6 Tips to Avoid Snacking Your Way Through a Stressful Day

6 Tips to Avoid Snacking Your Way Through a Stressful Day When we’re stressed, we tend to ‘treat’ ourselves by gorging on junk food, sugary snacks, caffeine and nicotine. But why? Well, quite simply, because we are stressed. This is what our body craves, but it doesn’t actually help our stress. We feel better for a bit (a sugar rush, a chemical rush etc.) but then we crash hard, feel horrible and combat that with more junk food, more caffeine and more sitting down. The longer this goes on, the more damage we do to our bodies. Read on for 6  reminders thatll keep you feeling better when youre stressed! 1. Drink more water Water is the best treat you can give your body because it is so very essential. How much water you need in a day is still a disputed topic, and it really does depend on your individual circumstances: your weight, gender, how much activity you do, if its a hot day etc. A good rule of thumb is little and often, with an aim for 2 litres (men) or 1.6 litres (women) per day (The European Food Safety Authority 2010). 2. Don’t skip breakfast Guess what? Breakfast makes your metabolism up to 10% better, not worse. Even if you don’t want to believe cereal companies’ marketing ploys, breakfast is important. So important. But what you eat in the morning is even more essential. So many cereals are packed full of sugars, cereals bars too, and those, coupled with a coffee, and/or fruit juice (full of fruit sugar, but with no fibre to mitigate it) is a terrible way to start your day. Ideas: instead of a sugary cereal that means you crash before lunch, opt for a low-sugar, high protein and fibre option, with a big glass of water, and some whole fruit. 3. Watch your  sugar intake If you’ve seen Fed Up, or That Sugar Film (both on Netflix), you’ll know what were about to say. Sugar is hidden in more foods than you can probably imagine, and its effects are detrimental to our health, and obesity. Essentially, sugar, and/or “bad” carbs that convert to sugar really quickly (white bread, white pasta etc.) give you a short burst of energy. But due to the sheer amount of sugar pumped into our bodies, our organs can’t deal, and end up converting the sugar into fat stores. Then, once the energy has gone, we “crash” and then crave more sugary food to perk us up again. Vicious cycle, right? Ideas: If you can’t cut out sweetness from your hot drinks, try honey instead. For alternative sweet snacks, opt for fruit (whole, because you need the fibrous skin to counteract the fructose) or high-cocoa dark chocolate. In regards to all the sugar hidden in processed foods, try and cut back on what you buy, always check labels, and cook more. Cooking from scratch will ensure there are no hidden chemicals or sugars in your food that you don’t know about. 4. Monitor your  caffeine intake As much as we want caffeine to be a healthy addition to our lifestyle, it often isn’t. If anything, drinking coffee to combat stress actually causes more stress. If you combine the effects of real stress with the artificial boost in stress hormones that comes from caffeine, then you have compounded the effects considerably says Professor Lane who took part in a study into regular caffeine consumption. Caffeine affects the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, which links three systems, the former two in the brain; the latter above the kidneys. This axis is the body’s way to deal with stress, during both rest and activity. The adrenal glands, part of this axis, secrete two important hormones, namely cortisol and epinephrine (aka adrenaline). Adrenaline increases breathing, heart rate and blood pressure, while cortisol opens access to stored glucose, which our body needs more of during times of perceived stress. But the thing is, we’re not being chased by bears anymore. Drinking caffeine readies us for action by releasing these “stress” hormones, as if we were deeply stressed. But we don’t need to hit our internal panic button 4 times a day, so why are we drinking that much coffee? You can find out more here. Alternatives:  You can buy Green Tea that is  caffeine-free, and it’s warm, hydrating and full of antioxidants. 5. Exercise You know you need to exercise, and the hardest part is motivating yourself, we know. Yet, the more you exercise, the happier your body will be, and the less stress you are likely to retain. But its not just about making it to the gym; you could also  find enjoyable ways to incorporate exercise into your daily life, which is especially important if you spend most of your day sitting down. Aim for a mixture of moderate (fast walking, cycling, hiking etc.) and vigorous exercise (running, fast cycling, martial arts) totalling 75 150 minutes per week depending on the type of exercise you choose. If you are constantly dreading exercising, try something new â€" it could just be the type of work-out that you dont like. 6. Unwind and sleep Our addiction to screens is reducing our ability to fully unwind, and making us more stressed and anxious in the process. But why? Its the blue light that our screens omit which are causing us to be more alert, through the release of cortisol, and less relaxed, because it inhibits Melatonin (the sleep regulation hormone). If you do need to use your phone or laptop late at night, make sure you have an app like f.lux installed, or use Apples new Night Shift functionality to try and mitigate the damage. Alternatives: finding a hobby that doesnt involve a screen, even if you only do it a few times a week, could help you to unwind, and hopefully sleep a little better. For instance: gardening, yoga, reading, colouring/painting, crafts, and meditation. Image: Shutterstock