STAYING MOTIVATED TO LOSE WEIGHT: DEALING WITH SITUATIONAL TRIGGERS
When I realized I was eating cookies just because I had entered my house, I decided to change my homecoming routine. Instead of heading straight to the kitchen, I went straight for the shower. A hot shower relaxed me and refreshed me much more than the cookies ever did.
Everybody has situational triggers. One of the most common is what I like to call monkey see, monkey do. This trigger has gotten to all of us. We walk into the coffee room at work. Everyone is standing around munching on doughnuts. Since everyone else is eating doughnuts, we start munching one, too. Or perhaps we go into the kitchen at home and our child is having a peanut butter sandwich. Suddenly, we feel as if we must have one, as well. Social gatherings especially encourage overeating. It’s easy to eat compulsively when we’re feeling nervous and ill at ease at a cocktail party. Eating gives us something to do.
Another common situational trigger is watching television. It’s easy to shift into the automatic-eating mode when our minds are elsewhere. Have you ever noticed how much food you can pack away (without even noticing it) when you eat while watching TV? To make matters worse, we’re exposed to countless food commercials that are themselves triggers for overeating. Plus, time spent sitting in front of the TV is time not spent participating in calorie-burning activities. No wonder a study done at Auburn University found that men who watched television for at least 3 hours a day were twice as likely to be obese than men who watched for less than an hour.
Just as I was able to break my cookies-and-milk habit by changing my routine once I walked through the front door, many of your situational triggers may be defused just by making a little change. Try and pinpoint what sets you off. Once you’ve figured out what, where, and when you eat, as well as your emotional state before and after eating, you can plan strategies to help you avoid these weight-loss land mines.
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