Weight Loss Surgery Help

Stress Eating - How to Recognize and What to Do About It...

Eating in response to Stress is a common problem with anyone trying to lose weight, but is particularly problematic for people following Weight Loss Surgery. Everybody knows when it is happening, but often times are at a loss as to what to do to confront this most common dilemma. What follows are a few tips and suggestions on what to do the next time you find yourself in that situation.

First, you must realize that "Stress Eating" is going to happen so now is the time to start developing your plan on how to confront this nuisance. Having a plan in advance is very important because when you are in the situation it is often difficult to think creatively and come up with a plan. Stress comes at us from all angles on a daily basis. Stress is unavoidable and not always bad. Stress can motivate us to action or change. The total absence of Stress is death, so we never want to be totally free of any stress.

Stress is best viewed as simply change - positive or negative change produces stress. For example...

• Getting married is stressful and getting divorced is stressful
• Being promoted is stressful and getting fired is stressful

There are some common causes of stress in each of our lives that are unique to our situation and lifestyle. One of the first things I recommend is to do a Stress Inventory of your own personal sources of stress. Take a hard look at the ones you can change and the ones that are out of your control to change. If you can change or eliminate something  from your life that causes you stress by all means do so as quickly as possible. Unfortunately there are many sources of stress that you simply cannot eliminate or change.

What you can do is develop a strategy for dealing with these sources of stress ahead of time so you already have a plan when they rear their ugly heads. I once worked with a client who created a list of things she could do and put them on index cards in her purse. When her most common sources of stress came up in the day she could always consult her stack of cards for ideas and suggestions.

Relationships can be a particular source of stress and often the most difficult to change. For many of you the journey to a thinner, happier, more self-confident self will actually cause more relationship stressors. Just like the acorn dropped beneath the large oak tree blocked from sunlight and nourishment your growth may be smothered by certain relationships.

You may need to distance yourself from some of these unhealthy and smothering relationships in order to grow to your full potential. In some cases these are people in your life you can eliminate and in others such as family members, you cannot eliminate. In the case of the latter you have to change how you interact with that person. This means you are going to have to put yourself first. Putting yourself first may be a new approach for you, but believe me it gets easier over time and you may actually come to enjoy taking care of yourself.

In psychology we talk of something called stress inoculation. Think of it in the same way you get an inoculation to ward off a disease. The idea is to better prepare yourself for dealing with  stress so its impact is minimized. One of the best ways to do this is to become very good at relaxing. If you do not know how to relax don't worry because it is a very easy skill to master. There are many commercial relaxation tapes on the market to purchase or you can just email me for a free one!

Over the years I have developed a method for teaching relaxation and would be happy to mail you a 3 page instruction sheet on Dr. Gary's super duper relaxation training script. Just send an email to drgary@mylapband.com and ask for the relaxation script. Let me know if you want me to email you the script in the body of the email or as an attached word document.

As always I hope these tips are helpful in your Successful journey to a thinner, healthier, happier You.