Stress Eating

Are you a stress eater?  I totally am.  I am an overall emotional eater. I grew up dealing with all emotions with food.  Good days deserved a treat.  Bad days were washed away in food.  Holidays, birthdays, getting together with family all equaled food.

This habit is harder to break than most of the other hurdles of weight loss for me.  But I am proud to say that having a simple plan that makes me acknowledge what I eat helps a lot.  However, I think I could still easily through that out the window when I am truly stressed if it weren't for the accoutability and support I have been getting through sharing my journey on social media.  This Saturday's weight update on Facebook (on my personal page) had 59 likes and 17 comments.  It's a fabulous reminder of the people who love me and the accountability that people are watching and excited for me is huge.  But it also provides a network of people that I can go to when I am stressed instead of turning to food.

This week has been a real test of my new coping strategy.  Life has been a little rough, with some new bumps in our regularly rocky marriage.  But my friends have shown up in full force letting me know they are there and making sure I am ok.  I know that these trials are nothing compared to what many people have overcome but typically this type of week would be one that I would run (and I don't RUN) to food.  Honestly, my first choice would have been my mom but I'm pretty sure that's why after she passed my weight continued to grow as I filled that void too with...more food.  And don't get me wrong, I missed my mom more than ever this week.  I missed her hugs and the love she had for my boys in a week when I felt like they really could have used it.  But I have taken comfort in my amazing friends.  I've done things I love to do with my kids and shockingly, even to me, I have NOT tried to fix anything with food.

So, are you curious about what my update actually WAS on Saturday?  I missed my first large goal of 30 pounds but a measly .2lbs.  I could have been upset that I didn't get there but I was way too busy doing my happy dance for a 6.6lb loss in one week after a gain the week before.