Breaking the Vicious Cycle: Stress, Food, Health, and Happiness
In this post, I want to explore the crucial interrelationship between stress, food, health, and happiness.
Have you ever noticed what you do when you're at home and feeling stressed? Most likely, you head straight to the kitchen or refrigerator in search of your favourite foods or desserts. But why do we do this?
We rush to food because it serves as a quick stress reliever, offering instant gratification. If your favourite meal gives you a certain level of comfort, sweets, desserts, and chocolates amplify that comfort many times over. So, whether we're stressed professionally or personally, we often turn to food and sweets for immediate relief.
This behaviour is commonly known as stress eating.
Here's where the vicious cycle begins:
The more stressed we get, the more we eat.
The more we eat, the more weight we gain.
The more weight we gain, the unhealthier we become.
The unhealthier we become, the unhappier we feel.
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The unhappier we feel, the more stressed we become.
The more stressed we are, the more we resort to eating.
And the cycle continues endlessly.
It’s clear that stress, food, health, and happiness are all interconnected. To achieve happiness, we need to break this endless cycle.
One effective way to do this is by resisting the temptation to use food as a stress reliever. A simple hack can help disrupt this loop. Whenever I feel stressed and the urge to eat kicks in, I take control by telling myself that food is not a solution to stress. If you find it hard to resist the temptation, try delaying it by 15-30 minutes. Often, the urge to eat subsides after this brief period.
This simple hack has significantly helped me manage my health, happiness, and stress. Additionally, intermittent fasting has been instrumental in breaking the stress-food cycle. By fasting for 18-20 hours daily, my body has adapted to stress without relying on food for relief. Knowing it’s not my eating window helps curb the urge to eat during stressful times.
Though this approach might seem simple and logical, many of us remain trapped in this infinite loop.
I hope this insight helps all of us find a healthier and happier balance in life.