God?" -Psalm 42:1-2