To Eat or Not to Eat: How Celebrities Deal with Stress

~by Heather, DietsinReview

In times of stress, most of us fall into one of two categories: The Reach-for-the-Ben & Jerry’s category or the My-Stomach-Churns-at-the-Thought-of-Food category. So it should come as no surprise when celebs like a recently divorced Madonna and a very recently dumped Jessica Simpson reveal bodies that show the consequences of their relationship woes.

The Material Girl has clearly revolutionized women’s fashion and women’s fitness. She has shown women that the weight room is not just for men and female bodybuilders. But following the recent divorce from her husband Guy Ritchie, Madonna has been hard at work being a single mother and running around the world for her Sticky and Sweet Tour.

While any 50+ woman would kill to be in half the shape that Madonna is in, a handful of pictures of her have shown her to look downright exhausted and perhaps even too thin with too many muscles. Perhaps the toll of a dissolved marriage, international travel, a deathly accident on the set of her tour and mothering four kids is showing its signs on this entertainment and fashion icon.

Next, there is Jessica Simpson. The stress of her highly publicized relationships and break-ups seem to also show up on her body. Rather than drowning her Tony Romo sorrows in extra cheese pizza and fried chicken, she hits the gym, tones up and slims down. Highly criticized for putting on a few extra pounds here and there, Jessica is no stranger to the pressures of Hollywood thinness.

Usually, her weight seems to increase when she is in a long-term, serious relationship (think John Mayer and Tony Romo) and plummet following a break-up (think ex-husband Nick Lachey, John Mayer and now Tony Romo). To her, boasting a newer svelte figure is the best revenge, even better than sidling up with another Hollywood hunk. Simpson is a big fan of Harley Pasternak, creator of the 5-Factor Diet, a 5-week diet plan that is popular amongst celebs and includes noshing on five mini-meals throughout the day, made with just five ingredients in just five minutes.

So even though the celebs might have access to the best personal trainers and chefs, they are in many ways not that much different from the rest of us when it comes to our reactions to stress. Whether stress sends you to the kitchen or to the gym, it is an interesting lesson to observe how you deal with it and it’s even more interesting to note how our bodies become a direct reflection of the current state of our lives. Emotional, over- or under eating may not be the healthiest response to stress, but if in cases like Simpson’s where it spurs you to hit the gym and eat your green veggies, then maybe there is a silver lining in every dark cloud.

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