I found a dilemma in my bowl of noodles...

“Can we order noodles?” I said with hope in my eyes when my husband told me that he is planning to order from Swiggy. “Okay. Which noodles?” He asked. “Obviously chicken!” I emphasized.

Ordering from out is going to break my dream of eating healthy and home cooked food. But who cares when the work day is hectic as hell. Not only hectic, but also completely stressful. The kind of day which gives you tired red eyes and by EOD you reach out for artificial tear drops to get them lubricated. The kind of day when people have already pissed you off and you don’t have any strength to cook. You don’t have a cook too. You are not as lucky as others from whom you have heard stories of how their cooks cook delicious meals. Anyways you are not doing good in the luck business and neither I’m.

So again, coming back to the noodles story. I have observed and studied my past food ordering data and I realized that I order noodles whenever I am stressed out or anxious. And particularly when the reason of this stress is people, be it people at work or people at home, only eating noodles gives me some comfort. But why noodles? Or why any particular food for that matter? For me it is noodles. For you it might be a double scoop of ice-cream or something else. But always something unhealthy!

Why do we stress-eat? What does the science say?

Let’s try to understand this with an example.

Mr. Stress Ball has an important work deadline in just two days and he has to check many things off his to-do list. His client is very particular about deadlines. Mr. Stress Ball is working round the clock and he ordered a cheese burst pizza for himself while burning the midnight oil. The pizza gives him some conform and he somehow manages to complete some of the tasks. How come Pizza relaxed Mr. Ball?

When human body experiences a stressful situation, it releases cortisol. Cortisol is the key stress hormone in our body. Its main duty is to interact with certain parts of your brain and control your mood and emotions, such as fear. Cortisol is helpful in regulating important processes in your body, such as metabolism and the immune response. Adrenal glands release this hormone in the body. Anything done less or in excess, in generally, is not good and same is applicable in this case. Too much or too little production of cortisol in body is not good for your health.

So, Cortisol gets released so our body can protect itself during any stressful or mood changing situation. When Mr. Ball felt stressed, his body released the stress hormone and indicated that he needs to do something to get energy. In such situation he will crave fatty or sugary food which will give him instant energy boost, not necessarily a healthy boost.

On one side, the comfort food will do its job by somewhat reducing the stress level. But Mr. ball knows that each and every time he cannot afford the guilt that comes after stress eating. How can Mr. Ball stop stress eating and still manage his stress? And how can I stop dreaming noodles during stress? How can you really stop binge eating during stress?

Ditch Noodles for Nuts

Replace unhealthy/processed/sugary food with healthy food choices. Train your mind to replace the comfort food with something else. If I crave for noodles, I can replace it with nuts or healthy homecooked wheat noodles. Next time when I open a food ordering app and I am about to tap the Add button next to my favorite noodles, I will remind myself to replace noodles with nuts which I can grab quickly from the kitchen shelf as cooking at home might take some motivation and time. And even if I want to order food from outside, I can order something on the healthier side. I will need to make it a habit and I know that might fail also. But still each time I need to remember to replace noodles with nuts.

And don’t get me wrong. I am not saying that I will never eat noodles. I will still enjoy my bowl of slurpy chicken hakka noodles, but only occasionally and here occasion is NOT equal to every stressful situation.

Why don’t you have some water instead?

Are you sure you not stressed but just thirsty? Whenever you feel like grabbing a pack of chips and binge eating those crunchy wonders till the end, also licking the salt at the base of the packet with your finger, have a glass of water instead. When a thought of binge eating crawls into your mind, get up and walk to your fridge or a water cooler, fill yourself a glass of water. Sit comfortably and drink it by taking small sips. Sometimes we feel stress or anxiety because we are simply thirsty. Why to grab a comfort food when plain water can give us comfort? Set a daily water goal for yourself, set reminders throughout a day to drink water, buy water bottle of your favorite color to give yourself a motivational boost. Replace unhealthy comfort food with H2O and feel good.

When in Stress, Distract Yourself

If it is only stress and not your birthday that is making you eat that chocolate cake, you need to distract yourself. All you need is some powerful distraction tools. Here are some quick distraction tips that might be helpful:

🏃 Stretch. Stretching like cows, cats and dogs can help. Get up and do some basic stretching. Do some yoga, such as the cat and cow pose and the downward dog pose, or perhaps the corpse pose or the child pose followed by some deep breathing.

🍵 Make yourself a cup of green tea and sip it.

🍳 Club healthy cooking with something that you love doing, such as listening to your favorite music or making progress in that audio book you had started listening to.

🎨 Sketch, paint or write it down. List down your stressors and write why are these things giving you stress? Sketch or paint to distract yourself.

📘 Read. Read a good self-help book and set a reading goal. For instance, whenever I feel too much anxiety, I grab a book that I am reading and read at least 10 pages to distract myself from the current stressful situation.

🎵 Put on that headphone, play some cheerful playlist and go out for a walk.

🌺 Smell lavender. Sometimes I smell a lavender essential oil to get that boost. Aroma therapy can help in uplifting the mood. Other than lavender, rosemary, lemon, orange and peppermint can have wonderful effects on mood in general.

🙋 Talk to someone. When you know you are eating only because you are under stress, talking to someone, sharing how you feel, having one on one conversation can help. But I know many times we binge eat as there is no one to listen to us. In that situation, write a diary or talk to an imaginary friend. Let it all out.

📺 Watch Friends. This is my personal favorite. Whenever I am in work related stress, I switch on my TV, go to Netflix and watch an episode of Friends. This one works like magic. It never fails. NEVER!

😴 If nothing is helping, take a nap. All you need is a little rest.

That’s that! I won’t stretch this topic as long as a noodle and I know it is not always possible to win over the stressful situation. But as we know that even a broken clock is right twice a day, no matter how stressful you feel, you will be just fine.

Cheers!