It’s been a rough and frustrating couple of weeks. As I mentioned in another post, I got some distressing news about my job recently, which has kept me fairly stressed for the last week and a half or so. In this state of stress, I find myself reverting back to old habits, numbing the emotions with food. I knew this was possible, and discussed with a couple friends not wanting to eat my way through this transition. The last few days though I have done just that. Saturday evening the wheels completely fell off. I wanted to eat and I didn’t care about the consequences.

Many of us who’ve battled weight issues over a long period of time are emotional eaters: we cope with all types of emotions by eating. Food doesn’t judge. It doesn’t talk back to you, and it comforts you in moments of sadness, stress, anger and even happiness. Our culture doesn’t help this any. We eat at funerals, weddings, holidays and work functions. In order to live a healthier lifestyle and curb emotional eating, we must find other avenues to deal with those emotions. These coping mechanisms are different for everyone: playing with the dog, listening to music, reading, and exercising are just a few.

Being in the field I’m in, I found quite some time ago that exercise helps me to manage stress; when I was a new social worker and had work dreams pretty frequently, I found that when I exercised these dreams all but ceased. More recently I have found running to be a huge stress buster, but I also love to scrapbook, read and garden. Perhaps this is an approach I can try in dealing with this work transition, revisiting some of my other hobbies to keep me busy and away from the frig as I’m making my way through this work transition. The thought of gaining back the weight I’ve lost terrifies me, and remembering how far I’ve already come can hopefully keep me moving in the right direction.