David's FAQs

Question: I have a question about emotional eating... I am good all day and then in the afternoon if something stresses me out at work or when I get home and the kids stress me out - I will eat a couple of small "bad things" i.e. M&Ms and then I can't stop until I feel sick and I am not overweight. I run 4 times a week and strength train 3x - I am negating all my hard work for stress eating. Any suggestions?

David: This is a question I'm sure many of you can relate to. In our society, food has become a "drug" we use to deal with a variety of emotions. We eat to celebrate. We eat when we are sad or bored or tired or stressed... the list goes on and on.

There is an acronym for knowing when we are at risk for negative behaviors: H.A.L.T. The letters stand for...

• Hungry
• Angry
• Lonely
• Tired

If you find yourself feeling these things take action early to avoid slipping into the bad habits like binge eating. And don't beat yourself up over it - you are doing plenty of good things for yourself and you aren’t negating all your hard work. Here are some ideas.

On a physical level, one way to deal with these binges is to make sure you are well nourished throughout the day by eating frequent small meals that include some protein 4 to 6 times a day. That way you don’t have real hunger to compound the problem. Of course, I always recommend exercise to deal with stress - you can always get on the treadmill for 10 minutes or do some calisthenics to get you refocused.

On a behavioral level, you could avoid bringing those things into the house that cause you problems, but I’m not a big fan of total deprivation so maybe try one of these strategies...

Take a small handful of the M&M’s and then go to the other side of the house and get involved in something else – get away from the source of the temptation and NEVER eat out of the bag!

Another trick is to take the small handful of M&M’s and eat them slowly with your eyes closed, taking time to really enjoy them. The goal is to be mindful of what you are doing instead of zoning out.

But the bigger issue here is how you are dealing with the stress of daily life and that's probably a little more than I can fit in this article. Let me encourage you to seek out help from other women who are probably dealing with the same things you are. Find out how they cope – prayer, deep breathing, walking the dog. Maybe set up some accountability with one or two women who you can call when you’re struggling. Hope this helps!

David: No such thing as a silly question! However, this is a tough one and you may not like the answer. After a certain age our skin loses some of its elasticity and is less able to spring back after weight loss and/or begins to sag naturally. There really aren't any muscles that can be built up to fill out the skin and exercises for the neck and jaw won't tighten already sagging skin.

One of the discouraging truths for many of my female clients who have either lost significant weight, had multiple pregnancies, or both, is that the skin around the abdomen doesn't always bounce back either. All the crunches in the world won't change this much and neither will exercises for the face.

There is always an abundance of creams and toners via the TV and internet that claim to help with this problem, but to my knowledge none of them work. The only tried and true method involves some sort of surgery. However, you can make sure your posture is correct to minimize the appearance of sagging.

Sorry I couldn't offer more help, but this on falls into the category of accepting the things you can't change. At a recent junior high retreat, the speaker emphasized this point to our 7th and 8th graders and how it relates to body image. God made us the way we are and loves us that way, imperfections and all - we should cut ourselves the same slack!

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