Alternative to Dealing with Stress and Trauma; Instead of Coping with Food
Is stress real? Is it something you create in your head?
Can you control it? Can you escape it?
What happens when you turn to tv and pizza to cope with it?
The last couple years have been particularly stressful for many. Pandemic. Recession.
Are you feeling it?
I sure did. I am just coming out the other side of one of the most stressful periods of my life.
It started when we were living the cruise ship life. No home. Living out of suit cases. Rock climbing in different countries. It was not without struggle, but it was a dream of ours and we were loving it.
Until the pandemic hit. Until we had some tough financial circumstances. Until our dreamy life left us cornered.
I lost a lot of sleep- and hence did a deep dive into a topic I had never struggled with before. I learned about how stress can seriously affect our sleep. Dealing with my stress became that much more crucial. More breathing. More walking. More processing so that I could get my brain out of low level thinking and into problem solving mode.
What I did not do during those times was over-eat. I kept up my routine of nourishing my body.
It was far from easy.
and…
Life is not easy.
In fact, accepting the fact that life has hard moments, that big stressors arise, and teaching my daughter how to move through them was one of the beacons of inspiration through these last few years.
We can’t avoid stress. But we can navigate through stressful times with grace and continue prioritizing self-care.
“If you’re feeling “burnout” or “mentally slower,” it might be good to look at your relationship w/food.
I found a lot of benefits in working with Chandra (or finding someone in her line of work):
I used to try to “grind through” stress/work and chronically snack out of stress/eat out/have some pints, then go out and run/train hard, low sleep, and do that day after day, which led to joint issues, digestive issues, and a lot of body stiffness/pain (which makes sense – I wasn’t decompressing/meeting the needs of my body, and therefore, I was getting slowly injured over long time horizons i.e. back pain, bad circulation, light breathing, gut pain). I had a lot of thoughts like “I don’t feel good enough” or “I’ll be happy once…” Her program restructured how I process these events through the lens of food.
Chandra’s food and mood program is holistic; by that, I mean that she helps connect broad aspects of the human experience to help one understand the interrelatedness. How I respond to food is related to so many other areas of my life like daily flow/presence, relieving stress, and making and executing on goals.
I am now obsessed with performance through self-care and cut out most processed foods and almost all sugar (outside of some fruits/veggies). I have never felt happier/smarter. I am sleeping super deep (comparatively), and my health issues are nearly gone (4 months in/excited for the next 8) – even though only 30, was running my body into the ground. I am probably doing 2x the amount of work (productivity not activity)/have clear boundaries from the clarity to drive that performance. Less coffee etc. My work is more fun.”
Devin B
Change Your Gut and Brain
Crave Nourishing Foods
Create Regulated Moods