Tag Archive for: coping strategies

4 Coping Strategies to Use During the COVID-19 Pandemic

This is a difficult time for all of us. It’s the unknown. It’s scary. What will happen? How many people will be affected? How will my life change? What about my family, my elderly parents…

Of course, I’m talking about the Coronavirus pandemic that we are living through.

I’m not going to go into a whole list of things to decrease your risk of contracting COVID-19. I’m sure your inbox is full of those emails. And quite frankly, they make me even MORE nervous.

So in today’s blog, I want to focus on how you’re dealing with it emotionally. I received several messages from friends, family and clients who are turning to food to soothe their anxious feelings. The problem with doing this is that after they eat, they feel bad about themselves.

There are other ways to deal with your difficult emotions during these uncertain times. Read on…

What Are You Feeling?

The first step to managing your feelings without turning to food is to PAUSE and identify what you are feeling. Are you anxious, nervous, scared, depressed, lonely etc.? It’s important to put your finger on the exact emotion so you can figure out how to meet your true needs.

What Do You Need?

Once you’ve named the feeling (write it down, say it out loud…), now ask yourself what you need to manage that feeling. Perhaps it’s connecting with a friend or loved one. Or, maybe it’s a little fresh air to clear your mind. If you’ve been stuck in the house, then stepping out onto the front porch to breathe in the air and allow the sunshine to hit your face may make a world of a difference for you.

Take Action

Once you’ve identified your feelings and how you might be able to fill the real need you have (because it’s not food), now you’ll want to take action. It’s not enough to think about doing something, you must pull up the strength to actually do it.

4 Coping Strategies

Here are some things you can do to cope with your difficult emotions during this uncertain time:

  1. Deep Breathing: For me, this is number one. Whenever I feel some anxiety coming on, I stop what I am doing, close my eyes and breath in for a count of 4 and breath out for a count of 4. Try it!

 

  1. Meditate: Even if you’ve never meditated before, give it a shot. Download one of many apps to your phone, such as Calm or Headspace, and put on one of the short meditations. It’ll help you calm down in the moment.

 

  1. Journal: Take out a pen and paper (if you don’t have a pretty journal) and allow yourself to write, freeform. No editing – just let your thoughts and feelings float onto the paper. It’s so important to get out of your head and by writing, you are releasing these difficult emotions.

 

  1. Call a Friend: With the new regulations of self-quarantine, curfews and being told to “stay home”, it can get very lonely. If you are feeling alone, pick up the phone and call a friend or loved one. There’s nothing like hearing the voice of someone you care about to help you get through this period. It’s not the same as texting, I promise!! Better yet, Facetime with each other so you can see one another and give each other a virtual hug as well.

I hope these suggestions have helped! I’ll be taking my own advice as well.

Please note, if you are having trouble coping, please reach out to a therapist or call 911. There is help for you!

 

 

How Do You Handle Food-Related Stress?

Food is supposed to be enjoyed. Yet, when speaking with so many clients, and potential clients, they tell me that food is stressful. All aspects of food, whether its deciding what to eat, shopping and preparing food for meals, or even the thought of going out to eat food.

 

Stress, stress, stress!

 

Do you feel the same way?

 

If you have had a difficult relationship with food for some time now, then you can probably relate.

 

I know you probably want food to be a non-issue in your life. And you know what? It can be.

 

Let’s first start with 3 strategies that you can put into place immediately to help you minimize the stress around food.

 

Strategy #1: Set up your environment for success.

While I’m all about teaching you how to be intuitive in your eating (of course…I teach intuitive eating!), I am also very practical. It is important to be mindful of your eating and one way to do that is to reduce your external eating cues. That means put all food away after you’ve eaten and don’t leave food on the counters or table. If food is left out, it can very easily lead to mindless munching which then leads to feelings of guilt and frustration for eating when you weren’t hungry.

 

Strategy #2: Seek assistance from your family members.

Food shopping and meal prep doesn’t have to just be your responsibility. Get everyone involved in the menu planning. Even better, assign everyone a night to prepare the dinner. This way the whole family is involved, the kids will more likely eat what they help to prepare, and you get quality family time too.

 

Strategy #3. Start to use meditation and visualization. Meditation can be a powerful tool to help keep your mind clear and stress-free. You can use meditation as a way to visualize yourself being stress-free around food and, by visualizing that, you can start to believe it will happen too.

 

These strategies are a good place to get started and you can use them as a way to figure out what works best for you.

 

But I have more!

 

Come join my 3-Day Challenge – Managing Food-Related Stress.

 

It starts TODAY, August 30th and runs through Friday September 1 and is happening in my Private Facebook Group.

 

Download your free e-Book “How to Manage Food-Related Stress” (which we are using throughout the challenge) as a tool to teach you ways to manage your stress around food.

 

Head over to our Private Facebook Group to see what Day One of the challenge entails!

 

See you there!