How Do You Stop a Bad Day Driving you to Eat?

According to new research, 89% of Brits use food to boost their mood.  So many of us turn to food for comfort when the world goes sideways. Reaching for a bag of crisps, a tub of ice cream, or a tin of biscuits when you are feeling that you are spread too thinly, feels like an easy solution.

The problem is that the quick fix of sugar and carbs is momentary and literally leaves you feeling worse once that food high settles, which it inevitably does. The reason we reach for junk food to mend a broken heart, ease a high-demand job, or quell our fears is physiological and evolutionary.

No matter how loudly your body screams, “feed me now” you know that a stress binge will leave you feeling sluggish, defeated, and chubby.

So why do we do it? Stress causes our bodies to automatically increase respiration, blood pressure, heart rate, metabolism, and the blood flow to our muscles. Your whole body goes into “fight-or-flight response”.  And that triggers your body to release a hormone called cortisol which increases your appetite.

Your body knows you need energy to deal with all the personal challenges causing you to stress out and it’s ‘helping’ by keeping you ‘fuelled-up’ for your fight. Worse, all that stress you feel suppresses your production of ghrelin which helps keep your appetite in check.

So now you are starving, stressed, and pretty much off the leash when it comes to food. Our brains crave energy-dense foods high in calories, carbs, fat, and sugar because they provide the quickest boost. Thanks nature.

So, what do we do about it? Legitimately, EVERYONE has their own basket of issues to deal with on the daily, finances, jobs, relationships, health issues; life is brimming with a never-ending series of triggers. But we are powerful beings, smart enough to know what’s happening in our heads and in our bodies, and capable of making better choices.

If you want to be your healthiest and happiest, you have to make active decisions to take care of yourself.  It’s all about the pain of regret or the pleasure of taking action.  So, what stops you from taking care of your body and eating healthily?