#SaturdaySkinny: Topic Of The Week... Stress!
/Every. Single. Freakin. Time.
Every time I feel like something is completely overtaking my life… it is the topic of the week at WW (formerly Weight Watchers).
Please note: Since I’ve been going to WW since 2 November 2009 (yes I just celebrated my 9-year anniversary) I will most likely still call it Weight Watchers at times.
The wife and I walked back through the doors of WW on 20 October after about a 4-ish month hiatus. It felt soooo good to be back in the lime green chairs with a group that gets it - not only the healthy living/weightloss part, but also the #ExPat part. For those that don’t know, we attend the only English-speaking WW meeting in the Netherlands (Saturday 10:30 if anyone is in town!)
It was hard to face the scale, but both of us were so unhappy with how we had backslid that we braved it. It could only get better from that moment. We attended 20 Oct and 27 Oct, but were then out of town at Disneyland Paris.
Now for Disneyland Paris, it was supposed to be the break we needed at our Happy Place… but DLP had a different idea!
Overall we got made some magical memories, but overall we left even more anxious and stressed than when we had arrived. Which was a real bummer!!
As we arrived home I quickly left for another 48-hour work trip. Needless to say after 1 week feeling back in control, I had a rocky next 2 weeks. There were tiny victories along the way.
I thought of those tiny victories when I stepped on the scale knowing I would have a gain:
1) I had brought the WW protein bars with me to both DLP and the work trip so I minimized the extra snacking on nonsense/when stressed.
2) I focused on drinking my water!
3) I didn’t skip out on the meeting, but instead told myself I was worth going.
Just as I expected… a gain! I was almost back to where I was on 20 October. Ugh!
Let’s celebrate I wasn’t 100% back to where I was… #TinyVictory!
We got back into our seats (congrats to the wife for her loss) and the WW coach came in to discuss the topic… STRESS!
Oh hey WW! You in my brain or something? That is what I have been 100% consumed with for months!
It felt so comfortable to discuss with others how the immediate reaction (for me) is to eat when stressed and how since we relocated to another country I am spiraling when it comes to my stress.
We moved because I got an amazing opportunity at work so I have that pressure (mainly self-inflected) but that also comes with “well our visas hinge on my job… we need to learn dutch (mainly because all of our documents are in dutch)… how do taxes work here… etc etc” Anyone else ever have those spirals?
And I have to admit something else… I am a workaholic!
Before I break I need to create more work life so once again this topic came at the perfect time.
So I made 2 attainable goals for myself for this week (since we have no travel planned for the rest of the year!):
Create tiny moments throughout the week to enjoy (walking to work, setting up a relaxing environment at home, etc).
Ride my Peloton bike every day (even if it is just for a 15-min class) because this is the sweaty and happy mess I am after a ride…
So this week I will focus on little positive changes and keeping my mental state as my #1 mission… the weight will follow!
Plus I have marathon #15 coming up so that is another constant reminder with me of my goals…
How do you tackle stress?
