Fasting and Stress

(Weronika) #1

How do you deal with fasting and stress?
I work in a very stressful situation and have trouble fasting through the stress of my job. I’m en emotional eater, always have been, and feel the need to eat something when I’m stressed/frustrated at work.

I find myself having a slightly shorter tolerance for people’s BS when I’m fasting and so I only get more frustrated than I normally woul on top of it. I know the stress isn’t healthy to begin with and trust me, I’m trying to remedy my work situation (hopefully soon that’ll change) but I have to deal with it for now.

So how do you deal with fasting and stress? Does that combo ever get easier? I know fasting gets easier but what about when combined with stress?

On a side note, I have always had a distorted relationship to food. Never a healthy one. Keto has changed a lot of that but I guess after 25 years of a bad relationship is really is difficult to resolve.

(Chris) #2

I don’t know if it definitely makes it easier, but just identifying that you have a habit (emotional eating) is a big step in the right direction.

Also, I feel like fasting is a muscle, the more you do it, the easier it gets. I found my stressful situations got easier the more fasts I had under my belt.

(Allan L) #3

I love how much better my brain performs at work when fasting so when I hit those stress points I remind myself how much worse the situation would be if I was not fasting.

Occasionally I break the fast and am proven correct, I remember the pain and next time fight through the fast and enjoy the extra brain power.

(Weronika) #4

I’ve been able to identify it as a habit.
The drive to eat something becomes so strong that it is hard to resist.

The fact that eating food causes a parasympathetic response doesn’t help me either. I’m more tolerant and willing to put up with people when I’m not fasted making it easier to deal with the stressors in the moment.

I hope you’re right, I hope it gets easier!

(Chris) #5

I think you have a really healthy grasp on the cognitive side of this issue, and so to me it’s only a matter of time. :slight_smile:

Good luck.

(Weronika) #6

Thanks! I’ll keep working on it! :slight_smile:

(Weronika) #7

I can’t believe I’m saying this…my job is not fast paced enough so the optimal performance I get from fasting just ends up adding to my frustration; quite frankly because I’m bored out of my brain and dealing with poorly performing individuals.
Haha, can’t believe I just said that it is optimal for me to be a little slower for the sake of not going nuts at work. It is, however, very much true and eating does slow me down a notch or two.

(Jason Jodway) #8

If cortisol is already elevated from your life, fasting is going to be a real struggle as it naturally raises cortisol as well. This elevation is making you hyperexcitable and that’s why your tolerance is lessened. The only way it is going to get easier is due to intermittancy where you’re able to adapt to the stress and tolerate it better. You need challenge/struggle then rest/recovery in cycles.
I personally recommend you avoid fasting until your life stress is resolved. At minimum you need to leave work stress at work and have some way/activity to become relaxed in the evening.
The more deeply ketogenic you eat, the more metabolically equivalent to fasting it is without having to fast.

#9

Go walking and see what that will do for it. It’s the way I deal with my stress when fasting. Are you fasting past day 3?

(Candy Lind) #10

That’s when I eat. I eat emotionally, too, but boredom is a real hot button. If you can find some kind of “figit” (twirling a pen or pencil between your fingers, squeezing a stress ball, grabbing a heavy object & doing biceps curls, playing with a figit spinner) that you can get away with while sitting/standing there, maybe the chewing urge can be kept at bay.

(Raj Seth) #11

OK - no more Keto for you - You must go back on the full tilt SAD diet. Waffles with High Fructose Corn Syrup for breakfast, Snickers for morning satisfaction, a huge 'heart healthy" whole wheat wrap filled with quinoa, raisins and low fat chicken breast for lunch, a pack of sour patch kics and a can of coke for late afternoon snack, a bag of Doritos for drive home snack, supersize the coke and fries with your cheeseburger dinner, (hold the bacon - dont wanna clog the arteries), and a pint of low fat frozen yogurt for dessert. Late night snack in front of the TV - dealer’s choice!

Sound familiar? :astonished::astonished:

That WILL slow you down all the way.

(back and doublin' down) #12

try snapping your fingers 50 times. or, count backwards from 100 by 7s. Either activity exercises your willpower and teaches your brain you can get from the start of something to the end of something (even having patience with frustrating work situations!)

The technique comes from a TED Talk by Jane McGonigal https://youtu.be/lfBpsV1Hwqs

(Katie the Quiche Scoffing Stick Ninja ) #13

To be honest, I don’t believe it ever gets better.
I worked in a highly stressful job and over the last year put on 10kg.
No matter what I did, no matter how much I planned, i’d always end up at the vending machine.
I’ve got a new job now, and i’m back on day 4 of keto and it is EASY because my cortisol levels are at a safe level, and not skyrocketing with anxiety.
I wish i had some good news for you but in my experience, it really reallly is a mental challenge to fast while stressed. If you can do it, good on you, teach me your ways!