You can read her email below (especially the second paragraph). I gave her a call and we chatted for a while, so read the email first and then I’ll recap briefly what I told her. I hope I gave her a few helpful tips and I think she felt better after we talked through it...
Here's the email she sent me:
Hey there,
It is driving me nuts missing one workout a week! My little one had a 104 fever last night, i got maybe 3 hours of sleep and it was broken sleep. I just couldnt make it in [to boot camp]. So now i am home today and anticipating this won't be the last time i miss a class. what workout can i do at home to compensate for what i am missing in class? I was thinking if i did a good 20-25 min of HIIT [High-Intensity Interval Training] and maybe one of your workouts you have online that would be a good start. Let me know what you think.
Also, i am realizing that i totally stress eat. Like last night when i was waiting for a call from the peditrician i starting munching on freaking bagel chips!!!! I stopped after about 10 min of eating but GOD knows how much i have been stress eating. So any tips on how to stop this? Because i know i could be getting better results if i cut that out and i am sure i do this alot.
First off, she should give herself kudos for reaching out to me and asking for a workout even though she had to miss her morning boot camp. You see, it would have been easy for her to just tell herself that she was "too tired" to workout, but instead she knew that it would make her feel better to do a good workout - even if it was only 15 minutes at home.
When I spoke with her on the phone after I received her email, I could very clearly see a few things that she didn't realize herself:
You see, she was concerned about her stress-eating...knowing that she was inhaling a ton of extra calories with a bag of bagel chips and that was going to blow all of the hard work and results she's been getting with her workouts.
But what was more concerning to me was the fact that she was essentially blaming herself for her stress eating. This is what I told her:
"It is not your fault"
Before you get angry or frustrated at yourself for stress-eating, you must understand there is a physiological reason why you stress-eat. Yes, there is a factor of self-control and knowing when you need to stop at one brownie instead of 4 or 5. But in order to stop the vicious-cycle, you need to understand that it is not entirely your fault.
Let’s look at her situation: she was up all night with a sick child…so along with getting no quality sleep which studies have shown is critical to fat-loss and a healthy metabolism, she is stressed because she has a sick child.
Among other things, there are two things happening to her body because of the stress she’s under:
1. She is sleep-deprived
2. Her “stress hormones” are going haywire
When you are sleep-deprived (based on 7.5-8 hours/night required for your body to fully function and repair) you’re not giving your body the opportunity to regenerate, recuperate, and “recharge” your key body functions – including your metabolism which KILLS YOUR ABILITY TO LOSE WEIGHT EFFECTIVELY. Essentially when you lack proper sleep, your body goes into “survival mode.” If you didn’t get enough sleep your body needs to get energy somehow…so you CRAVE food – and you don’t crave fruits and veggies of course, you crave high-sugar, high-carb foods because carbs (i.e. sugar) = energy.
When you are under stress, your body is hard-wired to respond to “protect” you. It goes into “fight-or-flight” mode – and releases adrenaline (increases your heart rate, blood pressure, and boosts energy supplies) and the “stress hormone” cortisol, and over-exposure to excess levels of cortisol can be hazardous to your body and is a culprit to stored fat – especially in the abdominal region. (yikes)
So I explained these points to her and I think in just helping her to understand that she doesn’t need to blame herself for pigging out on the bagel chips, but helped her realize that it was her body’s way of telling her “I’m stressed-out and I NEED something to help me cope!” Now that she understands this, she can better prepare for future situations and be aware of what’s happening to her body.
Here’s what I told her to do for her workout that day (30-45 minutes, at-home):
Do one round of HIIT cardio- about 10-15 minutes (checkout the workout here):
Then do one-two rounds of my “12-minute Body Blitz” workout
Here’s a book I told her to read (or get on audio CD or iTunes) that will help her from mindlessly eating (this was very influential even in my daily eating habits):
Mindless Eating, by Brian Wansink
If you want to read another good article about stress and its effects on your body, click here:
And on a final note…I reminded her that it wasn’t her fault, these are the “real-life” curve balls that are thrown our way…kids get sick, we get caught late at work, we get frustrated, we gain a pound-lose a pound... What is important is that we just need to learn how to accept the things that are out of our control and do the best we can in those situations…and then move on!
Hoping to help make your life a little less stressful, :)
Lindsay
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