Stress Eating

For a lot of you (me included), the cravings really hit when you're stressed, so the question is how to deal with this situation.  First of all, it helps to know WHY this happens.  Certain foods are addictive- they stimulate the pleasure centers of your brain, just like drugs.  There is a pretty immediate release of some feel good hormones and you wind up with this nice warm, fuzzy feeling, which is really what you're craving when you're stressing out.  Some people reach for alcohol, some reach for drugs, and some reach for food to get their high.  We are a society of food abusers, people!

So when you're stressed out, you aren't really craving chocolate (or Doritos, or cake, etc); you're craving the warm, fuzzy FEELING those foods stimulate.  The key here is to find other ways to stimulate those feel good hormones, and to deal with stress before it gets overwhelming.  Deep, belly breathing (like the box breathing we did, or the ujjayi breath in yoga) actually stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system, which essentially turns off the body's stress response.  Exercise, laughter, gratitude, helping others, and connecting with friends all release feel good hormones.  Adequate amounts of quality sleep help you handle stressful situations better,  and excessive caffeine can exacerbate feelings of stress.

If stress eating seems to feel out of your control, it's not a food problem; it's a problem of dealing with situations you find stressful.  Your best bet is to work on ways to keep your stress in check daily.  Don't wait until your head is about to blow off before you decide you need to work on it!  Some things to try: work on getting adequate amounts of sleep; take 5 minutes out a few times each day to focus on deep, slow breathing; start a gratitude journal; find ways to make someone else's day brighter; exercise regularly; laugh with a friend.  The list goes on.  And when you do get into a situation where you're feeing overwhelmed and all you care about is chocolate, just know that it's not the chocolate you need- it's the relaxed, happy feeling you get from it.  So have a glass of water, take a few deep breaths and a walk if you can, find something you're grateful for (there is ALWAYS something to be grateful for), and figure out how to deal with your situation one single step at a time.

Week 1 questions

Hey guys!  You all seem to be doing really well so far!  Most of you have your intake forms complete and have your meal planning done for the week.  Some of you couldn't get to it until today, and that's ok- just get those items checked off ASAP!  And for those of you on Facebook, keep using the BodEvolve group page to communicate with each other and share your experience so far.  This will be a great tool for you all!

In yesterday's check-in form, I left a space for you all to ask questions or make any comments for me.  I'm going to address those here, because I think all of you will benefit from seeing the questions that were asked and my responses to them...

What are some good snack choices?  What would be a good yogurt to add in?

Good snack choices can be fruit and veggies (maybe carrots with hummus to dip?), nuts, protein shake or bar, etc.  Whole foods are always the best choice, but when that isn't practical, shakes and bars will work.  Greek yogurt is a good choice, because it has a good amount of protein.  Just avoid any added sugar- plain greek yogurt is best, and you can mix in fresh berries and sweeten with a couple drops of liquid stevia or some raw honey, if you'd like.  

Will you be making suggestions based on our individual needs and goals?

The first part of this program will be helping you guys make the switch to high quality foods.  We will work on which foods you should be adding in... and once we get the QUALITY of food covered, then I will give you tips on the QUANTITY of food you should be aiming for.  Typically, once you focus on quality foods, quantity will take care of itself.  We have built-in mechanisms to control how much we eat, but those mechanisms only work properly when we feed our bodies the food we were built to eat.  Processed foods override our natural hunger/ satiated signals.  Think about it- how often do you over eat on whole foods?  When you binge, is it on chicken and broccoli?  Probably not.  

Biggest concern at this point is being away from home and the kitchen three nights a week.  But I do feel certain I will find some solutions :)

This is tough!  Most of us do have busy schedules with the kids that keep us from being able to have time in the evenings to cook dinner.  This is why prepping in advance is so important!  Having some protein and veggies already cooked and in the fridge to heat is an easy solution, or you can toss a meal in the crockpot in the morning so it's ready when you get home.  A salad can be thrown together quickly, a wrap, or even some spaghetti (I like to buy the brown rice pasta) with a jar of sauce and ground beef that you already have browned.  When you know you'll be out late, be sure you have some sort of snack with you so you aren't absolutely ravenous when you get home.  It takes a bit of time to build this habit of preparing ahead, but it will get easier, and you will all figure out what works for you!

Looking for a healthy ranch salad dressing- is Whole 30 ok?

Yep!  Any homemade dressings should be great, and if you're getting a store-bought dressing, just check the ingredients and look for things you can understand!  If there are things in there you can't pronounce, put it back on the shelf.  

It seems that the biggest concern I'm seeing is wondering about what foods to eat.  Don't worry too much about that yet!  We will get there, I promise ;)  Just focus on making your plan and using it through the week to stay on track!  

Week 1- Shannon's Meal Prep

Here's a rundown of my meal prep for the week:

1. Put eggs on the stove to boil.
2. Sliced up a bag of colored bell peppers from Sam's.  Half of them were put into a ziplock bag, raw, and the other half were sautéed with 2 sliced onions.
3. Sliced and sautéed a pack of mushrooms from Sam's.
4. I thawed out a 3 pound bag of frozen chicken breasts from Sam's the night before.  I sliced half the breasts into strips and seasoned with Mexican spices- chili powder, oregano, cumin, garlic, salt and pepper.  I sautéed these on the stove.  The other half of the breasts I left whole and seasoned with an Indian spice blend I have, called Garam Masala.  I baked these breasts at 375*.  Tip for precooking chicken breasts: leave the chicken slightly undercooked, so they will finish cooking when you reheat them.  If they're cooked all the way through, it's easy to overcook them when reheating, and you wind up with tough, leathery chicken!
5. Peeled the eggs and packed everything up in storage containers in the fridge.
6. Mixed up a batch of Bircher meusli.
7. DONE!  This took about 1.5 hours of total time, including clean up.

Already in the fridge or pantry:

1. Hummus
2. Spinach, salad greens, cherry tomatoes, avocado, baby carrots
3. Pre cut broccoli and cauliflower florets
4. Greek yogurt
5. Deli meat
6. Canned tuna
7. Frozen berries
8. Fresh Eggs
9. Salsa

I have a bunch of storage jars I use to keep all this stuff in.  Storage containers are a must!  If you don't have these on hand, you must go shopping!  Now that the prep is taken care of, here's how I'll use all of it throughout the week...

For breakfast,  I have Bircher meusli (I love this stuff!!) ready and will just add Greek yogurt and some berries to serve it.  I can quickly scramble some eggs with my sautéed mushrooms, peppers and onions.  I can also use the frozen fruit and whey protein I have for smoothies.  I can always just go with Greek yogurt topped with fruit, too.

I can get a salad together for lunch with the salad veggies I have in the fridge, and can add in cooked chicken strips and boiled eggs, or maybe some tuna.  Another option would be to mix together my cooked veggies and chicken and heat it up together, or turn it into a fajita bowl by adding some canned black beans, salsa, and avocado.  I have hummus in the fridge, too, and I can use it to dip chicken in or some sliced raw bell pepper and baby carrots.  In a pinch, I like to put some hummus on a few slices of deli meat and roll them up.  It's a really easy quick snack!

Dinners can be thrown together the same way.  If you have a day that doesn't go according to your plan, and you aren't able to get something else cooked, you always have these easy options to fall back on!

I hope this gives you some ideas, and shows you how simple the process can be!

Week 1: Make a Plan

Want to print out the above meal planning sheet to use?  Download it here

The number one reason I see people fall off track of any training or nutrition program is a failure to plan.  If I could only assign one task to help you improve your nutrition habits over a lifetime, it would be to plan ahead.  Your task this week is to learn how to do just that.  This goal has 3 parts: plan, shop and prepare.  

1. Plan

Over the weekend (by Monday night at the latest) map out what you're going to eat this week.  Write down what you plan to fix for dinner every night, and also what you plan to have for breakfasts, lunches and snacks.  Your plan doesn't need to be fancy!  It's important to take your schedule for the week into account to create a plan that is doable for you.

Ask yourself what your three biggest obstacles will be this week when it comes to preparing and eating your meals, and plan 3 structures to put into place to overcome them.  For example, maybe an obstacle is that you will be at the ballpark late on Thursday evening and won't have time to cook dinner.  A structure you can put into place to overcome this is to cook a crockpot meal that night, or cook some chicken in advance and throw a salad together when you get home.  Your structure could also be to eat out that night... more tips on that at the bottom of this page!  

We will go into more detail down the road on what you should be eating, so for now, just try to make smart choices but don't completely deprive yourself.  If you love pizza, work that into your meal plan once per week.  If chocolate is your weakness, put an after dinner piece on your plan each day.  Wine lover?  Write down when you'll have wine, and how much of it you'll have.  Make a plan that will work for you and stick to it.

2. Shop

Using your meal plan, write out your grocery list.  Be sure to write down amounts of everything you'll need, so you don't run out before the end of the week, and check your pantry and fridge for items you already have to be sure you have enough.

3. Prepare

The next step is to start preparing anything that you can ahead of time.  If you have marinades to make, get those done and stick them in the fridge until needed.  Get items chopped and organized together for each recipe, so you can quickly grab everything you need, when you need it.  Prepare and portion out your lunches so they're ready to go every morning.  Cook up anything ahead of time that you can!  You get the idea.

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Tip: keep it simple

There's no need to choose complex recipes for every meal.  You can easily prepare a bunch of protein and sides in advance, which will enable you to throw together a quick meal anytime.  Pick several protein sources: try slicing up chicken breasts, season and saute them; make a batch of tuna salad; boil some eggs; cook up some hamburger patties.  Greek yogurt and cottage cheese are both convenient protein sources, too.  Now prepare some veggies and complex carbs: chop salad veggies;  roast carrots and broccoli;  sautee mushrooms, peppers and onions; cook some quinoa, some brown rice and some sweet potatoes.  It's also a good idea to have some condiments available to keep meals interesting- hummus, hot sauce, etc.  In 1-2 hours of time, you can have your fridge full of everything you need to throw meals together all week!

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What about eating out?

Doing all this meal planning doesn't mean that eating out is off the table!  When you do your meal plan for the week, just write "eat out" for those meals when you know you'll be doing that.  If you tend to eat out EVERY night of the week, make it your goal to prepare at least 2 meals at home, and you can gradually work more at home meals into your plan.  A good tip for eating out is to decide in advance where you'll be going, and go ahead and choose what you'll order, so you won't even look at the menu once you sit down and are already starving.

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Remember that this task needs to be done by Monday evening at the latest!