Better Choices When Life Gets Stressful

Welcome back to BETTER, an email series that helps you continue to move in a positive direction.

Today, we are tackling better choices when life gets stressful.

Read on:

Out of Sight, Out of Mind: When stressed out, we often crave something tasty. There's a reason for the term "comfort food"! Avoid giving in to your desires by keeping healthy food options like nuts and fruit in plain sight, and hiding the ultra-processed stuff, or simply throwing it away.

Keep Emergency Foods in the Freezer or the Pantry. Making healthy food easily accessible and straightforward to prepare makes it less likely that you'll choose something less nutritious. Get a bag of pre-grilled chicken and bags of frozen fruit and veggies at the grocery store and throw them in the freezer. Stock your shelves with protein powder, canned fish like tuna and salmon, nuts, olive oil, and olives. You'll be able to make several combinations of a healthy meal faster than it would take to order take-out!

Stay off Social Media. Want to torpedo your mental health and get even more stressed!? Jump on social media for hours on end. Stay off social media, or at the very least, pare down the accounts you follow to only ones with a positive message. You'll keep your sanity and make staying focused on your healthy habits easier.

Make one area of your house calm and relaxing. When chaos reigns, ensure you have a quiet sanctuary that you can utilize to recharge and refresh. If this space is your bedroom, consider upgrading your sheets or pillow. Perhaps add a diffuser or white noise machine to help your brain relax.

Life gets stressful—there's no way around that. However, if we plan and have some great ideas to keep us on track, we stand a better chance of weathering the storms of life and not succumbing to temptation.