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[spoiler title=’Click for video transcript’ style=’default’ collapse_link=’true’] I used to be a stress eater and then intermittent fasting changed all that so I’ve always been an emotional eater you know I feel stressed I’d just you know eat to to lessen the stress and of course that’s a vicious cycle because the more you eat the more weight you gain and then the more stressed you are cuz you’ve been gaining weight so the tricky part for me was it’s not like my brain would say oh you feel sad therefore you need a cupcake it was more like I just felt really really hungry and it’s like I would just eat accordingly so then I decided to lose weight but I didn’t choose intermittent fasting because I thought it would help with emotional eating I just chose it because I thought it would be easy to stick with I kind of just thought I’m always just gonna be an emotional eater that’s just how I’m wired but then here’s what started happening a stressful thing would pop up and the thing is it would happen during my fasting window and the one rule during the fasting window is you can’t eat right now so then I started to notice like first of all wow I get stressed a lot and I would just normally just grab something to eat but this time I had to figure out a different way to cope so what I realized from on this was even though I really truly felt like what felt like a real hunger is that after I would deal with it I would cope with it in a different way other than eating I actually the hunger was gone like it just disappears so even though the hunger felt real it wasn’t really real so what had worked for me as far as other coping skills go is you know prayer obviously is very helpful walking just getting up and getting some of my steps in that really has helped to just deal with the stress and then also something I’ve been learning how to do is just to actually analyze my stress like figure out what am I really stressed about and then figuring out ways to take action on it and I’m actually reading a really good book right now called how to stop worrying and start living by Dale Carnegie and it’s got some great tips I’m gonna leave those on the blog post like some actual action steps you can take if you’re always feeling stressed so just to be clear I still do feel hunger like soon as I start to feel stressed out about something that’s my first bodily response is hunger but I’ve just learned how to deal with it in other ways I never realized how much I was eating due to stress until I started intermittent fasting so if you have conquered stress eating leave it in the comments below how you did it you know that one tip might change somebody’s life so thanks for watching be sure to LIKE comment and subscribe down below [/spoiler]
As I talked about in the video, intermittent fasting has stopped my emotional eating. But of course, it’s also good to learn how to stop worrying in the first place, so….
How to Stop Worrying: Helpful Techniques
I found these techniques in “How to Stop Worrying and Start Living” by Dale Carnegie. Carnegie’s book is chock full of good actionable advice about how to stop worrying. He provides useful and inspiring anecdotes that show how many real people have overcome worry. Even though the book is rather old now (it was written in 1944), the book still as relatable today as it was back then.
Technique #1:
You should ask yourself the following questions and then physically write your answers down.
1. What am I worrying about? (My note: it helps me to be really specific here. I don’t allow myself vague, one word answers. It helps me to ask myself “Why?” to my first few answers if I find I’m being vague.)
2. What can I do about it?
3. Here is what I’m going to do about it.
4. When am I going to start doing it?
Technique #2:
Ask yourself the following questions and write your answers down.
1. What is the worst that can possibly happen if I can’t solve my problem?
2. Prepare yourself to mentally accept the worst, if necessary.
3. Calmly try to improve upon the worst, which you have already mentally agreed to accept.
And Technique #3:
If you’re still worried, keep busy. The worried person must lose himself in action, lest he wither in despair. (Original quote from Tennyson).
I’ve personally found that if techniques 1 & 2 don’t do the job, #3 always does.