Gretchen,

Great that you continued eating breakfast through all of this! It is those stressful moments that really test our recovery, and reveal the weak spots.

I've learned quite a few things over the years. One of the things I've learned is that under stress, my hunger thermostat goes a bit wonky. Right now we are moving, and doing *fix up* at our new-to-us place. I'm finding it is hard to eat lunch...and it is probably a combination of the move, and hot weather. But, I sit and eat, even when it is difficult, and feel so much better for it.

Anyway, hope journal returns, and you figure out a plan!

Colette

: Okay all -

: I'm admitting it - I am pouting.
: I was jumping into step two with
: both feet and I felt great. So
: connected to my body - this hour
: by hour check in was a new world.
: I was feeling so grounded, I was
: making some great choices, I felt
: like I had some control over my
: emotions and life.

: And then I had ten days of some major
: stress at work. (I'm a lawyer. I
: had to meet a hard deadline to
: pull together an enormous proposal
: that was based on input from a lot
: of others).

: Well,it was great at first. I was
: handling the whole thing so much
: better because of my journal and
: being more solid on food. I was
: breathing a lot and taking things
: really pretty calmly. Then I was
: journaling my body's stress
: responses and then I noticed
: myself eating more sugar and then
: I was getting distressed and just
: let go of the journal and crash! I
: did great with work but my kids
: are so sad I was gone so much, my
: partner's exhausted, I'm
: exhausted, and I feel like
: I"m starting all over with
: step 2 (kept eating breakfast
: through all this at least - yay!)

: So now it's been a week of
: recovering. And I'm having a lot
: of trouble picking the journal up
: again. I'm mad at myself more than
: anything - I let myself down. And
: I've got another big deadline at
: the end of July and will probably
: do it again when things get rough.
: And it makes it so hard to even
: try.

: But what else can I do? I glimpsed
: something really neat there for
: a... Whoa. I just looked at my
: journal. I haven't been
: feeling that connection but
: when I look at the pages I've
: actually written so much more
: consistently in the last week than
: ever before.

: Wow, maybe the sky isn't falling
: quite so much. Maybe I just
: get to be learning..... And maybe
: that blissfulness I'm missing
: wasn't the program at all but some
: BE building up from the stress????

: Ok, I'm confused... but thanks for
: listening all!!