Stress, Eating, and Working Out

I have hit a funk.

Sometimes, the stress in life just gets a little bit overwhelming. Between stress at work (where I teach special education), stress at home (an ongoing issue with a family member), and some new health stress (not me, but my father), I find myself drowning. For whatever reason, I am just too exhausted to work out. It's like every bit of energy in my body is going towards worrying about things, and by the time I go to lace up my running shoes, I have absolutely zero left.

I know that if I just got out there and made it through the first mile, it'd probably feel so much better, but I just can't make myself go. Instead, I lay on the couch and take a nap. Falling asleep every day after work this week makes me think my body needs the rest and that I am doing the right thing, but it makes me feel guilty!

I am realizing, too, that stress and eating go hand-in-hand to screw you over. It's just the way it is. When I am stressed, all I want to do is eat something delicious, something bad for me, something peanut buttery and chocolatey. But I know that if I allow myself to stress eat, my jeans will regret it. However, NOT letting myself stress eat makes those stressful times feel so much more. I know it's all psychological, and I keep fighting it. I've done fairly well today -- all my "bad" choices have been small in nature. But it takes so much willpower to avoid the bad!

It helped that my jeans were tight. It was a strong reminder of why it is I was avoiding the stress-eating!

Food Today:
Breakfast -- oatmeal with blueberries, Horizon half & half
AM Snack - Yoplait Greek Yogurt
Lunch: Fiber One cereal with fat free milk, sliced cucumbers, tomatoes, light ranch dressing, 3 of the baby fun-sized Baby Ruth bars
PM Snack - apple
Dinner - Subway sandwich (turkey on wheat, with lettuce, tomatoes, green peppers, banana peppers, mustard, and vinegar) and a bag of apple crisps, 2 snack size York peppermint patties

My goal for tomorrow? Not to avoid all chocolate, because I'm smart enough to know that it's going to happen. But instead of THREE candy bars, as small as they may have been, I will force myself to stop at ONE. Same with the peppermint patties.

Although, to be honest, I just ate the last of the peppermint patties and I'm not going back to the store, so that one should be pretty easy to ensure! :)

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How do YOU handle stress?