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Building Better Habits: Coping Mechanisms to Counter Stress Eating · FitMitTuro Fitness Podcast

• 1:06
  Recording in progress.
• 1:13
  Hey and welcome to this fit me, tour of fitness podcast. Today's episode is a part two of emotional eating, and today we are going deep into a coping mechanism for stress eating. So if you missed the episode one, it was published last week, and it's called the decoding emotional eating. So make sure you listen. Also that episode goes as that was kind of a starting point where everything started, and what are the first steps to deal with emotional eating? And today we are going, we are diving deeper into a stress eating and coping mechanism. So But first, let's get that started. And in this episode, I'm providing some strategies, some mindful or some practices, actionable, actionable tips. What you can provide right away, so make sure you are taking some notes, or if you are in a place, that you can take actually some notes. So there are some practical ideas so that you remember what you need to do, or just check show notes, and you will be able to do these techniques. You Yes, so, so first of all to understanding what is stress eating? So stress eating is eating it's kind of providing you, it's a, it's a, it triggers eating behaviors as a form of emotional relief or distraction. So there is a biological reason, like including cortisone release, which increases appetite and cravings. And it's not, unfortunately that stress eating, it's not, you are not going to feel that bravings Or or hunger or those cravings for some vegetables, but it's particularly for high fat, high sugar, comfort foods, and that, why that thing, why it's actually happening? Because it's, for me, it's important to know that the biological reason, that there is nothing wrong with you, but that you are, you are actually, there is a, it's a, it's a normal thing. It's, it's kind of, there's a, always some reasons what science is doing and and it's understanding why your body acts in this way and how, what are the steps how to fix it? So when you experience stress, your body is reacting through various of physiological changes, and as it's commonly referred kind of like a fight or flight response, and this response is primarily orchestrated by the adrenal glands, which release hormones such as adreline and cortisol.
• 4:09
  So with what are those, these hormones actually doing for your body? So adrenaline is that probably kind of like what you feel like that it increases your heart rate and it elevates your blood pressure and boost your energy supplies, so it prepares your body to act quickly in a response to perceived threats.
• 4:30
  And then it's that cortisol. So whole cortisol is often called the stress hormone. So it increases cortisol increases sucrose, like the glucose in the bloodstream inhales is the brain's use of glucose and increases the availability of substances that repair tissues.
• 4:57
  However, cortisol also curbs functions that would be a non, non essential or detrimental in a fight or flight situation. It alters immune system responses and suppresses the digestive system, the reproductive system and processes. So this is kind of complex alarm system. So I had to actually, really draw from my notes what it means. So because this is it really needs some understanding what it what it means. So, so it's basically chronic stress, then that can it can lead to elevated cortisol levels, which can cause increased appetite and cravings for speedy, for sweet, fatty and salty foods, and this makes stress eating a natural and unhealthy and coping mechanism for stress relief. So this is, this is basically that why it's happening. And then when it's when it's when you are when you have the situation more often it's coming kind of better that you are not actually even recognizing so. So the first step, like we talked in last last episode, is always to find those common triggers. So if you have kind of fast, common stressors, like if you have, like a work deadlines, personal conflicts or general anxiety about life events. For someone, it's maybe from news or or we are, we are all, we have all different kind of things. And then when you when you know that this is like that, this is going to increase your actually increasing your cortisol. And it's not, it's not that stress hormone. It's not the it's not a bad thing. You should not avoid it, or you can't avoid it completely. It's just that to how you are going to respond it and and what you are, what you are actually going to do it, because it's, if you are, it's it's totally normal that in these situations, you are craving for high processed foods, like fatty, sugary and these kind of comfort foods. So there is nothing wrong with you.
• 7:16
  But in this episode, this is all about strategies, how to actually tackle that and become improve it, step by step, and understanding that this is not you are not able to avoid it completely in the beginning, but with step by step, you are able to reduce it drastically. So then step number two is kind of finding healthy algorithms. This is a this is something, what I what I always like, even even you are naturally not craving some healthy things, but you could make now there's so many different options available that you could, you could find some healthier food alternatives then that can satisfy cravings without the negative consequences of junk food. For example, if you are craving potato chips instead of having those processed at once, you could, you could have fancy carrots. You could you could have a self made potatoes. What you are like my favorite way, obviously, it's a little bit time consuming, but there is always that if you make, if you cut potatoes, you put them to oven, you drop a couple drops on olive oil on top of them, and you are kind of making your potato chips yourself. It's, it's, you know that it's, it's, there's only potato a little bit oil, olive oil, and then you season it with the salt or or your favorite sauces, barbecue sauce, not sauces or pepper or whatever, whatever seasons seasoning you you enjoy. So this is kind of way of thinking, or is healthier option. And then it's kind of also way to trick your mind, how to how to actually make it a little bit better. So, so you are still you are still having that response.
• 9:11
  You are still eating for stress or in these situations, you are suppressing those emotional feelings, but you are not doing any, any you don't have so big negative consequences. So it says the finding like this. This options like you could have dark chocolate instead of milk chocolate, eucord with a fruit instead of ice cream. And this is one of my favorite, for example, now in summertime, just mixing eucord, and often if you can use even Greek, you put with frozen berries, put it in the mixer, and it's kind of, it tastes like I don't, I don't personally, add any sugar there, but it's just an option to trick your mind that it's it's a cold, it's a protein, it's a urge.
• 10:02
  It's just basically, it's a healthy snack to have a euphod with frozen berries without any additional sugar. So it's kind of same thing. You have a protein, you have a fiber. But if you, when you mix it those frozen berries, it's like an ice cream, or you put it to freezer and let it be there for a while, and it's kind of like an ice cream. And these are, these are just that examples of kind of finding those healthy alternatives, and what is out of way is what is really helping to reduce that stress is a physical activity. So there is, for me, the best possible way to reduce stress is walking so or it could be any kind of exercise you enjoy doing. So it could be for someone, I'm not a big fan of yoga myself. I love if I play tennis, do some weightlifting session, even that's what I don't naturally enjoy. But when I when you have some physical activity and form of exercise, especially for me, walking is by far the best. So this is something like you think that you need a lot of time, or something, of course, you need the time, but if you take the time, you go without distractions. I I love to go.
• 11:21
  That's my favorite topic. Go to walk with my wife without any phones, just me and my wife talking and having conversations. So it's a, first of all, it's a great thing for a relationship, but also for stress, stress relief. So this kind of activity, it's, it's a low impact, and that's my favorite thing to do. Other thing, what I find out like that, it's if you lift some heavy weights like this is something what I don't enjoy actually doing, even on fitness coach. But I know that to feel good and in a best possible way, I need to do it. I don't need to be anything crazy. I aim for two to three times per week, and that's all what I do. But when, when you have lifted, you are feeling strong, and this is reducing stress you. So this is absolutely like something, what you really enjoy. It could be some other workout. And this is often what people underestimate, that they think that, you know, I'm so stressed, I have so many things, I have deadlines that I don't have time to work out, but this is kind of your burning candle from the other side. So if you don't take time to exercise, you that you will never feel better than there is coming those other issues, and often, at least for me and many, many, many others, if you take time, even you work less hours, you invest some time for your own exercise, you will be lot more productive. So I we talked with the some students like who said that now that they need to study, they don't have time to study. They need to study, they can't work out. And I was like that, if you you know you have time to work out. It's just the if the I understand that priorities studies, but if you it's just about the time. If you say that you don't have time you need, you are studying 12 hours straight. I'm certain nobody's doing it. Or if you do it, you won't get out of like everything possible out of it. It's not the most effective therapy. It's same thing with the work 12 hours without any breaks is not going to work. But if you take a it's a five minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, whatever you have time to take care of your physical activity and workout.
• 13:45
  I'm sure you will be a lot more proactive. You are fresh with your mind, and that is helping you to reduce stress and reducing that urge to stress it.
• 13:57
  So then next step is kind of trying to develop new coping mechanism so how to manage stress? So like I said, stress is not a bad thing. It's, it's, actually it's a good thing to have a stress because if you don't have any stress, it's, you are not going to be productive.
• 14:16
  But if it's getting too much and affect in other ways of your life, then obviously it's a harmful thing. And there are couple practical tips. What I want to share this is like they are including, like a deep breathing exercises or progressive muscle relaxation.
• 14:38
  So these are like, kind of new techniques, what you could be trying instead of going for right away for food. So basically, basically those deep breathing techniques. So this is it's a effective way to activate your Paris relaxation response and counteracting the flight or height response and helping you to reduce those cortisol levels.
• 15:07
  So this is a quick exercise. So basically you are just sit comfortably or lay, lie down in on a flat, on your back, and then let you place one hand on your belly, because this is, this is some I call the belly breathing exercise. And you place one hand on your belly and just below your ribs, and the other hand on your chest, and then you are inhaling. You are breathing in deeply through your nose and letting your belly push your hand out and keep your chest still. And then you when you are exhaling, you are breathing out through burst lips, as if you were, if you if you are whistling. So feel the hand on your belly, go in and use it to push all the air out and repeat. So do this breathing three to 10 times, and take your time with each breath, and then in the end, notice and pay attention how you feel at the end of the exercise. So this is a quick, simple breathing exercise, what you would be doing to reduce your stress and get immediate help within couple minutes. Then next exercise is called progressive muscle relaxation. It's like a pm air, like a P in air, and it helps you to relax by tensing and then relaxing its muscle group in your body, promoting a deep state of relaxation. So this is kind of actually like a kind of alternative for physical activity, and this is why, like for strength training. For example, if you don't have time to strength train, this is kind of same thing to provide for your body, demonstrate kind of same things. What you are doing, if you are, for example, strength training. So you are starting like you need to find a quiet place where you can sit or lie down comfortably and take a few breaths to relax. So you are starting from your feet, and then you begin by tensing your muscles in your toes, so hold for a count of five, and then relax. Notice the tension release and how your feet feel as they become limp. And then you move up from for lower legs.
• 17:48
  So you are tensing your muscles in your calves by pulling your toes toward you, then hold and then relax. So every time you hold couple seconds, like ideally four or five, you count until five and hold every single muscle, and you are continuing upwards like move through each muscle group. You are going through tights, hips, your butt, your chest, arms, hands, Nick, shoulders and face. And this eats for five seconds, and then relax. And as you release each muscle group breathe out, feeling that part of your body become more relaxed. And once you have moved through all the muscle groups, take a few moments to breathe deeply and enjoy the feeling of relaxation.
• 18:42
  But this is just that it takes a requires a little bit longer time than just the simply breathing exercise, but this is kind of like, if you have, let's say five minutes. Five to 10 minutes is a great way to kind of demonstrate that feeling of strength training that you are tensing all your muscles and then feeling that relaxation. So this is kind of isometric exercising for your to practice that muscle relaxation and going through all your all your muscles in one system. So these are, these are alternative coping mechanism. And then other way how you could implement this is that having kind of routine for this, so planning when you are going to do this, so it could be middle of your working day, because you would be doing them while sitting, so taking a couple minutes time of your work and Doing this exercises while you are working, and then also building other routine that is, that is helping you to reduce your stress, like it could be having, like, for example, meal timing. So if you, if you are, like we talked in the last episode, that when you, when you recognize to know from your trigger. So if you have recognized that, okay, you are struggling afternoons, look back what you have been eating. Is it something that could you be trying? Like, if you try be without or be snack, try to snack more earlier. Try to eat more protein in the morning. So this all about like, creating these routines that and meal timing that snacks to prevent those impulsive eating so if you are prepared, you have those like healthier snacks. They are prepared. They are available when that, if that or when it will happen, because it will happen, it's not you are not going to avoid completely that stress. But when that happens, that urge of eating, but then when you are prepared, you have ready those snacks when the time is coming that you usually have, that you are really well prepared and build that routine that what you are going to do, and if you have those healthier options available. And then obviously, the next thing is that having some kind of social support, so it could have you could have friends, you could have in your working place, family or supportive groups to that can offer you kind of encouragement and accountability. And this is something what we do in our coaching stuff, like we are people who are in a same situation, we are there to support each others. So if you you have a struggles you have means it's when you are sharing those things. There's so many studies that if you are taking action, you are sharing those things, then there's a you increase your chances drastically. Like, I can't remember was, like a 50% or something. I can't remember exact number, but it was incredible increase. If you are someone who is taking action instead of just that, you go through them in your own head and thinking like that. This is something, but if you are actually using that accountability and over who, what kind of whatever support system like we are, we drive all different kind of support someone needs, kind of individual support. Other ones need. Need that kind of friend or partner support. Other one needs coach. Who needs a one on one coaching. Other ones they love. Kind of group support.
• 22:39
  There is a lot of people in the same group who are in the same situation to know that you know you are not alone. There's so many who are struggling exactly the same things, because that's the hardest thing. Is that we always think that I'm the only one who suffers this, because there's you don't talk. People are not if you look social media, you don't share too many things about stress, eating or or struggles in general. It's all about like everything is good. I'm in vacation. Look at my pictures against stories.
• 23:14
  It's for me. It's just to make other people jealous. So this is, this is something, what I encourage to you to do is to get like and you know that sometimes it could be a coaching, like seeing some nutritionist, therapist or counsel to do manage that stress eating. So there are, there were a couple of questions, again, what I was, what I got, what I got, and this is, I want to address them here.
• 23:49
  So question number one was that, what can I tell if I'm stress eating rather than eating out of hunger? And this is, this is something like that. We talked in a last episode about it. So stress eating often, of course, in a response to emotional discomfort rather than physical hunger. And usually, usually it feels kind of person and demands immediate satisfaction with a specific type of comfort food.
• 24:15
  So you have those comfort foods, it's not that you are craving if you are, you are not craving vegetables, you are not craving some healthy salads or something. It's often those high fat, high sugar foods, high in calories, low in density, in general. And if you are eating when you are not physically hungry and feel emotional trigger, it's likely that stress eating so physical hunger is that that you are okay eating with a metal or eating with basically anything if you are hungry, and stress eating is that you need that some specific foods? So then question number two are, what are some quick stress relief that tactics I can use to avoid stress eating so quick stress relief tactics, we talk about those practical things, what you could be doing like deep breathing for a few minutes, stepping outside for a fresh air so having a quick Walk and getting actually that daylight, daylight is such important thing to have practice would be practicing couple of stretches or mobility exercises, or even having some short meditation or the muscle relaxation exercise what we talked earlier, so this can help you shift your mind away from stress eating and reducing your stress levels, and you get your mood is guaranteed almost immediately, lot better. So try to incorporate these different kind of things, and that's the ultimate way to reduce your stress. And then in Step by step, seeing what works for you individually. And it doesn't matter like or even there's so many strategies, start with the one and look how it goes. Don't give up after first one. If it's not working, like some meditation or or toast relaxation exercises or breathing exercises, if you are if you have never done them, you can't expect that first time you will it will work right away. So it takes, like everything in life, little bit practice, and you will improve it, and then everything is going to be going to better. So and then third question was, how can I make this new coping mechanism stick when I'm under a lot of stress?
• 26:52
  So this was a very good question, and this is like kind of I already answered it. So it's this new coping mechanism that it to stick. It requires a lot of practice and patience. So start incorporating them into your daily routine in a small and sustainable, manageable ways. So for extent, for forest, for example, you could schedule short breaks, or for deep breathing, or 10 minute walks like this is my favorite way is to do when I have a work to do.
• 27:28
  Like, now I have been today, for example, recording two podcast episodes in between. I planned 10 minutes going outside, just a simple walk, and that's the now I'm back on it. So hopefully this is to get out of it. I know that. I knew that I need to record two podcast episodes today, but I know that if I try to do them back on back I'm not going to be in that state that I'm able to talk or or talk get the most out of it. I don't know maybe this is not also the best possible way, but this is the way, how I work, how I how I love to do things. So this, over time, this kind of healthier responses to stress will become more automatic. And then you know, you are not using the eating as the primary coping mechanism. So all these strategies, when you start to practice them, include them. And remember, even there was a lot of strategies, start with the one, don't start with everything at the same time, and then step by step, start including more strategies. So hopefully this was helpful episode next week, we are going going to talk even more about stress and emotional eating. So hope to listen. Hope, hopefully we will listen next week also.
• 28:56
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• 29:07
  either. In, Apple, or in a sportify, they are helping a lot to reach out more people. So thank you again for listening, and talk to in the next week.