I’ve Been Stress Eating. Do You Have Any Tips for Changing This Habit?

Hey, it's J.J. here. You know, I've been talking about environmental toxins forever, and laundry detergent is a sneaky one. A lot of them contain harsh chemicals like dyes, preservatives, and even UV brighteners. Those brighteners don't actually clean anything. They just coat fabric so your eyes think things look whiter or brighter. That's more chemicals I don't want on my family sheets or skin. And if you've got sensitive skin or allergies around the house, this can be a big problem. That's what got my attention about Earth Breeze. It looks like a dryer sheet, but it's actually laundry detergent. You toss one in the washer and that's it. No pouring, no mess, and no heavy plastic jug. Their packaging is lightweight cardboard, which helps reduce plastic waste. And if you choose the fragrance free option, it's gentle, hypoallergenic, non irritating, and non sensitizing. I really like how simple it is and how fresh and clean everything comes out without those unnecessary chemicals. Right now you can try Earth Breeze for up to 40% off with free gifts@earthbreeze.com virgin that's earthbreeze.com virgin for up to 40% off plus free gifts on your first order. Hey, JJ here. Can you believe how fast the holidays are knocking at the door this year? One minute it's pumpkin spice season, the next you're getting your guest room ready and wondering where their wrapping paper went. And that's when I turned to Wayfair. From bedding and towels to holiday decor and last minute stocking stuffers, Wayfair has everything you need to get your home and holidays together fast. And for way less. With Wayfair, I know I can refresh my guest room in no time. Maybe I'll add a soft new comforter or a few holiday throw pillows. With Wayfair, it's so easy and everything arrives super fast. Plus, there's free shipping for any order over $35 easy and total peace of mind. So whether you're hosting, gifting, or just adding those final festive touches, Wayfair has your back. And when the holidays wind down, Wayfair has everything you need to tuck it all neatly away. Smart storage solutions for every room from the kitchen to the closet. Get organized, refreshed and ready for the holidays. For way less, head to Wayfair.com right now to shop all things home. Wayfair. Every style, every home that's W A Y F A I R.com this episode.

Is brought to you by Buffalo Trace Distillery. Powerful yet smooth contained but never tame. Proudly going their own way but never going alone. This is the spirit inside Buffalo Trace Bourbon Made at Buffalo Trace Distillery. The world world's most award winning distillery. Buffalo Trace is always perfectly untamed. Distilled, aged and bottled by Buffalo Trace distillery, Franklin County, Kentucky 90 proof 45% alcohol by volume. Learn more at buffalotrace distillery.com Please drink responsibly.

I've been stress eating. Do you have any tips for changing this habit? This is JJ Virgin, four time New York Times Best selling author, celebrity nutrition expert and Fitness hall of Famer. I've been on lifelong quest for answers to the toughest health questions and now I'm sharing what I found with you. Welcome to Ask the Health Expert. Caitlin from Facebook asks, I've been stress eating. Do you have any tips for changing this habit? Hey, it's JJ and I've got Serena Poon here today to answer this question. She's a Les Cordon Bleu trained chef, certified nutritionist, and Reiki Master to the Hollywood elite. She started by creating contemporary meals, nutrition plans and menus for the likes of everyone from Jerry Bruckheimer to Kerry Washington to Sean P. Diddy Combs. Her passion for integrative health and holistic nutrition led her to create Culinary Alchemy, a method of functional and spiritual nutrition that integrates how food affects our bodies on a physiological and energetic level. She's also a crazy good gift giver. I've gotten some of my favorite crystals from her. We'll be right back to answer this question, so stay with me.

Hey JJ Virgin here. Okay, real talk. So often the holidays sneak up on me, travel, gifts, hosting, you know, all the things and suddenly it's like, wait, who spent what and where? And I know I'm not the only one who's looked at a bill in January and thought, wow, that escalated quickly. If you want to keep your finances under control this holiday season, you need to be using Monarch. It's rated the Wall Street Journal's best budgeting app of 2025. Monarch is the all in one personal finance tool that brings your entire financial life together in one clean interface on your laptop or on your phone. Monarch lets you link everything and gives you real time visibility so you're not shocked later. Right now, I've been checking the holiday spending category so I don't accidentally start the new year with that dreaded debt hangover. And honestly, just seeing everything laid out is already helping me stay more aware. This season, Monarch does the Heavy lifting. It links your accounts in minutes, gives you smart categorization and super clear visuals. Yes, that end of year reset could be a real goal. This time, don't let financial opportunity slip through the cracks. Use the code virginonarch.com in your browser for half off your first year. That's 50% off your first year@monarch.com with the code Virgin.

Some people think nature is like this, but actually it's like this. Mother Nature is not all sunshine and rainbows. Nature can be hotter than a sauna and colder than an arctic skinny dip. That's why Columbia engineers everything we make for anything nature can throw at you. Columbia engineered for whatever.

So if we nourish our bodies regularly, we will be less prone to stress induced cravings. You know, in my practice of culinary alchemy, I teach people that food is the energy of love and nourishment. You know, on the flip side, stress carries with it the energy of fear and panic. So if you eat a balanced diet that is overflowing with plants and plant foods and everything is prepared with the intention of love, you can actually help your body and your mind feel nourished and grounded, which can actually help reduce cravings. So I really believe that developing a mindfulness practice can help manage stress eating. When that pops up. I quite often recommend taking time to learn breathing exercises, grounding practices or movements that can really help you ease stress when life is relatively normal. And it's sort of that normal daily stress. But of course, you know, when you experience times of high stress, you'll need other tools to kind of simmer back down and get yourself grounded and relax and recenter. So just with most things, learning to address stress in a way that will support your health and nourish your body is a journey. So I would say kind of be gentle with yourself, show yourself some patience and self love because these are the foundations for why you may be triggered to reach for food and to reach for that stress eating type of type of behavior. I think that one of the best things that we can do from a physical place to change this habit is staying very hydrated. So hydration is something that I talk about all the time, not just because it helps our body function better from a physical place, but it's also fundamental for proper energy flow. So when you're dehydrated, the energy within your body, within your energetic body is stagnant, which causes stress. You know, in your energetic body, it can cause brain fog, it can cause physical stressors. So you know, drinking lots of water and staying well hydrated is important on a regular basis, but even more so during stressful times, because that's when we find ourselves stress eating and indulging more. And so when our bodies are properly hydrated, our metabolism, our digestive, our natural detoxification, mental acuity, everything just functions better and we're able to properly absorb nutrients. So that, that way when we are eating something that is, you know, healthy or we're just, we're, we're fueling our body on a normal basis, when we're hydrated, we're actually able to fully absorb those nutrients. And those nutrients, especially if there's something like adaptogens and other things that we've talked about, can help, can help balance out our body and prevent us from stress eating. So hydration is one I would say again, mindfulness is huge. So try to decompress daily, whether or not you are meditating or doing a breathing exercise, or just taking a moment a few times a day to disconnect from what you're doing and center yourself. That has proven to be beneficial for long term health and wellness. And quite often it just takes a couple minutes a day. A great place to start is the four, four, four breathing exercise that I teach all my clients and I'm constantly sharing. And some people look at it as box breathing, but it's just a type of paced breathing that can really reduce your stress in seconds. So before reaching for something that might be just comfort food, something with sugar or fat, something that you know isn't good for you, but you're quote, you know, wanting to stress eat, try just taking a moment and taking a breath and just taking a breath to the count of four, a deep breath down to the pit of your stomach and just hold it there for four counts, and then you release it for four counts, and then you take a pause for four to six counts and then you breathe again deep to the count of four. So if you do this four or five times often you can reduce your stress. You know, you can reduce your stress in seconds just by doing that. And it's simple, effective, it can be done anywhere, anytime. Breath work, as we know, really helps calm down the nervous system. You know, it shifts us from a sympathetic state to a parasympathetic state so that we can make better decisions, you know, and we can choose not to reach for unhealthy comfort foods. That is usually indicative of stress eating. Another thing I would say is, you know, to really try and, and connect with nature every day if you can, even if it's for 10 or 15 minutes. Sit in the sun when you first wake up in the morning, kind of take in that vitamin D and help your body wake up naturally. Taking a walk sometimes in the middle of the day can really help calm your nervous system and it can help reduce stress so you don't reach for unhealthy foods when you're stress eating. And sometimes stress eating might not even be unhealthy foods, but it's the notion that you're reaching to eat something because you're feeling stressed. And your body may not be needing any foods at that moment. It might not need any nutrients, whether they're healthy or unhealthy. So spending some time in nature is a great way to help improve symptoms of anxiety, stress, even depression. And I would say that getting more sleep is another, is another helpful tip for that can affect how, whether or not you stress eat. So, you know, lack of sleep can really exacerbate the body's stress response. It can weaken our immune system, it can disrupt our gut health, and it can completely throw our hormones out of balance and just out of whack. And having a lack of sleep tends to lead to amplified emotions, feelings of stress and anxiety. And if you're allowing yourself to get enough sleep, more than likely you are helping yourself stay in a more calm state and less likely to feel stress and anxiety and less likely to reach for foods and less likely to go and stress eat. So even just an extra half hour or an hour that you set aside to mindfully get good quality sleep could be something that's very helpful, not just for stress eating for a lot of things, but definitely for stress eating. And then I would say eating a variety of vegetables and fruit. You know, I always talk about eating the rainbow and vegetables and fruit, fruit in moderation because of the sugar level. Sugar levels. But vegetables just deliver such a wide array of healthy phytonutrients that really nourish your body and support your. Support your overall, your overall system and your overall health. And when you're eating in that balanced way, when you're supporting your body, your overall body in that way, with as much, many colors of the rainbow as possible so that you're reaching the whole spectrum of nutrients, you'll find yourself much more balanced and much more in a state of receiving, which is important for digestion, which is important for your mind, important for stress, important for just feeling grounded. So those are a few ways that I think are very helpful to change the habit of stress eating.

This is JJ with Ask The Health Expert. I do this five times a week, so make sure you never miss a show by going to subscribetojay.com.

Hello listeners, this is Anne Bogle, author, blogger and creator of the podcast what Should I Read next? Since 2016, I've been helping readers bring more joy and delight into their reading lives. Every week I check all things books and reading with a guest and guide them in discovering their next read. They share three books they love, one book they don't, and what they've been reading lately, and I recommend three titles they may enjoy reading Next. Guests have said our conversations are like therapy, troubleshooting issues that have plagued their reading lives for years and possibly the rest of their lives as well. And of course, recommending books that meet the moment. Whether they are looking for deep introspection to spur or encourage a life change or a frothy page turner to help them escape the stresses of work, school, everything, you'll learn something about yourself as a reader and you'll definitely walk away confident to choose your next read, with a whole list of new books and authors to try. So join us each Tuesday for what Should I Read Next? Subscribe now wherever you're listening to this podcast and visit our website what Should I read next podcast.com to find out more.