Whether it’s certain foods, times of day, specific events or situations, particular emotions and feelings or even certain people, there are things that ‘trigger’ us to eat or drink in ways that are contrary to our healthy eating or weight loss goals.
Understanding your personal triggers and coming up with ways to help you manage them better is key to your long term success.
For anyone who struggles with their weight, the concept of ‘triggers’ is something you are very likely to recognise:
- that certain food that once you’ve had one, you simply can’t stop and it seems like you just have no control over
- turning to food when you feel stressed / sad / lonely / bored etc etc etc
- situations or times of day that no matter how good your intention is, the urge to turn to certain foods or drinks is simply overwhelming and you struggle to break the habit
Some important observations!
1) You are not alone
2) We all have different triggers – what may be a trigger for me, may be something that you have no issue with and what you struggle with, may never have been a problem for me
3) There are many ways to manage your triggers and again, what works for me, may not work for you so try different strategies to find out what works best for you
4) You can change!
One example of the vicious circle!
These are just some of the things that go through my mind and affect my behaviour – both mentally and physically in just one instance of succumbing to one of my trigger foods:
For me, there’s certain foods that I simply just really like the taste of and once I’ve had one, I find it really hard to stop. A prime example is biscuits. An unopened packet of biscuits doesn’t really cause me any issues – BUT as soon as that pack is open, it seems to speak to me and call my name from the kitchen ‘Georgina, just one more, one more won’t hurt’ but I know that giving in to that ‘one more’ for me will lead to an overwhelming desire to keep going and before I know it, the packet will be empty.
This leads on to another of my triggers – an emotional one.
I’ll immediately have the following thoughts and emotions – guilt, annoyance and an immediate feeling of ‘well, I’ve blown it now’ which in itself is another huge trigger as it’s usually followed by ‘well, I may as well really blow it now’ and starting looking for other things to eat because I’ve already ruined the day now.
This then will be followed by an immediate ‘damage limitation’ thinking process – I’ll cut back for the rest of the week, I’ll eat less, I’ll exercise more, I’ll make it up somehow. Which is again for me, another trigger danger – restriction and denying myself things brings out the inner rebel and if I have a moment of weakness at any point in those ‘strict days’, I’ll be right back where I started in the vicious circle of overeat, guilt, overeat, annoyance, blow it, guilt, restriction, overeat (you get the picture!)
I’ve identified lots of my own triggers – some are linked to specific foods, some are situation based and the biggest (and hardest) ones are linked to emotions. I’ll share some of my tips and strategies below.
Tips and ideas to manage your own personal triggers
1
The first thing to do is spend some time really thinking about what your own triggers are and what it is that is getting in your way of reaching the weight loss or healthy eating goals you’re working towards.
Be really honest with yourself and think about exactly what happens – how are you feeling, what has happened, what foods or drinks do you reach for in these situations and also how do you feel after you’ve consumed them?
Knowing this information is a huge step in the process of making changes and helping you to plan ahead for the next time you find yourself in the same place.
2
A simple option to help is a very practical one – don’t buy the trigger foods! If they aren’t in the house, you can’t eat them!
For some people this is absolutely works but its not always possible or practical, you may have foods in for the kids or other members of the household and its impossible to avoid foods forever so you may want to look at other ways you can manage this – buy varieties of the trigger foods that you don’t particularly like or crave
– buy individual portioned items
– put them in a cupboard that you don’t use very often
– decide in advance a day or time that you are going to enjoy just one of your triggers, taking away that ‘guilt or shame’ and potential to overindulge
3
If you’ve recognised that certain emotions lead you to overeating or your particular trigger food, ask yourself does the food actually do anything? Has it got magic powers that make that stress suddenly vanish from your life? It may help for the few minutes it takes you to consume the food or drink but the actual stress is still there and quite likely, you’ve now added guilt or annoyance into the mix too. Taking a few deep breaths and asking yourself ‘if I eat this chocolate, what actually will that achieve?’ could be all it takes to change that habit.
4
Learn to recognise the difference between ‘physical hunger’ and ’emotional hunger’
This is a big one for me and something I ask myself quite a lot. When the urge to eat comes over me, I take a moment to really think if it’s my body needing food or my mind craving it. More often than not, it’s not physical hunger but something else – boredom, worry, stress etc and I can help to rationalise it by telling myself ‘you only ate dinner an hour ago so you aren’t actually hungry, what else is going on?’
5
Would I eat an apple?
This one really does help a lot! Trigger foods are rarely things that we class as ‘good for us’ – how often do you say ‘I’ve had a really bad day at work, I need some carrot sticks’!!!
So, ask yourself – would I eat an apple right now? I bet the answer a lot of the time will be no! If that’s the case, the thing you are craving is an emotional craving not a physical sign of hunger.
6
Plan ahead
Once you’ve identified your triggers (point 1 above) put some protection measures in place.
An example for me is as follows:
I realised that one of my dangers was the time in between getting home from the office and dinner time. I’d be hungry, I’d be in the kitchen cooking and even though I knew dinner was not long away, I’d snack on quick and easy things which were all very much in reach as I was in the kitchen. Rather than setting myself a rule like ‘you will not eat anything before dinner’ (I knew I’d not be able to stick to that), instead, I planned for it and had a healthy and tasty snack such as homemade hummus with veg sticks or a chopped fruit salad ready so that I could get home hungry and still have something to eat but it wasn’t going to start that vicious circle of overeating / guilt as mentioned above.
Protection measures can be all sorts of things and I have lots in place depending on the event / situation / trigger food / trigger emotion and I regularly check in to see if anything new has cropped up and how I can help myself through it.
7
Talk about it and ask for help
Again, this was a big one for me. I’d always been a secret eater and I didn’t expect anyone to understand – particularly my friends and family who seemed to have no issues with food at all and were slim, fit and healthy. By actually explaining to my loved ones how I felt around certain foods or what went through my head after eating them helped so much in terms of their understanding as to why I wouldn’t have a dessert at a restaurant or why I didn’t want to order a takeaway or why not to buy me a box of chocolates as a gift. Plus, no-one thought I was mad or crazy (which is what I expected) and every one was and is very supportive of my choices.
Also, finding someone in the same boat really helps – someone who has the same battles as you and you can check in with if you’re having a tough time managing a potential trigger situation to talk it through with.
8
Find healthy alternatives
I’m a bit of a chocolate girl and, if I do ‘need’ something chocolately. my first point of call is a low fat hot chocolate which takes the craving away, takes time to consume and I know I’m very unlikely to overconsume and keep going back for more hot chocolates one after the other!
I also know that I won’t ever be able to never eat chocolate again (I tried giving it up completely and that led to a complete overeating disaster) so by finding more controlled and measured ways to enjoy it, I can still have chocolate without the need to overeat or consume in secret.
And, perhaps the most important thing of all - FORGIVE YOURSELF if you have a slip
You aren’t a bad person or a failure if you do have a slip up, we are all human and I’m yet to meet the ‘perfect human being’.
Guilt is one of the most dangerous and negative emotions in my book and learning to let go of that, shake it off and move on is one of the biggest gifts you can give yourself. Don’t write off a week or even a day because things may not have gone according to your plan, stop calling yourself a failure and beating yourself up – just dust yourself down, look at what happened from a non-emotional point of view and see what you can learn that can help you next time you’re in the same boat.
I could probably write a whole book on this topic and what I’ve learned about myself over the past 12 years as well as from my years of helping others in their weight loss journeys so I’ll stop here before I bore you too much!!! This is something I explore with all of my coaching clients as it’s often triggers that we need a lot of help with. If you would like to find out more about my 1-2-1 coaching programme or how I can help you, please do get in touch.
Email me or phone/message: 07834 442607
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