A: Whether you’re logging miles to and from work, shuttling kids to countless activities, or chauffeuring aging parents to their medical appointments, commuting can be a major pain. You have three options: You can embrace the driving (or get help schlepping folks around), quit that job, or try moving closer to work. Whatever your choice, activating your Adapt & Adjust strategies is absolutely crucial. First, visualize your drive more positively. That blunts a dangerous downside of stress: drained willpower. The drain occurs because stress hormones, triggered by the brain’s master protein, corticotropin-releasing factor, ignite the craving process. If you vent even mild road rage, you’ll deplete your willpower well before you reach your driveway. As a result, once home, you’re more likely to mindlessly “treat” yourself to just (using that word lets you justify an unhealthy choice) a slice of cake, an extra helping of mashed potatoes, or hours of lame TV. So transform your commute into a more pleasurable one. You’ll spend the same amount of time on the road but will arrive with your self-control intact—and you’ll be ready to cook that healthy meal, take that afterdinner walk, and resist that late-night snack. Your Challenge: You see your commute as a waste of time.Adapt & Adjust: Reframe it as “me time.” It’s not your commute but your reaction to it that inflicts damage. View commuting as wasted time and it will be; view it as a cache of mind expansion and possibilities open up. Bliss out by listening to inspirational audiobooks or poetry or “reading” the Bible. Your Challenge: You get bored on the road.Adapt & Adjust: Sing it, baby. Belting out anything from Adele to ZZ Top is a terrific workout! When you sing loudly, you exercise your lungs and heart, increasing the amount of oxygen in your blood. Listening helps, too: One study found that blood vessels dilate up to 26% when people hear joyful music. Singing also expands your chest, straightens your back and shoulders, and tones your stomach muscles. Your Challenge: You want to beat the traffic.Adapt & Adjust: Get over it. Stay in the highway’s right lane with the cruise control set at the speed limit. Studies show that “decision fatigue” depletes willpower. If you’re continually guessing which lane will be faster, you won’t have much left to be mindful about choosing broccoli versus a burger. Your Challenge: Your schedule makes it hard to exercise.Adapt & Adjust: Fit it in. Find a health club on both ends of your drive. Work out in the morning or hit the gym before you head home. The endorphin rush will either make it a great day or release the day’s pent-up stresses. (See how else you can stress-proof your commute.) Your Challenge: You resent the trip every single day.Adapt & Adjust: As poet Mary Oliver asked, is this what you want to do with your one wild and precious life? Does your salary really compensate for the loss of your priceless, limited hours on Earth? If your job isn’t worth the stressful hours on the road, look for a new one (and use these tips to ace an interview). PAM PEEKE, MD, is assistant clinical professor of medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and author of The Hunger Fix: The Three-Stage Detox and Recovery Plan for Overeating and Food Addiction (Rodale, 2012). Dr. Peeke is a Pew Foundation Scholar in Nutrition and Metabolism and is one of the few physicians in America formally trained in nutrition. She was also the first senior research fellow in the original NIH Office of Alternative Medicine, where she helped to lay the foundation for evidenced- based scientific studies in the field of cancer and nutrition. Dr. Peeke is a medical and science commentator for CNN Headline News as well as PBS’s Health Week. She is presently a regular expert on NBC’s Today Show and has appeared in numerous national television specials. Dr. Peeke is the author of the bestsellers, Fight Fat After Forty and The Hunger Fix: The Three-Stage Detox and Recovery Plan for Overeating and Food Addiction, (Rodale 2012).
