55BEATING STRESS
IMAGE: EVGENIYA PORECHENSKAYA/SHUTTERSTOCK.COMBeating stress
If you fi nd stress levels increasing, your eating patterns are likely to be
aff ected. Dietitian Nichola Whitehead provides some tips on how
to bring your emotions and stress back under control.
S
tress can play havoc with our eating
patterns; it not only drives our
appetite, but it can lead to emotional
eating too. Although eating gives
us the chance to disconnect from the
stressful situation in hand, it isn’t a
long-term solution as food only acts as
temporary pacifi er of emotions.
Stress or emotional eating can also lead
to unhealthy food choices; we’re worrying
about the past or the future, rather than
focusing on the food that we’re eating in
the present.
Have you ever noticed that STRESSED,
spelled backwards is DESSERTS?- PRIORITISE WITH A TO-DO LIST
Writing down what you have to get done is
the fi rst step to taking control of your time.
I personally like to divide up what I have
to do into four segments: MUST, SHOULD,
COULD and WANT.
Dividing up tasks into these four
segments makes it easy to see at a glance
what needs to be done fi rst. The key is to
accept that you cannot do everything all
at once, and then prioritise. MUST tasks
have more urgency, SHOULD tasks have
importance, but without as much urgency,
COULD tasks have a lesser importance and
urgency and WANT tasks can wait.
When it comes to tackling your to-do
list, start with your MUST list and perform
one task at a time. It’s a myth that our
brains can multitask effectively; we simply
switch our focus from one thing to another
quickly, so make sure to remove any
distractions. For me, this means removing
my phone from my vicinity and turning off
the TV. Right now, I’m writing this article
in my study and all I have with me is a
drink; not even thirst is going to distract
me from my typing!- LEARN TO SAY ‘NO’
This one is hard, but once mastered
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SF9_P55-57_Stress SHSD.indd 55 07/02/2017 15:07