So much stress eating, so much

Thanks everyone for being so candid ... Always good to know you're not the only one xoxox

The Quarantine 15 is real. Ugh.

Yes and no, since I've been home I've been able to make salads every day for lunch, and there has been an abundance of fresh local produce to eat. It's much more difficult in winter.

But, DHs main food groups are chips, chocolate, cookies, and granola bars- and I'm home all day- and stressed from being on the phone/Zoom all day.

They're making me return to the office 3 days a week though- so I'll need to figure something out. I don't want to spend all day Sunday doing food and other weekly prep like I used to!

Stress-, boredom-, and habit-eating are real things for me (as are hormonal changes!). But my biggest nutrition challenges seem to come from traveling. That is when I eat, drink alcohol and avoid working out with abandon!

Six years ago I started using MyFitnessPal to track my nutrition and fitness habits (DH had been using it for a few years before that) and it was eye opening. It motivates me because I am analytical and I like data, which reinforces the log everything mentality. And I can say from experience, these trackers only work if you actually do log everything. I tend to fall off the logging wagon when I travel or eat out. And my weight chart in the app since 2014 shows significant spikes almost every time I travel for more than a couple of days.

But since the pandemic began, I've cooked every meal at home, and hiked or worked out 5-7 times a week. So now I have a nearly complete record of diet and exercise for 6.5 months.

My data-driven epiphanies are: 1) I have pretty low rate of base metabolism - I'm female, small and older - so I need to actively burn calories every day. If I ate the "U.S. average daily diet" of 2000 calories without working out hard, I might gain two or three pounds a month! 2) I am a serious snacker, particularly after dinner. 3) Many snacks don't meet my cost/benefit analysis - who knew a Starbucks muffin and Frappachino would more than offset my 8 mile hike - which has helped me make different snack choices. 4) Evening festive adult beverages had become a mindless habit even when I wasn't celebrating anything; plus the disinhibition effect probably made me snack more at my weak time.

So now I try to make sure I have an evening snack buffer. And DH and I largely stopped drinking alcohol back in Feb/March. If he hadn't stopped, I would have had a hard time because I am highly suggestible and lack willpower. Although we did share a nice bottle of wine with our home-cooked phyllo potpie dinner last night, so nothing is written in stone.

It will be interesting to see what good and bad pandemic habits carry over once our behavior is less constrained.

Finally got myself to work out and wouldn’t you know, afterwards my appetite immediately got healthier. I know I need to be eating protein, but tonight I wanted the tuna steaks so much I skipped over easier things like I have been eating.

I am glad you asked and that so many answered that the less you exercise the more junk food we wanna eat. I wonder if is because of endorphins that we would get from exercise and we look for in food.
I have done my fair share of supporting the potato industry during these COVID times. :O)

I like cookies, cakes and other desserts and I am also good at baking them. But it is tough for me to eat them more than 1 cookie or one piece of cake. But yes, salty snacks, roasted meat etc, I can eat in bulk. In my opinion, mayhap you have hormonal change or stress issues which are leading eating habits swings. (I am not expert just giving my opinion)