Daily I read a post from a return 3FC member who lost his/her way on the weight loss journey and is back to recommit. (I am one such person, myself!) The typical first return post explains that the journey was overthrown because of a major life stress/being too busy.
I find myself asking, do skinny people never have stress and that's why they stay thin? Or, do they handle their stress by eating less? Or, handle their stress in some other way? And, then, would the answer be more than calorie counting and exercising to find a different way of handling our stress?
For example, training ourselves to say - "Gee, I'm really, really stressed. Instead of taking a hot shower and then relaxing to a movie I'm going to run two miles and burn the stress out of me." Maybe that is the answer? Maybe as much as we watch what we eat and are careful to time our exercise we should take the time to find healthy ways to manage the stress.
Or, is it just an excuse? We quit so we say "I quit because I was stressed." For example, I haven't been to the dentist in three years. I plan on going in there for my appointment today and say "I've had a really rough three years." Which is true, I went through a really rough divorce. But, honestly, I was just too freakin' lazy to make the appointment and walk the five blocks to the dentist.
So, are we handling our stress poorly or are we just making excuses for failing? Or, a little bit of both?
And, this is what I really want to know. Are there any studies on this?