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5 Strategies to Deal with Top Holiday Stressors

The holidays are such a nice time of year but the stress that comes along with it, well, THAT I can do without. Maybe being around all your relatives and the crowds feels overwhelming. Perhaps finding the right gifts for people is anxiety producing. Maybe, just maybe, you get even tense knowing that this time of year is “supposed” to be joyous, yet all you feel is anxiety.

Top Holiday Stressors

The first step to truly enjoying your holiday season is identifying your stressors. The two top stressors for many people are money and family!

Money Stress:

It may come as no surprise that one of the top stress-inducers identified during the holiday season is worry over money. Since the beginning of November, you have been constantly bombarded with deals, steals and the newest gadgets. You might feel pressure to work overtime to be able to afford all the presents on your family’s wish list. However, it’s important that you take a step back and remind yourself what this time of the year is really about – togetherness. While your loved ones and friends do appreciate your thoughtful gifts, it’s really the thought that counts. Show them you love and appreciate them in other ways, they will cherish that for a lifetime.

Family Stress:

Another stressor may be constantly being around your extended family. This time of year, it seems that there are no shortage of family gatherings. Your weekends are probably jam-packed with holiday parties, leaving you very little time to do what you enjoy doing. While this time of year is all about being with family, you cannot forget to take care of yourself as well. Carve out time every day to do something that makes you feel fulfilled and that meets your needs of being taken care of.

5 Strategies to Manage Top Stressors Without Food

Unfortunately, some people may turn to food to help deal with these holiday stressors. Do you?

If so, please know that while food can be one way you decide to manage uncomfortable emotions, it becomes a problem when food is your only go-to coping mechanism.

1) Move Your Body:

Choose a movement that you enjoy doing and find time to do it at least three times a week. Regular movement has been shown to reduce stress levels. If you fall short on time and you cannot make it to that spin or kickboxing class, try going for a walk around your neighborhood or do a yoga video at home.

2) Connect and Talk:

Talk to a family member or friend that you trust. If you are feeling overwhelmed, a good venting session can make you feel better. Just talking through your feelings can provide relief.

3) Sleep it Off:

Aim to get at least 8 hours of sleep a night. You are probably running on empty more frequently this month than you do the rest of the year. Sleep is important for your health, try to go to bed an hour earlier and avoid hitting snooze in the morning. Interrupting your sleep with multiple alarms can interfere with your body’s natural wake mechanisms, leaving you feeling exhausted throughout the day.

4) Breathe through It:

When you feel a stressful moment coming on, excuse yourself and take a few minutes to relax and breathe. Search the internet or download an app to your phone that will guide you through stress-reducing breathing techniques. Meditation is also a useful relaxation technique that you can do anywhere!

5) Journal Your Thoughts:

Pull out a pen and paper and start to write. Don’t edit. Just let your thoughts come out of your head onto the paper. Let it flow! You will feel an almost immediate relief.

Grab these FREE 20 Emotional Eating Journaling Prompts to help you get started!

If even after engaging in a stress-reducing exercise or talking with a friend, you still feel that you want the soothing power of food, that’s okay! Put your desired food choice on a plate and sit down to eat it. Stay fully aware and conscious as you are eating. Savor each bite, stay mindful and present with the food, and your feelings. Once you’ve finished, take a deep breath and move on. The key here is to not move out of your body when you are eating so this doesn’t become a full-on binge.

Let me know below which of these strategies will be your go-to!

3 Powerful Strategies to Decrease Food Related Stress

Food is supposed to be enjoyed; yet so people tell me that food is stressful. They report that 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, all leads to stress.

Do you feel the same way?

Does thinking about what you should cook, going to the grocery store and preparing food lead to unwanted stress?

If you have had a difficult relationship with food for some time now, then I’m sure you experience these feelings.

If you do feel the same – how do you manage the stress? I know you probably want food to be a non-issue in your life, but may think how can it be?

I’m here to tell you it CAN be a non-issue! You CAN develop a healthy, loving relationship with food that can lead to less stress when preparing and shopping for meals…and eating it.

Here are 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, 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 aren’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. This will lead to less stress on you to feel like you have to do everything.

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.

Want more resources?

Self-Paced Online Program – Stress Less Eat Less™ – see the crazy low-priced deal HERE!

Complimentary Discovery Session – let’s chat to see how I can help you. Go to www.TalkWithBonnie.com and schedule a time.

How to NOT Eat Your Frustration

Frustration. That is the emotion that I’ve been feeling this week. Here’s why:

The Set-Up

I decided to change the hosting of all my websites and domains that I use to run my business. I chose a very large hosting company and was feeling confident that all would go smoothly, at least that’s what they promised. However, after 1 ½ months of back and forth phone calls, the migration of my websites was still not complete. I asked for a refund and went on the search for another hosting company.

I found another company who seemed eager to help me. I signed up with them and followed their directions to migrate my sites. After many back and forth phone calls, we were getting somewhere. However, I’ve come to learn that there is always going to be a glitch. And, what’s important is how I handle that glitch.

Among the many glitches was that a client was not able to access her training modules for a few hours. Okay, not so terrible, I actually figured out how to fix that myself (pat on my back!). But for the few minutes, I was terribly frustrated.

Now that all the sites are transferred over successfully, it was time to migrate my Outlook email. This proved to be more difficult. I’m the first to admit that computer and tech language for me is a foreign language. You might as well be speaking to me in Greek, Chinese, or any language other than English. I don’t get it.

So, at the time I’m writing this blog post, I have been without email for 36 hours and counting. This means that if you’ve tried to email me, I likely didn’t get it. So, please email me again!

(Note – if you are reading this blog in your email, it’s because you received it through iContact, my email management system, which is totally separate from my Outlook email – am I confusing you now??)

What’s my point of sharing this all with you?

Coping with Frustration

Just a few years ago when I felt frustrated, I would let it get the best of me. Perhaps I’d have a pity party, you know, the ones that include ice cream.

But today, things are different.

I reframe what is going on. I put things in perspective. I think to myself “how does this affect the real important things in my life, such as my husband and kids, my parents, my health and their health”?

Throughout this pause, I breath deeply. This breath work takes me from stress mode (fight or flight) into calming rest mode! And, it helps me process and make the best decisions to take care of myself in the frustrating situation I find myself in.

There is no ice cream. There is no chocolate. There is no pity party.

There is nothing wrong with ice cream or chocolate. But in a moment of frustration, that’s not what I need to take the best care of ME.

Your Turn

How do you handle frustration? Or any emotion for that matter? Comment below!

And, if you want to learn strategies to stress less and eat less, then check this SPECIAL out that I have for you, only during the month of April, which is Stress Awareness Month.

3 tips to manage food stress in your life

44708423 – vector illustration in super mom concept, many hands working with very busy business and housework part, feeding baby, cleaning house, cooking, doing washing, working with laptop. flat design.

I returned to my office yesterday after a 4-day weekend. Wow, the number of emails, messages, Facebook notifications and faxes was truly overwhelming. Then the phone calls started…people somehow know the minute I sit behind my desk.

I was overwhelmed. That overwhelm caused me to procrastinate on getting some projects done, like this blog for IE Wednesday which I am writing quite late!

What I didn’t do was turn to food. Yet so many people do.

Food has become a way for so many women in my community to distract from pain, procrastinate from work, and deal with the stress and overwhelm they experience in their lives. The problem is that food does not fix any of these things!!

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.

And certainly, the guilt they feel after they eat what they think they “shouldn’t eat’!

Stress, stress, stress!

So today I wanted to share some strategies with you to help you manage food-related stress, without turning to food to cope!

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

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 right inside my online ‘do-it-yourself’ program where you will get my best strategies to decreasing the stress and overwhelm in your daily life!

And, because reality has it that there will be times when stress just happens, I teach you the most important questions you need to ask, and practices for you to use to beat that stress without turning to food (because let’s face it, it’s not about the food, it’s about the reasons you are eating!)

Save 30% during this Memorial Day Special – 2 days only. Seriously, check out all you get for just $67. You can’t get coaching or a therapy session for that fee anywhere!

Stress Less this Holiday Season

With the upcoming holidays it’s easy to get lost in the chaos. Don’t let yourself feel out of control this year. Start your holiday season off on the right foot! Make this the year that you conquer your dieting habits and turn to intuitive and mindful eating for a body you love.

Here are a few suggestions that work for me during the busy holiday season. I hope you find them helpful too.

Set yourself up for success

As I’ve mentioned many times before and I will probably suggest many times again, set yourself up for success. Do a clean sweep of your kitchen before you begin your cooking. I don’t mean sweep the floor, I mean tuck away all tempting foods – out of sight, out of mind. Take those holiday cookies and sweets and put them in the pantry or kitchen cabinet so they won’t be staring at you while you cook.

Be sure to eat breakfast each day

Skipping breakfast or lunch before your holiday meal will cause you to be exceptionally hungry when it’s time for the main meal. You might think you’re doing yourself a favor but you will likely eat more than your stomach can handle and you won’t feel good afterwards. Or you might fill up on appetizers and feel full before the meal even begins. Understand that maintaining a state of satisfaction is a huge part of eating right.

Pace Yourself

During the meal, pacing yourself is key. Put your fork down and spend time talking to relatives in between bites. As you space out your meal you allow your brain to register the food that is entering your stomach. Your body will be able to signal when you are satisfied and have eaten enough.

Anticipate the stress

The holidays are a balancing act. Prepare yourself for stressful situations and learn how to best manage a stressful event so that you do not turn to food to ease the stress. If you know you are going to see family members or friends who drain you physically and emotionally, take the time to mentally prepare yourself in advance. Think of strategies to handle situations and come up with solutions to destress. This can be finding a comforting place to take a break, whether it be your car or an empty room.

The stress that comes from the cooking, the cleaning, the planning and of course the eating can all be balanced with the right strategies and support.

In honor of the holidays, I have ONE TIME opportunity that I’d like to extend to you.

I will personally coach you through the holidays in my Stress Less EAT LESS™ Program. Learn the 3 key steps to best manage the stress and overwhelm to STOP STRESS EATING once and for all.

Stress Less EAT LESS™ is a 4 week program that includes live group coaching calls, a private Facebook group, My Holiday Menu Planner and Recipe Guide and so much more.

Save $100 by getting all the details and signing up HERE.

We start November 30^th so don’t wait.

Have questions, email me at Bonnie@DietFreeRadiantMe.com

Simple Solutions to Stop Stress Eating in its Tracks!

Thanksgiving is only one week away. Yikes!

Cleaning, shopping, cooking, preparing the house….there is so much to do!

Does all the stress and overwhelm of the holidays cause you to go into a tailspin? How will you accomplish all that you need to do? And, of course, you still need to go to work, tend to your usual house chores, take care of the kids etc.

What happens when you get stressed and overwhelmed?

For many, they cope by turning to food to “ease the stress”. Ahh, that piece of chocolate melting in your mouth is melting away all the stress too. That is, until you try on your favorite holiday pants and they don’t button.

Sound familiar?

Listen, I know you want to overcome stress eating. The holidays that are upon us are just one time when you might find yourself coping with food. But what about all year round? Is life hectic with little time for yourself?

Deep down in your heart and soul, you wish there was a way for you to learn how to manage the stress and overwhelm without eating. Actually, you wish you could better handle all that life throws your way so you aren’t overwhelmed.

There is a way!

I am excited to bring to you a brand new program called Stress Less EAT LESS™.

Read all the way to the end to learn about the Holiday Special I am offering you.

In this program you will discover:

How to develop a calm mindset by better managing your time and priorities so you can be more mindful in how you handle kid stress, job stress, life’s stresses.
What changes you need to make in your daily health and nutrition habits so you feel physically and mentally ready to deal with a stressful situation without caving to the ice cream and cake.
The two most important steps that you need to take when you are in the midst of overwhelm and it seems easier to turn to food to numb.
The ONE practice you MUST learn to stop stress eating in its tracks and turn you away from the cookie jar and drive-through.

I originally created this program as a “Do it Yourself” program. But I realize that you could probably use some extra support during the holidays, so for this time only, I am offering this program with LIVE group calls a private Facebook group and more!

Click here for all the details and to sign up.

There are lots of bonuses for you once you sign up. The sooner you sign up, the more bonuses you get.

Oh, and share it with your friends and loved ones who could use Simple Strategies to Stop Stress Eating in its Tracks.

Here’s to a STRESS FREE Holiday!

Resources and Support for Yo-Yo Dieters and Emotional Eaters

How do you feel about seeking help for things that aren’t always going so right in your life?

Whether it be relationship tension, marital problems, school issues, work-related problems, do you suffer alone and try to figure it out by yourself, or do you seek the guidance of a professional who can be objective and help you work through the difficult times?

There is often a stigma around seeking help and many people feel like they should just be able to handle it on their own.

Are you one of those people?

I’m specifically talking here about getting help to overcome emotional eating and years of yo-yo dieting. One of my clients recently confessed to me that she had my phone number for a long time but didn’t call me until recently because she was embarrassed. She felt that she should be able to lose the weight and keep it off without having to seek professional help. When she realized that time after time she was unsuccessful with dieting, she finally called me and made an appointment.

As she reflected on the experience, she realized that she wasted so many years and wished she had started this journey a long time ago. But even so, she is so glad that she finally called me and got over the shame she felt for not being able to do it by herself.

You are a strong person and probably accomplished in many areas of your life. But if you are struggling with yo-yo dieting and emotional eating, give yourself the gift of seeking the support you need to jump over the hurdles. You may even know where your specific struggles lie, but you just need the strategies and the right partner.

You don’t have to go it alone!

I have a number of Free Resources to help you.

E-book: 5 Steps to a Body You Love Without Dieting available by putting your name and email in the boxes to the right of this page, or at http://DietFreeZone.com

The Diet Free Zone Show™ on my YouTube Channel, released on the first and third Wednesday of every month. Each episode discusses another aspect of intuitive eating and breaking free of dieting. Check it out here and subscribe to my channel.

Private Facebook Support Group – The Diet Free Zone™ with Bonnie R. Giller. Request to join for free here.

To Your Health e-Newsletter – published twice per month. To subscribe for free, send an email to bonnie@brghealth.com and write “Subscribe me to your newsletter” in the Subject line.

I look forward to having you in my community. Please comment below and let me know how I can best support you.

The Stress and Food Cycle

In the previous article I listed many healthy ways to manage the stress in your life. Notice I did not list “indulge in comfort food” or “treat yourself with food” as one of the healthy alternatives to stress. Yet how many people use food as their “go to” cure for stress? If this strikes a chord with you, you are not alone.

Food is a very common tool that some people use to try and mediate stress. However, food as a “cure” typically provokes even more stress. Comfort foods that people often turn to are laden with sugar and fat and are not the kind that makes you feel good when you finish it. It is the type of food that is easy to overindulge in and become overfull, and full of guilt. This behavior can be the cause of unwanted weight gain. You then feel more stressed, engage in more mindless eating and experience more remorse.

You can break free of this vicious cycle by understanding the real reason you use food to deal with your stress and by incorporating 3 simple steps into your life.

Take the first step to self-discovery by tuning into my free mini-webinar 3 Simple Steps to Stop the Stress and the Weight Gain. This webinar will give you an introduction to the strategies you need to combat stress, as well as insight into how to best avoid the stress all-together.

Just click here for instant access to this webinar and let me help you break free from this cycle!

Your turn to take action: Do you turn to food when feeling stressed, overwhelmed or emotional? What action will you take next time you are feeling this way instead of eating? Please share in the comments below.

Tag Archive for: stress eating