Stress is All Around!

It has been a stressful year.  My husband and I separated.  We reconciled.  He left his job.  He couldn’t find another job.  My Dad needed to have a pacemaker.  I sold my van.  A much bigger company purchased my company.  I bought a used car.  My car was stolen.  Several good friends were laid off.  Some beautiful people bought me another car.  I was laid off.  And that is just in MY life.  All around me, people were diagnosed with disease; friends lost loved ones; houses burned down; accidents happened.  Stress is all around every one of us.  Even though not all of these things are bad – they still have stress associated with them.

Different people have different ways of dealing with stress.  Some people turn to drugs or alcohol.  Some people take it to the gym – and pour it into exercise.  Some people turn to food.  I am one of the food people.  In my past – the more upset I am about something, the more I ate, and I wasn’t eating things that were good for me.  And I ate until I was the size of a house.

When I was laid off, I was afraid that I would turn to food.  And I must admit, there were a couple of times that I said to myself, “I should eat…”  But I am so very happy to report that I didn’t do it.  I had the thought, yes, but I immediately followed that thought with, “No – that won’t make me feel better.”  In the two weeks that I have been unemployed, I have actually lost a couple of pounds.  

Don’t get me wrong – I do not think I have arrived.  I believe I will always have to be conscious of what I am putting into my body.  But I do think I have turned a corner.  I haven’t turned to food this year – even though there has been a great deal of stress in my life.  I don’t know what 2012 will bring – but I do believe that I have the tools in place to deal with anything that happens.  

And my apologies for not blogging the last two weeks.  I was denied access to my computer at work, and had to get special permission to get this document from there.  I have it now, and I will continue to blog from here on out.