The stress just didn’t let up this week. Between computer issues (anyone else get stressed when facing those?), managing the care for my ill 79 year old Mom (she’s in Boston in a nursing home, I’m in Cincinnati–made seven trips so far in a year), trying to get Rowe Furniture to fix up a broken couch (1 year of working on this), and pushing Cincinnati Bell to fix a phone line (said they’ve been out of some phone wire they needed for 3 weeks?)…it was quite a week!
In the past, dealing with just one of those issues would have driven me to emotional eating. Instead, yesterday, I [private_membership circle]put everything and everyone I could on hold. I had breakafast with an old colleague and brainstormed some new business ideas. I drove up to Costco and restocked my house with wonderfully healthy choices. (My cupboards were so bare, I even needed pepper! I was eating frozen fruit and frozen vegetables the past few days!) On the way home from Costco, I could already feel a positive shift starting.
After a week like this, sometimes it takes me a day or two to get my equilibrium back. I’ve come to accept this. I go back to basics. Basic self-care. I decide what I can do that will help ground me again. For me that’s food shopping for healthy food, getting on my exercise bike even if only for 10 minutes, making sure my laundry is done, and my house relatively straightened up. It often includes sitting down to make a list of what else is draining my energy and making a plan to address those tasks. Today, it also included reaching out to a friend…acknowledging that I was feeling vulnerable.
Even though all of those issues I mentioned above are a still to be resolved (except the couch which got picked up at 7:30 last night), this afternoon I’m feeling much better. I feel like I can breathe again. These days, when life happens, I know I am responsible for the shift..and that I can make it happen…I have tools and I use them…
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Ellen Shuman is a Life Coach who specializes in emotional and binge eating issues. She is the founder of A Weigh Out & Acoria Eating Disorder Treatment, Vice President of the Binge Eating Disorder Association (BEDA), and Co-Chair of the Academy for Eating Disorders Special Interest Group on “Health at Every Size”, ellen@aweighout.com
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