Stress and Time Problems to Eating Well

I realized this last month as I was trying to find a home to buy, just how hard it is to eat well. Even if you understand exactly what you should be eating and have a desire to eat it, it takes a lot of time to eat well. Being the stay-at-home mother of four children, a large part of my day revolves around eating. There is planning, shopping, preparing and cleaning up. While the actual eating does not take that much time, the rest can take up your whole day. This of course works if you are at home all day, but should other things come up, the system falls apart. When the system begins to breakdown eating well is usually the first thing to go. So I decided that I would write an article not about what you should eat, but how to eat it. Before I get into the "meat and potatoes" of this article I want to offer a quick note of apology to all the men who manage the home front. My prospective tends to come from being a mom-at-home, but I know that there are many men out there who are the primary caregivers for them family and I solute you.

Two of the major roadblocks to eating well are time and stress. First I want to discuss stress and some ways to get around it, and then I will talk about some ways to help with the time constraints. Stress can be helpful or harmful; it's all in how you deal with it. Stress has been a very necessary part of our lives. It helps us get away from our daily tigers and complete projects on time. However, too much stress, or stress not dealt with effectively can kill you. For more information than you ever want to know about stress take a look at Controlling Stress: How to Manage Life in a Busy World from the American Medical Association. I find that people usually deal with stress in two ways. Some people quit eating (I am one of those) and other people start eating (I have talked to people who confess to eating a bag of chips or a gallon of ice cream without knowing it). What you need to do is make conscious eating choices. When you are under stress, not eating well only compounds your stress. Stop, breathe and make a choice to eat right. If you know that there will be no time to eat, try packing some easy things. Anything from an apple to a peanut butter sandwich to a carton of yogurt. I think what most of us tend to do is grab fast food or a highly processed snack like a bag of chips or a doughnut. When you eat nothing or junk you feel bad and you are still stressed. Not a great combination. Okay, you have your stress all handled, but you still have no time.

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