Behavior Triggers

[keenercam]

I have really started paying attention to what triggers my overeating. I have helped myself do the analysis by doing a couple of things.

First, I moved all of the non-functional food out of my desk drawer at work. I spend most of my day at a desk and always had pretzels, 100 calorie snack bags, granola bars, etc. in the credenza drawer. Usually, by mid-afternoon, I'd be reaching in that drawer. Now, there is no non-functional foods (just lunch stuff like canned tuna & chicken, canned geen beans) and nothing that is easily eaten (the only snack food is microwave popcorn). This has helped to delay how quickly I can get food to my mouth. It forces me to think before I eat a snack food and it helps me to focus on using food for fuel. I have now substituted the "grab and shovel and swallow" behavior with reaching for sugarless gum or getting up for fresh water from the cooler. I find that the stronger and sweeter the flavor of the gum, the more easily I am appeased, rather than just deferring any kind of snacking.

What I have done at home is gotten rid of most of the foods I considered a trigger for late night snacking, like pretzels and light chips. It is much harder at home because DH and DS14 have their food choices within my reach and I really have to assert some will to NOT eat the snack foods that are at hand. While it has been almost impossible to do flawlessly, I'm really working on substituting the late night snacking behavior with working out behavior -- I fill my Disney Cruise Line Castaway Cay cup with ice water and go up to my bedroom where I have excercise DVDs, my exercise ball, and now some resistance bands.

By buying msyelf some time to reflect on the fact that I almost just mindlessly ate hundreds of calories, I have also forced myself to analyze what triggers the negative diet behaviors. The answers are the same for many of us, I'm sure. But, mostly, if I am unhappy (whether it is because of stress or anger or genuine sadness), my first instinct is to eat. I have jokingly referred to this as "self-medicating with food" but the reality is that that is exactly what these behaviors are.

So, I am trying to recognize the real emotion, acknowledge that it is something other than hunger, and deal with the emotion, rather than eating through it. I am finding that these behavior modifications are so outrageously difficult for me. The habits are not easily broken and it is SOOOO easy to fall right back into the old behaviors.

So, I am looking for some feedback and some company here. What are your "negative" behaviors and what have you found that you can do to substitute for them? Please reassure me that there will come a time when I don't think about food all the time and I am not constantly wanting to put food in my mouth as a remedy to every little stress or sadness in any given day.

 

[fofinia]

I don't know if I can help with the being able to not self medicate with food. Or that food won't always be a crutch for you. It still is for me. But I have definitely found that by realizing that I'm eating because of stress helps me to stop.

For instance for me, I need chocolate after my kids have been driving me crazy= Stress and sadness. I will just go around and around in my kitchen looking for it. Sometimes not having it there is worse. Because then starts the "'Can't stop thinking about the chocolate. I need the chocolate!!" Ideal is to let myself have one piece (small piece) and then leave the kitchen and go do laundry in the basement away from the food and the kids! Having one piece I can account for in my food plan.

I also like to eat sweets at night. And lots of time I know it's because I'm tired. Going to sleep would be the better thing. But I never do that. I'm working on putting myself to bed earlier. I see this same trait with my kids. They can be falling asleep in their carseats and then they'll ask for something to eat. And you know they are just tired.

I think the hardest part is the old habits can creep back in so easily and they are so hard to break. I had stopped having dessert after dinner and lasted over a year. Then all of a sudden I gave back in and WHAMMO! Can't give it up. But I'm reducing it. Down to every other night. I'm sure I'll always struggle. Probably until the day I lose my taste buds and I just can't taste how good food is!!

 

[delilah]

My triggers to overeat are usually frustration and boredom. Actually, I've observed that the same is true about many of my coworkers. It was actually entertaining one day to watch my colleague one day eat the equivalent of a large bag of M&M's one day because he was dumped on by another doctor. How I avoid that type of eating is by not having things like that available. We have a candy drawer at my office that I have convinced myself is for the nurses, and I can't have anything out of it. I bring small quantities of things that I can eat, and are a part of my diet plan, like cut up fruit and vegetables. I don't eat all of whatever I bring at one time; that seems to trick me into thinking that I am eating alot and all the time. Some days, I am so busy that I don't get around to eating my "snack", like several days this week. Some days are slower, and I am glad to have a small quantity of an allowed food to tide me over until I get busy again.

Now, a little bit about how one doctor might dump on another. In this particular case, a demented patient from a nursing home was dropped off at our office without an appointment. He previously had been my colleagues patient, but since entering the nursing home, he was actually being seen by a different doctor, not in our practice. As it turned out, he was quite seriously ill, and needed to be admitted. My colleague called the current doctor, who told my colleague that he could admit the patient and see him in the hospital! The current doctor refused to see his own patient in the hospital! The same situation has happened to me, and it is very frustrating. As a doctor, I can't do much about it. It isn't the patient's fault. It's my duty to see that the patient is cared for. But, it is as annoying as can be when doctors don't want to see their own patients.

 

[PRINCESS VIJA]

Hey Keenercam,

I bow to you for working really hard to overcome the triggers. I know that I am self medicating with food. I have similar triggers, but mostly stress. I really like how you cleared everything out, and how you are paying attention to your triggers, and diverting your attention. sounds like a good plan, and one I might incorporate to help me figure out how to finally get healthy!