Eating when stressed- NOT!

Today was day three of the fast and the first with no solid food and I discovered something about myself. I realized today that when I am stressed I want to eat. That was not really new news. The actual discovery was finding out what I do with my mind when I couldn’t eat to calm myself down.  It was very interesting following the narrative in my head as well as the feelings in my body.

The narrative kept jumping from blaming the other party to defending myself. In my body, I felt my shoulders and neck tense, my breathing grow shallow and this intense desire for something salty and crunchy like popcorn. NOTE: I was not hungry. Before that moment I had not been thinking about food but now thinking about popcorn, actually made me feel better…. for a second….. until I realized that I am not allowing myself popcorn or anything solid to munch on. I glanced at my juice bottle. It was NOT cutting it.

 There was nothing to do with myself after literally pacing in my office but to sit down, breathe and just BE with the discomfort. I don’t like to disappoint people. I want people to like me. I want to do a good job at my job (the issue was work related). So I just sat for a minute and let myself feel all of the feelings of anxiety and failure and hurt and fear while focusing on my breathing. This worked as well as the popcorn or candy bar or hamburger would have worked but with no calories. It did take some effort, though and time. An Almond Joy would have been quicker and would have required only enough thought to get change for the vending machine.

Learning to eat when hungry is a really important skill. Part of what we hope to accomplish by fasting is learning to sense what your body needs. When do you need to eat? When don’t you need to eat? When are you stressed?- Where is the stress in your body? What are some strategies that will deal with the stress? --not hide it, not postpone it, but deal with it.

..And just how do you deal with a stressful event. Take it for what it is…a thought. When its happening its an event. After it happens it becomes stress. After it happens, it can live only in your mind as words and feelings and images. You can think new words, you can feel new feelings and you can imagine new images…but first try to simply BE at peace with what is.
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Expect good things from the Fast