Stress eaters unite..you know who you are!!!!

Ahh yes...the eating of all things sweet when I am stressed.  I forage through the cabinets and refrigerator looking for anything bad for me and sugary sweet.  I've been known to eat semi sweet chocolate bits.

Why bring that up now?  Well I am oncall this week at work.  Calls coming in all times of the day and night.  Stressful situations...so I feel a slip starting.  So what can I do to keep myself on track?  Well there is a few things.

1.  Try to manage your stress.  Yeah, that one makes me laugh too.  BUT, you can add a little more exercise the weeks you know you are having alot of stress.  If you are visiting relatives or relatives are visiting you, just take an extra long walk. Or when they say awful things to you, just think of something funny in your head.  I know, this is the hard one. Sleep when you can, and be kind to yourself.

2. Purge Purge Purge the bad foods from your house.  If you are dieting, you should have already done this.  If not, stand in that pantry and get rid of anything that might tempt you.  Even the baking chocolate.

3.  Fill your fridge with quick healthy meals and snacks.  The urge to fill the stress with food will happen.  When it does, try some yogurt or fruit.  It makes it so much easier to do if you have those in the house.  When you are stressed, you don't have the energy to make a meal.  Make sure you have healthy meals frozen or frozen turkey patties and frozen veggies available.  You can make a quick meal without the stress.  And my go to when I am oncall, anything in the crockpot.  Dump low cal ingredients in the crockpot and let it go.

4.  Try to be kind to yourself.  If you go off the ranch, then don't beat yourself up.  Stand up and brush yourself off and do better tomorrow.  If we were perfect, life would be boring.

Need a good recipe for the crock-pot?  From Cooking Light with less than 200 calories a serving!

Three-Bean Vegetarian Chili

This soup has a mild chile flavor. If you want more heat, increase the amount of chili powder and don't seed the jalapeños.

• Yield: 8 servings (serving size: 1 cup soup, 1 tablespoon sour cream, 1 tablespoon cheese, and 1 1/2 teaspoons cilantro)

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cups organic vegetable broth
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 1/4 cup chopped seeded jalapeño pepper (2 peppers)
• 2 teaspoons chili powder
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 (15-ounce) cans no-salt-added black beans, rinsed and drained
• 2 (14.5-ounce) cans diced tomatoes, undrained
• 1 (15-ounce) can no-salt-added pinto beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 (15-ounce) can no-salt-added kidney beans, rinsed and drained
• 1/2 cup reduced-fat sour cream
• 2 ounces shredded Monterey Jack cheese with jalapeño peppers (about 1/2 cup)
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

• Preparation

  1. Combine first 12 ingredients in a 6-quart electric slow cooker. Cover and cook on LOW for 8 hours.
  2. Ladle soup into bowls; top with sour cream, cheese, and cilantro.

  Nutritional Information

  Amount per serving

  • Calories 197
   
  • Caloriesfromfat 0.0 %
   
  • Fat 3.8 g
   
  • Satfat 2.3 g
   
  • Monofat 1.1 g
   
  • Polyfat 0.2 g
   
  • Protein 11.2 g
   
  • Carbohydrate 28.9 g
   
  • Fiber 8.9 g
   
  • Cholesterol 8 mg
   
  • Iron 2.8 mg
   
  • Sodium 591 mg
   
  • Calcium 129 mg