3 chocolate bars in hand thinking "How long will you keep doing this?"

This was me, a few years ago, but well into my Sustain career.

I remember the cycle well.

1. Something would happen that would lead to me feeling stressed or frustrated.
2. I would be stood in the local co-op, 3 chocolate bars in hand, wishing to act differently.
3. I would eat chocolate to move me away from these feelings.

Long time followers of Sustain will know that in my attempts to manage this I abstained from chocolate for a year.

The year after I had chocolate on 10 days.

The six months after that I had it once a fortnight.

All of these efforts, over the course of 30 months, with the hope of changing my eating habits around stress.

And whilst it wasn't a waste of time. In fact it was a positive achievement and learning experience. I wouldn't recommend it as a tactic for long-term change.

It does NOTHING to change the way you think about your triggers. It focuses too much on the problem and not the actual root.

It uses willpower and grit (which has its place), but stress is a part of life and if you rely on brute force it's inevitable one day, when you're at your weakest, it'll exhaust and overpower you.

We must learn to let go.

Are the most stress free people you know the most stubborn? We need to learn to relinquish rather than fight, in order to be successful consistently and to make the process easier and less painful.

It is only recently that I have taken leaps forward in managing my stress.

And not only am I competent, I am consciously competent. That is, I know how I did it and so I can teach you as well.

In one sentence:

The way we are raised, the culture we are part of, the media we consume. All of these things teach us how to feel.

Babies don't know that having someone walk slowly in front of them is infuriating. Anyone truly in control of their emotions is able to let common daily frustrations go. One man even taught himself to not be startled by gunshots.

If he can do that then maybe you can learn to not be frustrated by the dishwasher being stacked incorrectly...

I have created a short guide specific to managing stress and learning to be someone who is unflappable, in control, calm, composed, more resilient and anti-fragile.

If you want to learn more about this and how this can be harnessed to lose more weight and keep it off then comment on the link below and I'll send you a copy of our Stress Eating guide for free.

Get the guide now (Facebook)