Breadsticks

Now I love carbs as much as the next girl, but this post is not actually about bread sticks, but about a trigger that often makes me reach for the bread stick, or any other carb around - stress and emotions.

Now I know that stress and emotional eating covers a wide variety of topics that we could discuss at great length, but I think that it sums it up appropriately to say that most emotions and stress have habitually had me reaching for food.

I've know this for a very long time, but have struggled to harness this as stress and emotional eating is often a reflex and by the time that I have realized what has happened, the damage is done.

Tonight the cause is unimportant, the food of choice, well I think you can probably guess from the picture.The important piece is what I did when I stopped long enough to think about what I had done. What I had done was 300 calories in breadsticks. I responded by logging each one and then headed to the gym where I burned off the breadsticks and a bit more.

While exploring the stress trigger I realized that this week will be challenging for me. I am home  wiht the kids and out of my regular routine. It seems funny that at work I manage high intensity and stressful situations daily, but at home caring for my two kids alone can raise my stress level almost instantly. I think that a lot has to do wiht the fact that being home with them full time is not my regular routine and also because I feel pressured to make sure that they have a great week becuase I'm not always home with them.

I think that planning ahead will be my greatest weapon to push back against my triggers. Tomorrow I have a planned Zumba class with a friend which I know is a great calorie burner and as far as the kids, well  todays stress came from trying to get them dressed and out the door so tomorrow may just be a pyjama day.