Chris’ Story – Overcoming Anxiety with Real Food

I didn’t realize how much weight I had gained until my girlfriend showed me a video of myself washing my car. Seeing myself like this gave me a jumpstart to want to lose weight, so I dove in by listening to podcasts, which is where I found Dishing Up Nutrition.

The Connection Between Food and Anxiety

I listened to the podcast every day at work, driving in the car and while making breakfast. It truly provided me with a wealth of information. I have suffered from severe anxiety for years, to the point where I would break down crying at work. I searched on Dishing Up Nutrition and listened to all of the podcasts that talked about anxiety. I never realized that my anxiety could be caused by my diet and sugar. My anxiety caused all of the little problems in my life to be amplified. It made me mean and my girlfriend and I would have terrible fights.

After listening to the podcast for about a year, I had drastically changed my diet to eat the Weight & Wellness Way. I noticed that when I was eating this way, my girlfriend and I wouldn’t fight nearly as much. But on a trip back to my hometown in Delaware, we spent an entire week eating junk food and fast food. By the second day of the trip, we starting bickering again, which led to a massive 3-hour fight; one of the worst fights we’ve ever had. When we got home, I started eating the Weight & Wellness Way again with organic eggs and spinach for breakfast and cutting out the processed foods and junk food. It took a few days, but I felt drastically better. My anxiety had come back when I was eating nothing but junk food and now I know for sure the impact that eating poorly has on my mental health.

My Baby is Healthier

The Dishing Up Nutrition podcast has done so much for me, my girlfriend and our relationship. We have a baby together, and listening to the podcast has helped me to feed her better food so she is healthier. She is hardly ever sick. I only feed her organic food, nothing packaged. I make my own yogurt bites for her with pineapple and I make sure she gets a lot of healthy fats. As a result, her constipation is better and she is so smart. Since learning about the benefits of probiotics and making sure she takes a good probiotic every day, she no longer has frequent ear infections.

We also have a six-year-old and she used to get a lot of stomach aches and headaches. She would also have really bad mood swings and would cry and yell.  We cut out milk and cereal for breakfast and give her eggs instead. We noticed that she yells a lot less and we hope we are giving her the tools to make good choices on her own when she is at school so she will pick an apple over Doritos.

Dishing Up Nutrition Changed My Life

I tell everyone I meet about how awesome the podcast is and how much it has changed my life. I’m not on a diet, I am changing my lifestyle. I know that it is hard for people to eat this way when they are so used to eating processed food and fast food. I used to get teased a lot at work for the healthy food I would bring, and it was definitely a hurdle for me to overcome.

I have been so inspired by what I have learned listening to Dishing Up Nutrition that I want to be a nutritionist myself. My overall health and energy is so much better. If it wasn’t for Nutritional Weight & Wellness, I’d still be dreading waking up in the morning.

Create Your Own Success Story with Nutrition Education

Chris was able to get control of his anxiety and improve the health of his family with the power of nutrition education he received listening to Dishing Up Nutrition. 

Find more tips and advice on relieving anxiety in these additional articles and podcasts to get you started on the path toward better health.

Positive & Negative Sides of Stress
The Connection Between Stress, Cortisol & Weight Gain
Food Habits & Depression