A Bad (Unhelpful) Weekend

So my Progresso soup victory (see previous post) was very short lived. My stress overwhelmed me the past few days and well...lets just say I resorted right back to unhealthful eating habits. I'm not even going to try to put a positive spin on it. After 2 weeks clean eating...no flour products...bread, pasta...I have binged to the point of feeling woozy on carbs. Bread in particular...lots of bread.

I work in the education field...I've taught high school math and science and now work for the Army where I am in charge of about 55 people doing everything from teaching Soldiers how to teach, to designing curriculum, to building educational technology. Once every three years we get accredited which means a bunch of people descend on our organization and tell us whether we are doing a good job. This is the first year I am responsible for so much (last time I just had the teaching Soldiers how to teach part).

I mention this because as I've prepared for this visit, I've been looking at what the Army believes about training and education and one of the key beliefs is that Soldiers should be "self-directed learners". That is an awesome phrase and I understand what it means...the problem is, we don't do a good job teaching the young Soldiers how to be that....its as if we expect them to be born with the ability.

That's how I feel about stress management. I logically understand that my stress reactions are not helpful, that I should "shake it off" and "not let it derail me". The problem is I don't have a clue how to do that! I know how to eat. I've found myself thinking this afternoon that I just need to survive the week and then I can get back after it...after all I will still have 2 full weeks before I have to go weigh in again...sigh...I'm tired of just surviving.

So here's what I'm going to try...no I'm going to channel YODA and say here is what I'm going to do. Before I eat a meal, I'm going to walk for 5 minutes. I can do that, I can do it at work by walking through the halls to the other end of the building and back, I can do it at home rain (on the treadmill) or shine (outside). It might not solve all my unhealthful eating reactions to stress....but it IS SOMETHING DIFFERENT! I'll let you know how the experiment goes. Beth