The Best Diet When You're Feeling Burned Out
Have you noticed when you’re stressed out you eat crap? Or at least crave it more? You turn to food or caffeine for more energy, and to food or alcohol to manage the stress. Temptation is everywhere, and you lose “willpower” or motivation to stay “on track”.
There’s a reason, and it’s not because you’re “weak,” or “lazy,” or “can’t commit.” It’s because
stress hormones affect our cravings and our decision-making. Chronic stress, which leads to burnout, affects what you eat, how you eat, and how much you eat. Chronic stress and burnout are also associated with obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and other chronic conditions.
Research is also emerging showing that what you eat can increase your feelings of stress. So it becomes this awful cycle. Healthier eating is protective against stress, which helps you better manage your stress levels and therefore hormones, which means you experience less chronic stress, which means you don’t burn out, which means you don’t have cravings for crap.
Or the reverse. Eating crap influences the inflammation in your body and might contribute to your feelings of chronic stress, exacerbating burnout, and increasing your cravings for crap.
So what does this mean?
You have to break the cycle. But how?
When I work with clients, the first thing we adjust is how they eat, not what they eat. Mindful eating is goal. This means making conscious food and drink choices, eating/drinking when you are hungry and stopping when you are satisfied, not stuffed, being present during meals/snacks, and being aware of how food choices affect you mentally, physically, and emotionally.
It’s not easy to adopt this habit. But you can build to it over time, and every step forward increases your health. One strategy that works well, is starting with the goal of simply slowing down your meals. You can do this by putting the utensils down between bites, for example.
After we make progress on the "how", we look at the what.
There isn’t one perfect diet for everyone. However, all successful eating plans share some commonalities:
• prioritizing unprocessed foods
• increased vegetables and fruit in their whole form (meaning not juiced or dried…which by the way is processing)
• lean proteins
• and if you’re going to do grains, make them whole
• avoid sugar-sweetened beverages
• monitor the alcohol (more and more evidence points to abstaining altogether but that’s a whole can of worms for another blog post)
• monitor the caffeine
And for weight management, calories-in-calories-out is critical. If you feel like it doesn’t work, Dr. Layne Norton has a great discussion and several posts on this.
There is significant research supporting the Mediterranean Diet, and Nordic Diet if you’re looking for a framework to start with (Esquivel, 2020; Penttinen et al., 2021).
Of course, it’s not helpful to just say, eat more fruit. Or swap fries for a salad. We hear messages like that all the time and if it were that easy, no one would have a problem. The challenge is actually changing the habits for the long term.
Having lost over 45 pounds and kept it off for about 20 years, I promise I understand the struggle. When I work with clients, we start with small, strategic changes. And critically, we peel back the layers to understand what’s really driving the need that that food or beverage serves. No pun intended. For example, if you can get your sleep routine on point, and your stress levels down, the cravings might take care of themselves. Instead of swapping chips for carrots, let’s solve the actual problem not swap the bandage.
And then we look at how much.
It’s important to note that this post mostly talks about folks who respond to stress by eating/drinking too much and choosing foods/drinks that worsen their health. But stress can lead some to under-eat. So if you notice you’ve lost your appetite and are losing weight, that’s also a sign of chronic stress and potentially burnout.
How to Start.
One of the best first steps is asking for support from a board-certified health and wellness coach, and/or a nutritionist/Registered Dietitian, and/or a therapist. The amount and type of support you need will depend on your level of stress and how it’s affecting you.
The second or next best step is to start paying attention to what you’re feeling when you’re eating and tracing that backward. What led to the empty bag of Oreos? Was it something that just happened or yesterday’s meeting with your boss that you’re still pissed about? How are these stressful events affecting you? Are you a ruminator? Is the pressure of owning a business keeping you up at night?
Play detective and see what patterns you notice. If you’d like help exploring, book a free discovery call here.
Finally, start paying attention to the environment around you. Is your kitchen set up for success? Do you always pass a certain vending machine or break room or cafe with scent marketing that you can’t pass up? What places, sights, and sounds influence your eating/drinking choices?
TLDR
When I work with my clients on burnout prevention/recovery and adopting a healthier lifestyle, we look at:
What to eat (education)
How to eat (practice)
When to eat (a mix of both)
Why you’re craving certain foods/drinks (exploration)
Why you act on those cravings (a mix of everything)
To get started, book a free discovery call here.
References
Esquivel M. K. (2020). Nutrition Strategies for Reducing Risk of Burnout Among Physicians and Health Care Professionals. American journal of lifestyle medicine, 15(2), 126–129. https://doi.org/10.1177/1559827620976538
Penttinen, M. A., Virtanen, J., Laaksonen, M., Erkkola, M., Vepsäläinen, H., Kautiainen, H., & Korhonen, P. (2021). The Association between Healthy Diet and Burnout Symptoms among Finnish Municipal Employees. Nutrients, 13(7), 2393. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13072393