Stay Alive Don't Eat and Drive

Of course we all know that we should not drink and drive. Over the last couple years we have also been educated on the dangers of texting while driving. But what about eating and driving--we do it, but here's why we should curb that habit (pardon the pun)...

Just like texting, eating and driving is a distraction. Let's stay focused on our driving and what is going on around us rather than adding another distraction. Even for those who can multi-task, multi-tasking behind the wheel is just not safe.

Are you more apt to have an accident while eating and driving then if you were focused completely on the road? You bet, but the reason I am challenging all of us to not eat behind the wheel is because it packs on the pounds which will cause more people pain, suffering, and ill health.

I was talking to a friend of mine last night who is a former truck driver. The conversation drifted to eating and driving and he told me that he used to be 100+ pounds heavier when he was a truck driver. Sure he ate junk food when he stopped for meals, but most of those pounds were because he was eating WHILE driving. He had bags of food right by the gear shift where they were easy to reach.

I too was a closet car eater.

Sometimes it was because it felt "safe" because I thought no one would see me. Other times it felt convenient, because I was in a hurry to get somewhere and didn't think I had the time to stop and eat a "real meal." Other times it was because I was on a long drive and I was using food as a way to keep myself awake. This all developed into a bad habit that applied fat directly to my waist, hips, and thighs...along with embarrassing food stains and a messy car strewn with empty bags that I couldn't possibly have eaten all by myself. Yet, of course, I was alone in the car, without anyone to blame by me, myself, and I.


My pledge to myself is to stop this unconscious eating in the car. If you are like most of us who are overweight, then you probably have some unconscious eating habits, too. Spend the next week being extra focused on WHERE you are eating and see if you find yourself chowing down while parked behind the wheel.

If you find that your car is not a mobile snack shack, then notice where or when you are eating unconsciously and use that information to help become more aware of your eating. Awareness along often brings about easy weight loss, because awareness is the first step to change.

For those of you who find the car is your favorite place for fast food then I hope you will join me in the Stay Alive Don't Eat and Drive challenge!

Stress: Weight Loss Challenge #1

The biggest weight loss challenge in my books is stress.

Why stress?

Stress leads to

• Unconscious eating
• Emotional eating
• Holding onto weight
• Fatigue
• Feeling out of control
• Physical illness

Many of these things are intertwined so you may feel fatigue and overeat to help give your body energy, or you may feel overwhelmed and eat to calm your emotions.

Not all stress is "negative" or "bad." We cannot live a completely stress-free life. Some very happy events can be quite stressful--but that doesn't mean we want to forgo the experience.

Examples of "happy", "positive" or "good" stress:

• Weddings (or yourself, your child or a good friend)
• Birth of a child
• Starting a new job
• Going on an exciting trip
• Returning to school

There are of course many other types of positive stress, but you get the idea. These events are some of the things that make life sweet, so we don't want to avoid them.

But as sweet as the events are, sometimes we react to the stress in an unhealthy way--like overeating.

So stress itself is not actually bad for us...it is the way we choose to react to that stress. This is part of the challenge of shifting our mindset for weight loss.

The trick then is to react to stress in a healthy way--whether the stress is a "positive" or "negative" event.

I have been reminded over and over again in my own life that I have a deep pattern (aka "a rut") that I have carved out over the years of turning to food when I feel stressed. Even today I hear the voice in my head say, "ice cream--you can have it, you'll feel better."

The truth is while I am eating the ice cream I may temporarily divert my attention from the stressful event if I allow myself to focus entirely on the ice cream. This is super conscious eating...knowing that it is a temporary diversion and choosing to enjoy the ice cream.

OK, that can work, but...

1. if I grab the ice cream and am thinking about the stressful event or just stuffing the food down my throat without enjoying it then I am not reducing my stress
2. if I beat myself up afterwards, then I am just adding to my stress, so it backfires.
3. if I get upset later that I'm not successfully losing weight (presuming that is my goal) then I have not really done myself a service.
4. the stressor is still there and now I have just added to my habit of eating for emotional reasons which doesn't serve me in the long-run either
   

On the other hand if I want to temporarily divert my attention from the stressful situation by playing with the dog, driving in the country and enjoying the scenery, playing a game on the computer, walking around the block, meditating, listening to music or any number of other things, I have achieved the diversion without adding sugar/calories/poor food choices to my day and I have taken a step at digging myself out of my unhealthy rut.

Since stress--all by itself--can cause us to hold onto our body fat (look, I can't explain why this is...but it is probably some survival of the fittest thing...I just know from personal experience it happens) we deserve to then minimize our unhealthy choices when we are under stress.

By making unhealthy eating choices--that can be over eating and also restrictive dieting--we add more stress to our bodies.

Making healthy choices and eating well-balanced foods that fuel our bodies and our brains and moving our bodies to keep all the blood and oxygen flowing we reduce our stress.

And by meditating we also reduce our stress. Meditations can be formal, focus on your breathing types of things or they can be walking and focusing on the surroundings. Meditation is simply quieting the mind chatter.

Try a variety of things to reduce your mind chatter and make healthy choices about food and moving your body and you will reduce the negative effects of stress on your body. The result will be greater weight loss success and overall health and wellness.

If you'd like to try meditation but are not sure where to start, take a look at some of these resources as a starting place.

Weight Loss Challenge: Swinging on a Moody Star

An important factor to our weight loss success...one that people often forget about or totally disregard...is our mood or mindset.

How we feel about ourselves, our bodies and even how we feel about food directly impacts our ability to lose weight.

It is extremely common to gain weight when we are feel depressed and to lose weight when we are happy. While that may be common, there are many people who gain weight when happy and, like my mother, lose weight when depressed. This demonstrates that there is no one "diet" or eating program that will work for everyone...not even in the same family. We all react differently to different foods, moods, exercise programs--everything!

If you are the type of person who, like me, tends to gain weight when depressed or stressed (or mad, or sad...or whatever) there is a way you can combat the trend!

Believe it or not, the real problem is not the food. If it were the food, you wouldn't be able to have it around ever...you'd eat it and gain weight all the time, not just when you are depressed. The problem is eating food in response to the emotion.

That is why substituting a lower calorie version of your favorite food or even substituting a healthy food doesn't solve the problem, because, I repeat, the problem is not the food...it isn't the calories.

By eating low-fat frozen yogurt in place of ice cream when depressed you are not changing the eating in response to emotion behavior. The behavior you changed was the one in the grocery store! Now, not only are you eating when depressed, you are probably less satisfied, but feeling deprived and yet martyr-like so you actually might eat MORE than before! Kind of defeats the purpose, doesn't it?

Replacing the chips with carrot sticks doesn't work either. Sure it is a healthy food, but we are still reaching into the frig (or pantry) and stuffing down our problems, rather than reaching into our heads and hearts and working on the real issue.

Don't want to work on your "issues"...don't think you have any? Fine. Whether you are numbing your feelings with food or not, you are engaging in unconscious eating.

Instead of eating, come up with a list of things that you can do that will help you feel more joy without getting you into the vicious cycle of eating and then gaining weight and therefore feeling bad again...which makes you want to eat, etc!

Everyone's list will be different...mine includes enjoying the sunrise, spending time in my studio, reading, doing puzzles, going for a walk and enjoying the fresh air, riding in the country...it could be playing with animals, playing on a swing, listening to music...the list can go on.

Write down YOUR list and keep it on the frig or the pantry...wherever the food you tend to reach for is stored...to help you remember your goal and give you some choices. It totally puts you in control...rather than eating unconsciously you begin to eat thoughtfully and that makes all the difference.