Step (and keep stepping) away from the fridge

I am a stress eater.  I know I am not the only one who heads straight for the fridge when the day gets tough.  I am, when under pressure, sure there is no problem that won’t be made better by ice cream.  I forget that eating too much ice cream is a problem in itself.

We (because, as I said, I am not alone in this pattern) are going to attack this issue.  I have a plan.

Step One:  Don’t buy ice cream.  Or cookies or chips or vodka or chocolate or whatever it is that we crave under adverse circumstances.  If it isn’t in the fridge or freezer or cabinet, we have at least one more obstacle between us and less than ideal behavior.  We might not eat the ice cream if we have to go through the process of finding the car keys to go to the store to get some first.

Step Two:  Move the body.  This step has both a long-term and an immediate phase.  If we are moving our bodies regularly in the long-term sense, we are attacking the stress problem.  And if we choose to walk around the block instead of open the fridge in the moment, we have substituted a better behavior for snacking.  (If we end up walking to the store to get the ice cream, at least we have walked first…  Nobody’s perfect.)  There are very few excuses about why we can’t move instead of snack.  Snacking takes time and involves mess, too.

Step Three:  Don’t be mean.  Maybe we won’t always avoid the ice cream.  Maybe we really want it.  Maybe we are too darn tired to walk another step.  Maybe we blow it.  Let it go.  Let’s give ourselves a hug instead.  We will do better the next time.