Diet Trap: Stress-Induced Cravings
The stress response can bring physiological changes that can cause cravings for sweet and salty foods. Also, diets themselves can be stressful, and if you’re already exhausted from a stressful day, you may have less energy to fight against your cravings. Because unhealthy eating can exacerbate your reactivity to stress, sticking to a healthy diet is most important at just this time.
Diet Tip: Stress Management
Because stress can sabotage a diet (and contribute to weight gain, making for a bigger diet struggle), stress management can be a very effective secret weapon for your diet. If you reverse your body’s stress response, you’ll be more effective in staying with your diet, and you’ll feel better as you do it. The following are my most popular and effective stress relief tools:- Feeling Overwhelmed?
Much of the damage of chronic stress occurs because the body’s stress response is triggered and the body doesn’t get back in balance for quite a while. These quick exercises can help your body get back to equilibrium more quickly so that stress doesn’t lead to physical damage. - Stress Relief Personality Tool
The best way to stick with a stress relief practice is to pick one that works well with your personality and lifestyle so that it takes less work to maintain as a habit. This tool can help you find stress relievers that should work best for you and your needs. - FREE Stress Management Newsletter
For ongoing information and resources on stress management, nothing beats my free weekly newsletter!
Source:
Stress System Malfunction Could Lead To Serious, Life-Threatening Disease. NIH Backgrounder September 9, 2002.
