My Banded Time

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Work Stress Made Me FAT: Breaking Cycles

When I think about the things that made me overweight, I have a simple answer.  WORK STRESS  MADE ME FAT.  Since my first job 20+ years ago, I always put a lot of pressure on myself.  With the desire to be perfect comes a tremendous amount of self generated pressure.   When clients are angry or there are difficult co workers or mountains of work on tight deadlines; I've always resorted to medicating myself at work and home with FOOD.  And as I've gone up the learning curve and gotten better at my job, the responsibilities and work load have increased...and with that so did my weight!  If you did a bar chart on my work stress levels, you could probably correlate increases in clothes size and body mass and bigger butt to horrible client jobs, crazy co worker conflicts. 

With the band, I can't do that anymore; I have to face these issues or PB all day!  Facing things has been challenging but I have!  The band has actually helped my mind.  Since I can't eat, I have to deal:  I have to talk things out more, negotiate more or just blow off stress and manage it better in my mind.  It's been really liberating.  I have to say I've been a lot more vocal at work...Not in a crazy Postal Worker Way; but I've put my foot down more about things I will and will not do: I'm much better at boundaries.  I don't think anyone ever inhibited me from this but myself.  But work stress and eating is something I am working on everyday.

What are the things that trigger you to eat and how do you deal with them post band?

I have to spend the day with a co worker who likes to take credit for my work and is extremely patronizing...I can't eat so hopefully I won't get physically violent.   Just joking...LOL

I haven't been blogging much because I've been super busy at work but I actually lost weight versus gained...For me its as good as not gaining weight at Christmas!

Hope you are well.

8 comments:

  1. It's great that you've identified a trigger and are moving past it!

    One of my triggers is anger. I don't eat when I'm sad but man...you tick me off...don't make me eat a donut! I think I just don't like confrontation.

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  2. Sounds like you are doing well in handling your stress. Stress is definitely my big trigger.

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  3. Being bored triggers my terrible eating.. And I love how confident you are and how strong you are - Just another benefit of gaining control of our health and well being!!

    Great post!

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  4. That's one of my major factors behind my past weight gain, too. SO glad that is behind me!

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  5. I can totally relate to the work stress and the perfectionism issue....and I have found the same thing, I can't get stressed/angry and eat a huge lunch, so I have to deal with it...and it's hard, but I'm learning!

    ...thank you for the comment about my post, believe me, it's a HUGE wake up call to me as well because I see the patient's struggles and excuses and I see reflections of myself!

    Good for you standing up for yourself at work, keep it up!!

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  6. Good for you! It's so hard not being able to eat the stress away. Thanks for your great comments on my blog!

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  7. Thanks a lot, I'm constantly looking at different ideas on methods to control Stress and Anxiety. If you are unable to manage it, it'll ruin a person!
    Coping with Stress Strategies

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