How to beat eating triggers

How to beat eating triggers

Does this sound familiar…

You are at work and your boss has dropped a rush job on you, putting you under immense pressure. As you try and get through it the phones are ringing off the hook making things extremely difficult. You get through it by working through your break then rush off to pick up the kids from the child minder. They start acting up in the car ride home and continue when you get home. While you are trying to make their tea they are running riot. Once they are finally in bed you collapse on the sofa with a glass of wine and bar of chocolate and say to yourself that you’ll ‘be good’ starting tomorrow. And, as you’ve had a glass you may as well finish off the bottle!

We eat for many different reasons other than physiological hunger, and emotional reasons such as stress, is pretty high up on the list. After a stressful day we reach for certain food and drink to help us relax and unwind. It’s our treat after a hard day. When we stop our brain’s trigger ‘reward’ and we all too commonly reach for comfort food that will trigger a feel good response, even though that feeling is short-lived.

Eating can also happen in the evening to beat night time boredom. Identifying a stress or boredom food link is the first step, followed by establishing an alternative, non food-related reward. Easier said than done I know but it is a very important aspect of successful fat loss and improving your health.

There are four types of triggers. Let’s look at them below:

Physical sensations

These can be internal physiological sensations to do with blood sugar or external stimuli such as the smell of food. Tips to manage these would be:

-       Avoid going past tempting shops

-       Keep tempting food out of the house

-       Eat protein and good fats with every meal to keep you fuller for longer

-       Eat enough at each meal so you don’t get hungry quickly

-       Eat real and natural food to get your quota of vitamins, minerals and fibre, then you won’t get the signal to eat

Locations

It can be challenging eating when you are away from home, whether just shopping, with friends or travelling.

Tips to manage these would be:

-       Don’t go to the supermarket when you are hungry

-       Eat before going to a social event so you don’t ‘have’ to eat what is on offer, such as brown and yellow buffet food!

-       Take your own food with you

-       If it’s not in your house you can’t eat it!

Emotions

We already mentioned stress and boredom, but emotions can be very real and powerful feelings that cause us to turn to food or drink for comfort. Other emotional triggers include loneliness, low self-esteem, anger, tiredness.

When you recognise that you are about to self-sabotage your own efforts just STOP! Think…are you actually hungry?

Do you physiologically need it? Will it help you with your goals? Probably not. So, take a few deep breaths and go and do something else instead.

Here are some ideas:

-       Go for a walk

-       Phone a friend

-       Drink a glass of water and brush your teeth

-       Clean/tidy up something

-       Play with the kids

-       Dance to your favorite music

-       Go to the gym or class

-       Have a bubble bath

-       Read a book or watch a dvd

-       Do your nails

-       Go on Facebook!

Relationships

Other people can provide an enormous challenge when trying to stay on the healthy eating path. They themselves may not be ready to make such a change so will do their utmost to sabotage your efforts so they don’t have to change themselves.

You could just say nothing to anyone about your quest to be healthier, then when offered something you can say you’ve already eaten or just not hungry. Alternatively if you have a gathering or social occasion coming up, eat really well all that week so you can relax and have a little of what you fancy and REALLY enjoy it without feeling guilty.

You may be able to eat healthily until you are amongst other people. You may feel obliged to eat everything that is served to you by your caring partner, mother, aunt or friend. You may be worried about hurting their feelings especially if they have made a huge effort. This is a difficult situation but at the end of the day it is YOUR body and if it doesn’t need the extra food there is only one place it will go…into FAT STORAGE!

But, getting the support of your friends and family is really important. You can explain to them firmly that you are fed up of feeling tired, sluggish and fat in all of your clothes and need them to support you in your quest to be slimmer and healthier, even if they themselves are not ready. The chances are they will soon see how much better you will start looking and feeling about yourself that they will end up joining you eventually anyway.

Need a hand?

Myself and my colleague Matt Murphy know how hard it is to stay on track sometimes, and that it can be very lonely when no one seems to be there to support you.

We wanted to help as many people as possible, which is why we created our nutrition plan and even gave it away for free! (You can get yours too from www.OptimisationPlan.com)

But, we found when our clients started communicating with each other, they were much more successful, dropped pounds of body fat and gained bags more energy.

This is why we have created an online support program to go alongside our plan called The Optimisation Journey. It combines all the great information from our Optimisation Plan given to gradually on a daily basis so you are not overwhelmed and can concentrate on a bit at a time.

There will be motivational videos and optional workouts to do and also a support group where all members can chat, share ideas, recipes and all support each other on their own journeys. This is actually the best part of the plan.

Our next journey is due to kick off on Monday 17^th September. For more information click here www.optimisationplan.com/journey