Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Workouts, Food, & Emotions

The last few months have been busy and emotional.

It’s increasingly getting more difficult for me to be so far away from my aging parents who both have serious health conditions. I finally understand the gravity of my decision to move across the globe more than 20 years ago. While I love where I live and feel at home in California in many ways, it’s hard to be so far away from those I love and who need me more now than ever before.

As I mentioned before, the kid is also getting much more of his own life and is involved in sports and afterschool activities most afternoons/evenings. While I love his enthusiasm for sports, especially soccer, our new schedule makes getting my own workouts in very difficult as we used to go to the gym as a family most late afternoons.

Working on numerous freelance projects at once and teaching in more than one place also leave me often a bit frazzled these days. To get all my work done before I have to pick up the kid from school, I get up at 4 a.m., which leaves me exhausted by dinner time.

I wrote before about the fact that I am an emotional eater, and while I have made huge progress from where I was a couple years ago, I still have to monitor myself very carefully when things get stressful. Over the years, I have talked to many people about emotional eating, and many have said that they do fine when life is going well, but they run into trouble when things get tough. That’s certainly true for me.

It’s just all too easy to grab a (healthy) snack and eat way too much of it. It’s also easy to eat to calm myself down and not because I am truly hungry. When I’m overwhelmed, I notice that I don’t appreciate and notice the food like I do when I am calm.

So here is my plan to get things back to where I want them to be in terms of food & exercise:
  • Continue to plan & prep meals – Last week I planned our meals and grocery shopped, but I didn’t prep anything on Sunday, and it threw me off all week.
  • Only eat at the table – Unfortunately, I have been grabbing more and more food while working on my laptop lately. This has to stop.
  • Always notice & appreciate the food before eating it – This includes putting more effort into presentation again. Making things look pretty doesn’t have to be time consuming (just add some herbs, use nicer plates, fun napkins…), but it can help me slow down.
  • Be creative when it comes to workout times and types – get back to short, intense workouts. I’ve been also trying out lunch time workouts, which will work once in a while.
  • Take walking breaks whenever possible – my mind will thank me because I always feel a lot calmer after a walk. I think I’ll make it a goal to go for a walk every day. It can be short, but I need to give my body and mind a break ever day.
Questions: How is your eating & exercising going? What’s your favorite meal at the moment? What’s your favorite exercise at the moment?
 
Be well,
Andrea