Being Sick - and "Emotional Eating"

Today I wanted to touch on two subject that are no fun while dieting; being sick, and eating. Allow me to go into some more detail.

It's never fun to be sick, but when you are on a strict diet and training program it hits you even harder. Ever since Sunday night I have been feeling under the weather. On Monday I went to my usual cardio sessions and tried to eat normally but by the evening I was down for the count. On Tuesday I spent most of the day in bed sleeping. I was only able to get one meal into my stomach. What was worse is that my sleeping schedule got completely messed up. Hence, here I am at 3:30 AM writing a blog. Sadly, it was the only productive thing I have been capable of doing since Monday. My best bet is to rest up some more and hope I can get back to training. Under normal circumstances being sick for a day or two would not be a problem, but with all the pressure I have put on myself to get in shape I feel like every moment counts. I am also focusing on getting back to normal meals as soon as possible and drinking lots of water. At the very least taking in protein shakes and some oatmeal to get me back on my feet for some real training! If you get in a postion where you get sick in the middle of a training program do your best to stay calm. Its easy to get down on yourself for not being able to keep up with your normal diet and training. The most important thing at that point is to get healthy then you can worry about your diet and training. Remember, while recovering form sickness your body is under tremendous stress as it works on getting healthy. Trying to "tough it out" will often times make your situation worse rather then better.

All this talk about being sick makes me want to bring up another topic. I am speaking of "Emotional Eating". If you are one of those lucky people that choose to starve when you are depressed or stressed then this post may not be for you. I am talking to everyone else , like myself, who is cursed with the every day temptation of "Emotional Eating". If you suffer from it, then you know exactly what im talking about. And sadly its never "Emotional Eating" of cellary or yams. Its always sweets and fats. Its also the arch nemesis of dieting.

Complicating the matter more is mother nature. Even though its hard to tell sometimes, it is winter time in Santa Barbara. A time when we get our once a year rain/flood, and its cold enough to where you actually have to put on some clothes when going outside. The inhumanity! In fact, studies have shown that winter time and the "Holidays" are the most stressful time of year for people, even in Santa Barbara. Everyone is getting sick, people are stressing out over traveling, family, and relationships. Its even said that a very high percentage of break up happen right after the Holidays. And we just got over the Thanksgiving/Christmas/New Years hurdle. I think they should add another Holiday after new years called "OMG I Survived Day". All of this combined with the fact that most people put on weight over the holidays puts a tremendous stress on people. High stress leads to unhappiness and, you guessed it, "Emotional Eating".

The real question is how do you deal with "Emotional Eating". I have been a victim of my taste buds for years. What makes things worse is that the bigger you get the bigger your cravings become. The bigger you become the worse these emotional binges hurt you. As you can see its a snowball effect. Luckily there are things you can do to cut back on the damage that your emotional eating has on you.

The first thing that you can do to help out is make sure you are well fed. What i mean by this is make sure you schedule three to five meals daily regardless of your cravings. If you have a eating schedule you are less likely be be caught "starving". There is nothing worse then feeling like you are starving and then being hit with EE (emotional eating).

Second, make sure you drink lots of liquids. Water is preferable, but i truely believe you need to drink whatever you can make yourself drink. The only thing i would note is that you may want to make sure to keep the sugars low or you will be inviting a case of EE rather then fighitng it off. When you are properly hydrated your body will feel more "full". Since your mind can't tell the difference between appetite and hunger and so most over eaters often are simply dealing with an over abunder appetite that isn't being dealt with. By controlling your appetite with water intake you can start to listen to your hunger pains rather then your appetite cries. If you are still having trouble keeping track of things then simply make sure you have a healthy meal planner every 3-4 hours, this should keep your hunger pains at bay and also make sure your metabolism is working at its peak potential.

Finally, make sure you have healthy "emergency" alternatives for your EE session. The truth is that emotional eaters will always be emotional eaters. You can see how if you are starving (point one) and dehydrated (point two) and a case of EE hits, then you have almost no chance of surviving without eating bad. Especially since we never seem to think straight under emotional distress. We see that McDonald's drive through and head right in. It never ends pretty. So lets assume that you are working on point one and two as mentioned. The last safety net for protecting you will be your emergency meals. They have to meet three criteria. First, they have to be quick and easy to make. Second, they need to feel like they are at least a little bad. A stick of cellary will never quality. Finally, they have to be healthy. Duh! It sounds harder then it really is. Trust me, from a scale of 1 to 10 in "food preparation" competancy I am probably a 3 and even I was able to find some quick EE fixes. Here are two personal favorites that you may never have tried.

1. Cottage cheese a la yummy : This one is simple, take 1/2 to 1 cup of regular or low fat cottage cheese. Take 3 packets of splenda. Take a spoon and mix the three packets of splenda into the cottage cheese. Vuala! You have cottage cheese that taste like a desert. It may sound weird, but it really takes away the bitterness of the cottage cheese and tastes almost like a dieters cheesecake (yes I know im stretching here). I told you it was going to be simple!

2. Oatmeal fruity crunch: For this you need two ingredients. First you need basic uncooked oatmeal. I normally measure out 1/4 to 1/2 cup. Second, I recommend Smuckers Simply Fruit. It comes in tiny little jars for about $3.50 but its worth every penny. Its basically a jam, but its all fruit. Unlike jams, it has no sugar added so you get a very healthy fruit based fast acting sugar that compliments the slow acting oatmeal perfect. Take about 1-2 table spoons and put it in a bowl with the oatmeal. At this point you need to mix the two up. Keep mixing with a spoon until you have no simply fruit clumps left. The consistancy should be semi thick and you need enough simply fruit so that there is no dry oatmeal left. It should be an almost cookie dough consisteny. Now you are ready to eat! This is a great meal for people that traditionally dont like oatmeal. With raw oatmeal you dont get that porage consistancy and the meal tastes really sweet so it comes off like a treat. Try it out. Best part is just like my first recommendation its quick to make and requires absolutely no cooking skills to make. Enjoy!

Theres one more thing I want to say before I finished with emotional eating. You have to remember that eating habbits are something we have developed over our lifetimes. Its not easy to change your diet around, and its especially hard to deal with stress coping mechanisms like emotional eating. If you fail and eat bad from time to time don't beat yourself up. If you can resist that burger or ice cream bar every other time or even every third time then you have made progress. Do your best to be prepared and in time you will make improvements. Those little improvements add up to real progress over time. Remember, even small steps forward move you in the right direction!