Obesity-Proof Your Routines
Updated on November 24, 2007
Obesity Habits
For some people the trigger to eat is an event. Something happens, and your response is to eat. The event could be something complex, like finding out that your spouse wants a divorce, and you start eating comfort foods because you deserve them and they make you feel better. The event could be something simple, like walking into the front door after work or sitting down on the couch. These events are habits.
You may habitually reach for food to relax.
You may habitually reach for food to find comfort.
You may habitually reach for food to entertain yourself.
Whatever your habit is, there are triggers that compel you to follow through with those habits.
Habit Triggers
Knowing what your habits are is just the beginning of breaking them. You also need to know what triggers those habits.
If your habit is to reach for food to relax, you probably reach for food whenever you feel stressed out. Being stressed out is your habit trigger. Without the stress trigger, you probably don't eat to relax.
If your habit is to reach for food to entertain yourself, boredom is your habit trigger. When you're not bored, you probably don't eat to give yourself something to do.
Routine vs. the Unexpected
There will be habit trigger events that are completely unexpected. It could be a death or just a bad day. We cannot prevent these events from happening, but we can learn how to deal with them.
Other habit triggers may be tied into your routine. You do them because that's just what you've done every day. You come home, you put your keys on the table, go to the kitchen, grab a soda and some munchies, sit on the couch, turn on the tv, and eat while you watch your favorite shows. You did it yesterday. You did it today. You'll probably do it tomorrow. This is where you get to exercise control over you life by deciding to change your routine.
Change Your Routines
If your habit trigger is an event in your routine, change the routine.
If you start to snack as soon as you come home, consciously start doing something to keep you occupied and away from munching. Take up a hobby. Stretch. Call somebody on the phone.
If you stop by the coffee house on the way to work every day, find a new route that doesn't go by the coffee house.
If you start to eat when you sit down to watch television, take up a hobby to keep your hands busy while you sit. (I took up knitting and crochet, and it's not just for women since knitting was originally a man's skill.)
If your break at work is your cue to eat something from the vending machine, start bringing your lunch.
Get Started
Carry a small notebook with you throughout the day and write down what you eat, when you eat it, and what you are doing when you eat (no counting calories necessary). Don't lie to yourself about what counts as food. If it entered your mouth and you ate it, it counts, even if it's just one chip.
At the end of the day, look over your food diary.
Think about which times you ate that were unplanned.
Think about what was going on when you ate that junk food.
Now write down ideas for changing those routines. What could you do differently to avoid that habit trigger?
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