Stress Eating

I used to do this freshman year of college, quite a bit. It’s a really easy habit to slip back into, especially when unexpected stress hits you in the face.

Or for me, for some reason, I was so stressed out yesterday it felt like little evil elves were stabbing me in my eye sockets.  (Yes, that was the mental image I had all post 5pm).  And since I don’t believe in popping pills when I KNOW it’s stress related, and I had said, absolutely no going back to your 9 year old habit of going to the gym, instead of picking up the habit I was hoping I would (i.e. meditation), I went to my favorite ice cream store.  Or more accurately, since I live in Bangalore, I conveniently ordered some of my favorite ice cream to my house.

Except I decided to make it at least a little bit useful.  I said ok Anu. I’ll let you do this but you have to A/B test it (oh yes, because I’m a nerd like that).  I really really really just wanted the pain to go away and I said ok if the pain goes away with ice cream, then you win (you, Anu, the one who won’t do what the other more logical Anu wants). But if I win, then next time you’ll remember this and you’ll try the other coping mechanism I said you should have (i.e. meditation).

So I ordered my ice cream and lo and behold, the pain went away. For exactly 10 minutes. And then it came back, full force, but added about 10 more serial killer like elves who were really trying to rip apart my eye socket.

So instead of meditating, or eating more, I went to sleep. At 8:30pm.  And turns out, that worked great too. I got up this morning, and serial killer elves were gone.

I figure stress will keep coming back. But next time, I’m at least a bit more equipped to deal with it in a slightly more productive manner.

Also, PS, dear serial killer elves. I really dislike you. Please go away. I feel like you have presents to make before December or something.