1) Follow the 90-10 Rule: eat healthy food 90% of the time. Go out of your way
to make healthy selections. When you make healthy choices,
your body performs at its best, you feel better and
your stress level is lowered. Less stress means less
stress or emotional eating.
2) Mini-Size Your Portions: when you’re stressed, it’s easy to eat large quantities
of food and never give calories a thought. It’s not
about hunger or taste, food is your friend, your outlet.
Begin to pay attention to how much you eat. You may
shock yourself. Then decrease your portions by ¼
or 25%. You won’t feel deprived but you make a major
dent in the amount of calories you consume.
3) Think Color / Intensity: when you choose your food think about color. An easy
way to punch up your diet is to choose foods that are
brightly colored. These intense colors are your clue
that the food is usually a nutrition powerhouse complete
with vitamins, minerals and antioxidants that help fight
the effects of stress on your body.
4) Graze: during
the holidays your days will probably be longer than
ever. If you’re skipping breakfast and/or lunch, your
energy level will plummet and your stress level skyrocket.
Your brain needs food to focus and stay on task, particularly
protein and your body needs fuel for energy, particularly
high fiber carbs. If stress-eating is an issue for you,
the key is to eat a snack every three to four hours
and never skip meals. Stress-eating or eating for comfort
becomes more of an issue when you’re hungry, drained
and stressed. You’ll eat most anything to calm down
and then you feel awful later. Sometimes this leads
to more stress-eating.
5) Tell that Bird to
Hush: give yourself permission to enjoy your
treats. When you follow the 90-10 rule and choose a
treat for that 10% of your calories, no beating yourself
up is allowed. You know what I’m talking about…it’s
the bird that sits on your shoulder and says, ‘you’re
not really going to eat that are you?’ Stuff a sock
in the bird’s mouth and give yourself permission to
enjoy your treat. You’re eating well the rest of the
time. That’s the difference between healthy eating and
a diet.