Thursday, January 28, 2010

Trigger Defenses, or Lists Part Deux

Last week I blogged about our eating triggers –those emotional/situational/food triggers that seem to make our ‘eat healthy’ resolve go poof. Or worse, the ones that push our buttons and send us right over the edge into a binging indulgence that makes us miserable after-the-fact.

So did you read the blog? If not, here, check it out! And once you’ve read it, you made your list, right? (s’okay if you didn’t, just play along with me) So now you know your triggers. You’re aware of what repetitive triggers you encounter in your life that could spell disaster for your progress toward healthy weight. And knowledge is power, yay. But... just knowing what they are isn’t enough.

The trick is knowing what to do about them.

You know what’s coming next, right? If you read last week’s blog, I’m sure you have an idea *g*
Make a list!

Look at each trigger and list three things you can do to avoid the situation.

For instance – if your trigger is a party with a buffet, what are three things you can do to overeat?

1. Eat a light meal beforehand
2. Fill your plate with veggies and healthy fare, then move away from the buffet
3. Don’t drink alcohol if you know it’ll send destroy your good intentions.

Your list will vary, of course *g*

But by having a list, of whatever variety, you’re prepared to deal with the trigger. It’s like that ‘what to do when you get the call’ list (you’ve seen it, right? The list of questions to ask, of things to have prepared?). It’s just one extra tool in your arsenal to help you to be a healthy writer, ya know?

So do you have a list for your list yet? Do you think this is a tool you’ll find useful?

4 comments:

Michelle Butler on January 28, 2010 at 9:44 AM said...

This is really good advice, Tawny. Figuring out what will challenge your good intentions and brainstorming ways to overcome the obstacles is so, so helpful.

One of my challenges is emotional eating. A lady said something very smart at the last WW meeting about that. If you feel like you "deserve" to eat something, it's emotional eating. That was such a clear way to judge is this emotional eating or eating for hunger. I'm trying to ask myself that when faced with temptations.

Tawny on January 28, 2010 at 12:00 PM said...

Oooh, 'deserve' is such a loaded word, isn't it, Michelle!

For me, the phrase is usually "what difference will it make" That's my fallback frustrated phrase. So for me, having a list of actual differences in mind - or a direction to send that self-dialogue, is a great trigger defense.

I hope your question works for you!

Sally Kilpatrick on January 28, 2010 at 12:11 PM said...

Hmm. I have a lot of triggers. One of them is not getting to the grocery store in a timely manner to have healthy food on hand--don't quite know how to fix that one in a week like this.

Another trigger is not eating enough at any given meal. Undoubtedly, I will overcompensate at the next one. Once I got too busy to eat lunch then found myself several hours later sitting by the fridge eating cold macaroni and cheese just as fast as I could shovel it in. Not one of my prouder moments.

Great post.

Tawny on January 28, 2010 at 1:16 PM said...

Sally, those are huge triggers. And they are definitely situations to know about ahead of time so you can come up with ideas to avoid them. A grocery shopping schedule, a healthy snack for those missed-meal meltdowns? Is there a list you could make to help make sure you can handle the situation if it happens?

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