Habit 8: Stress Reduction

Well done, you’ve made it to week eight of  Habitspark Diet Foundations!  Starting today, you’ll be tracking: Habit 1: Healthy Breakfast, Habit 2: Food Planning, Habit 3: Healthy Lunch, Habit 4: Daily Exercise, Habit 5: Healthy Dinner, Habit 6: Eat Only at Table in Dining Area, Habit 7: Healthy Snacks, & Habit 8: Stress Reduction.

Habit 8: Practice self-soothing and stress reduction at least 15 minutes per day

Food serves a lot of functions, and for many of us, it is our most used tool for coping with negative emotion and stress.  Beginning next week, we’ll be focusing on letting go of eating that isn’t in line with hunger.  This means that if you are an emotional or stress eater, you’ll need to use alternative ways of soothing yourself.  The good news is that there are a lot of other coping tools, you just need to find a few that work well for you.  This week, put in place time for self-care every day.  Here are some things you might try out:  breathing, mindfulness, meditation, stretching, yoga, massage, quiet time (shut the door, turn off the lights, and just let yourself be – get your partner on board with taking care of the kids for 15 minutes).