Stress and the Quarantine 15

Most adults nowadays are familiar with the idea of the Freshman 15. It’s this concept during your first year attending college you put on 15 pounds. Now this would be great if it was 15 pounds of muscle, but when the soft serve machine is unlimited refills; face it, we know we put on a fair amount of fat. As we study and run around or even fornicate, we use up a lot of those calories as the metabolism of our late teens and early twenties is (in most cases) unstoppable. I ate like I had a hollow leg and drank like I had one too. Now, why would I want you to think about this transitional time of your life? It’s because we are transitioning right now. Over the last 2 years, 2020-2022, we have all struggled with COVID-19. Some people got kind of sick, some people regretfully passed away, and some people actively drank bleach and ate horse de-wormer. However, the one thing we all shared was we all had more stresses. The stress of not knowing, or stress of being paranoid, or stressful whatevers. Stress is a dangerous thing if it isn’t managed well. Stress impacts your emotional state. It impacts your logical decisions. It does make us seek more comfort foods. Stress can help make us generally unhealthy, not just fatter.

There shouldn’t be a lot of time spent on thinking stress makes us eat. I used to stress eat. It’s fairly common.  I simply typed in stress and eating into Google and the first link was an article to Harvard stating, “Stress eating can ruin your weight loss goals- the key is to find ways to relieve stress without overeating.”

Here’s the link. https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/why-stress-causes-people-to-overeat

Now that we are past the obvious stuff, let’s cut to the heart of the matter. As we go back out into society and seek to be “normal” again, a lot of us have added unneeded weight. Maybe a few pounds or maybe you have passively won eating contests without paying the entry fee. Don’t blame yourself. Don’t blame the food. Don’t blame the food companies. It all did what it was supposed to do. Scenarios like this don’t need blame to improve. You just need to start. This article is not to tell you to eat a certain way or even follow a diet plan. It’s to help manage the pains of transitioning if you have something to think about as you do it. Even years COVID, stress will come back, but it doesn’t have to be unbearable.

Here are a few ways I have coped with stress when I’m feeling overwhelmed.

1.       Read/audiobooks. I hated to read for a big section of my life. Now I can’t get enough of it. I regularly make trips to the library for a new book on something I want to improve or understand. The books can be fictional too! Use it as a way to get out of your head even if you only read one page. You may even read one paragraph or even one sentence. Then spend a few moments thinking about what you read.

a.       Why? We all assume we can multitask. We really can’t. Some people have developed a skill to swap back and forth quickly or developed a routine that can mindlessly be completed (see “The Power of Habits”). It only takes a moment to shift. Work on being wholly present in what you are doing. This allows us to pull away from the stressful stuff and keep our brains busy.

2.       Move around. Now it’s no secret that I like to exercise. I actually crave it sometimes. It was the COVID-19 quarantine time that actually helped me. I finally had time. Oddly enough, there is still time. I grew bored rewatching the same shows and movies. I was blessed enough to have equipment, although it was gathering thick layers of dust. You really don’t need equipment. There are thousands of exercise videos on YouTube. They can be as short as 10 minutes.

a.       Why? I like to think that it’s a privilege to have my body. You are a 1 in 400,000,000,000,000 (400 trillion). It’s wonderful to exist and have a body that honestly tries to be obedient to your mind. When you ask it to jump, it tries to jump as high as it can. It’s quite amazing. You are quite amazing.

3.       Most of our biggest concerns are not that important. I keep the thought, “If I say no to the nonessential, I can double the amount of yes to the essential things. Social media is not important. What a celebrity eats for dinner is meaningless. There are plenty of things that you cannot change, and there is nothing you can do about it.  That’s okay. If it is essential and you are overwhelmed by completing your goal, ask yourself, “What is the smallest thing I can do right now to move this along?” No one has ever run a marathon is one step. Don’t expect yourself to be the first.  It’s done in a lot of steps.

a.       Why? You only can control your thoughts and actions. Superman is not real. Do and act in a way you wish to see yourself. Who do you wish to become and what can be done now to start that journey?

4.       Be okay not knowing everything you are up against. You don’t have to know everything. Others have become upset when I say that I’m stupid. If you didn’t know, I’m pretty dumb. I don’t know a lot. That’s okay. Honestly saying “I don’t know” is an acceptable short-term answer. We don’t know everything. Why do we expect us to hold this mountain high standard? If you really want to know, start to study.  See option 1 again. Ask questions of others. Get inquisitive. You don’t have to be an expert. Learning is fun and good for us all.

a.       Why? We have powerful brains. We might be the only being that can understand what the future can be. We all love our pets, but do you think they care about a year from now or do they think about only today.

5.       Take ownership of actions and still forgive yourself. When you make a mistake, forgive yourself quickly. Don’t waste more time on worrying about something that can’t change now. Ask what you learned of yourself. Admit fault and give an actionable list of what you could think about next time the situation arises. Then become a goldfish. Don’t worry about what you did, what are you going to do next to help.

a.       Why? It will teach us to forgive others when they make mistakes. We are not meant to be perfect. You are exactly where you are supposed to be. You are exactly who you are supposed to be. Human.

6.       Help others unconditionally. Go help someone else towards their goal. Be support for a loved one. None of us do well without others. We are creatures that thrive in community. Try to help. Think about your goal, then think how I can help someone achieve their goal. They might just be willing to help you succeed too. (Small note-Some people just suck. Period. Nothing makes them happy. That is their problem to bare. So don’t expect everyone to help you back. Just go do good things for others unconditionally and good things will start to come back.

a.       Why? Couldn’t we all use a little help or support now and again. We don’t need someone to solve the problem. That obstacle is there to help us grow. Maybe part of your journey is helping, watching, and supporting someone get over theirs.

I hope any of this is of any value to you.