I don’t know about any of you, but food was always my go to when I was feeling stressed. With my wedding just 30 days away, 60 days left of my masters program, someone crashing into my car this week and other life stressors my desire to engage in my “target behavior” was heightened, but how do you deal with it when these moments pop up? I didn’t want to indulge in my creature comforts because then I would be feeling poorly about my body AND all the other stressful events around me. I started logging how I was feeling and when things were rising up. Just as we use my fitnesspal to track our eating and exercise, why not track our emotions and cravings? I am a Marriage and Family Therapy Trainee and will use Diary Cards with clients to help them track moods and symptomology (below is an example)
So why not also track feelings and target behaviors that pop up? The other piece is implementing skills and practices. For example, when a craving is coming on what other coping skills can be used in place of indulging? Here are a few examples of things I do:
- Write it down and notate the craving.
- Drink a big glass of water.
- Take a deep breath (there are also many breathing apps to use in conjunction).
- If I want to eat something have a healthy snack to help with that urge that arises. Depending on the texture or type of food being craving it can represent many different things and I will discuss that in a future blog.
Thoughts?