Stress - what's that?

Why is it that, whenever we feel stressed, the automatic reaction is to reach for the chocolate? I mean, what possible good can chocolate do? And for that matter, why can't we crave a nice crisp apple or a light tasty salad instead of a bar of Galaxy Hazelnut? Oh now look what I've done! I've named the monster, now I'm in big trouble!

Funnily enough, I treated myself to a packet of Minstrels the other day and to my amazement they really didn't do much for me! They used to be one of my favourite treats but this time they seemed a bit tasteless and not very interesting. Even the thrill of having something "forbidden" didn't interest me, since in my philosphy nothing really is forbidden! I shared them with everyone else in the studio and that did feel good, all the fun of chocolate and hardly any of the calories! I could be on to something here.

Now, I know there's supposed to be feel-good substances in chocolate and that's what we're really craving and I can kid myself that there's lots of protein in the hazelnuts but that's exactly what I'm doing - kidding myself. So my mission for this week is whenever I'm feeling stressed or overwhelmed and that urge for Galaxy Hazelnut surfaces, is to consciously replace that thought with something more nutritious and healthy and to consciously focus back on what I want - that fabulous fit body, rather than how hard I'm going to have to work to get it.

Maybe that's where we go wrong a lot of the time, and not just with diets - we take our eye off what we want and start to focus on what we have to do to get it. Which sounds sort of sensible but actually is anything but. Focusing on the work makes everything much more difficult, but focusing on the desired result is fun and empowering.