Ep: #33- How To Stay on Course With Your Weight Loss Despite Being Triggered

Faye Casement Author

Mar 22, 2023 |

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In this week's Wellness4Women Show, I told a little story about how I was coaching someone the other week with regards to evening snacking and getting triggered into eating and I thought this would be a good topic to cover in a little bit more detail.

As usual, the coachee is called Jane (obvs!).

Bit of a back story about Jane.

Jane is a highly successful professional woman, she has a husband and a couple of kids. Family time is important to them and they often spend the evenings together watching TV and other family pursuits.

Jane has been working on her evening eating as she knows this is something that she would like to tidy up for weight loss as it is a time when overeats can happen.

So Jane, messaged this week asking me to point her in the right direction for some resources from the Triple-A Membership and I provided some coaching.

Are you ready to hear the rest of Jane's story? (Why not watch the full video)

Jane told me that what she had noticed last night was that when they are watching the TV, her family tends to go and get snacks from the kitchen.

She said she watched her son go and get a bowl of ice cream, and then her daughter went to get a chocolate bar.

Jane identified she was having thoughts such as, "That looks good", "I fancy a bit of that".

Jane was starting to feel hungry and so she ate.

Jane was concerned the evening snacking could impact her weight loss and wanted to figure it out.

So how does Jane work on this?

What is actually going on here is that Jane's thoughts are what lead to her eating. Did you spot that? 

Jane had been dum dum dum..... triggered!

Jane has been working on this for a little while so she knows what to look out for and recognised that she needed a bit of assistance.

Even as a coach I still need help getting unstuck from time to time. We are human after all!

As a coach, my job is to hold up a mirror in front of you so you can see what is happening. To then walk alongside you as you identify areas you want to work on and work with you to find a solution that fits you and your life and help you stay accountable.

So this is what I did. I held up the mirror.

What was actually happening here was that Jane's thoughts were ultimately creating a feeling...the feeling of 'desire'.

As I identified in the show I did on the "5 E's of Eating" there are a number of reasons we eat. As a quick reminder they are - Energy, Engrained, Emotional, Enforced, Empty... I think though I missed one... I am going to make it the 6 E's and add in Environmental where you are impacted by your surroundings. I had these in engrained but I think I want to separate it out.

So in Jane's case, there was some emotional eating, some environmental eating and some engrained eating at play as there was desire involved as the emotion, some habit as this is something that comes up often when watching TV with the family and environmental Jane had seen something around her.

Jane, had been triggered.

So let's walk through it.

Jane was in familiar surroundings. The family often snack in front of the TV. This is not surprising many families may have a similar pattern but when you are trying to work on weight loss it can impact how you show up for your goals at that moment. Jane's brain at the end of the day is primed to look for food at this time of night. Plus she will have had a 'busy' day and her bandwidth is lower. It makes perfect sense she may find urges come at this time as she is receiving cue internally and externally that set her up for this moment.

Her eyes are seeing the food... this creates eye hunger. Your brain on seeing food, clocks it is seeing food. The 'see' food diet is a bit of a joke but actually, it is a real thing. This leads to the thought "That looks good".

She might have smelt it creating nose hunger... "That smells good!"

She might even have been able to taste the food at that point creating taste hunger - the thought being "I fancy a bit of that"

The combination of these factors were all floating around in her brain

Each one of them creates the emotion of "desire" which start a physical chain reaction in her body (emotional eating)

Her brain then goes right-ho I know what happens now... what we always do...we eat...I best tell the stomach to get ready! (engrained eating)

So the brain sends the signal.

It releases a hormone called "ghrelin" to tell the stomach there is food about we may be hungry and so the physical feeling of hunger came on.

Jane then has another thought - "I am hungry", "I Should eat".

Brain again is getting ready, starting to send little signals to the rest of the body...legs... get ready we will be walking soon, heart start pumping legs are going to need you. Arms... you'll be up soon opening the fridge. Mouth...you better start getting saliva ready! Jane will be getting figity and finding it harder to consentrate.

It is no wonder we eat right in these circumstances...every fibre of our being feels like this is what we are supposed to do.

The reality was though given those circumstances and how quickly it came on it was faux hunger and an urge which led to an over-eat.

An over-eat in my world is when you eat anything or more than your body needs and it does not matter what it is you are eating. You can still overeat on carrots. The risk to your short-term weight loss if you over-eat carrots is quite low but what I would offer is that long term you are not really solving the problem but sticking a bandaid on it but it can still be a level up before your final destination.

This is why listening to your mind, body and soul is critical to successful and sustainable weight loss.

It is also where the self-coaching that I teach comes in as sometimes you have to check those signals/messages and sometimes you want to change them.

Now, it would be easy for Jane to get into judgment over this.

To declare herself a failure, to say she will never lose weight, that she is annoyed with herself and to feel like she has "blown it".

Who hasn't had these thoughts!

But the thing is judgment is what gets you stuck. It doesn't help to move you forward it keeps you in the past.

What you need to do is step into your wiser self and gather awareness. This is where the Triple-A Curiosity and Kind assessment comes in that I give my members.

It helps them to work through what has happened factually so they can step into action and try and figure out different ways they can try and not get triggered next time or they can reach out for coaching like Jane did.

Does any of this sound familiar to you?

The benefits of dealing with triggers

There are many benefits of dealing with your triggers.

First and foremost, it can help you to maintain your healthy eating habits. If you know what your triggers are, you can be proactive in avoiding them or dealing with them in a way that doesn't involve food. This is important, as it can help you to stay on track with your weight loss goals.

Additionally, it can help you feel more in control of your eating habits and your life in general. It is what can help you to find food and life freedom and move you away from feeling like you are constantly on diet and restricted. You can finally feel in control of your body, mind and food rather than feeling like food controls you and your life.

Finally, dealing with triggers can also help to improve your overall mental and emotional well-being. This is because, when you are in control of your eating habits, you are likely to feel less stressed and anxious about food. This can lead to a more positive outlook on life, which can have a knock-on effect on all areas of your life.

Dealing with triggers is not always easy, but it is worth it. By taking the time to identify your triggers and find ways to deal with them, you can make significant progress in your weight loss journey.

What are some of the things that trigger you to eat? How do you deal with them? Share your thoughts and experiences in the comments!/Message me let me know

We all have different triggers that lead us to eat.

I have noticed I am triggered by time, wanting to avoid work I deem hard, being in my kitchen, eating out and long days at work.

For some of you, it might be a certain location, such as the kitchen or the office. For others, it might be certain people, such as our families or friends. Still others might find that certain smells or tastes trigger their appetite. And for some, it might be a combination of these things.

No matter what your triggers are, it is essential you are aware of them and you find ways to deal with them.

Otherwise, you run the risk of letting them control your eating habits and your life which reduces your chance of lasting weight loss success.

Tips for staying on track despite being triggered

As a dieter, who no doubt is used to restricting, you may feel the need to avoid your triggers e.g stop buying certain foods, going to certain locations, being in a room when others are eating etc.

I would, however, encourage is you to check in on your reasons. If it is because you "do not trust yourself", "have no will power" etc then know you can work on this so you do not have restrict so heavily and you can find food freedom and life freedom and I can help you with this.

Going cold turkey and trying to knuckle your way through is often not the right answer, as you will eventually feel restricted, leading to more urges and more quits impacting your weight loss, however, if it is because you are making a conscious choice for you and your body and it is what you really want to do that is great and something to try.

Another approach is mindful eating with a program such as the Triple-A-Way™. Where you gather awareness, take action steps and work on your accountability. I can teach you how to trust yourself around food, to work on yourself and your relationship with food so you do not get triggered as much and if you do how to deal with it, thus building your own unique system for success and long-lasting weight loss.

This is what I have done to lose the weight I have. All it takes is a few simple daily steps. 

Plus, it is a system for life as when things change, as your triggers will chop and change about, you have a system to go back to and so you are not stuck with just one method.

The Importance of Mind Ninjary

When you are working on your triggers you will mess up. Just like Jane, you will still get triggered, you will still overeat. The key is to keep working on it so they get less and less and easier and easier to deal with.

The key really is to let go of judgement.

Once you step into acceptance of what is you can keep moving forward.

This is where mind ninjary comes in, mind nijary is the mindset work around what comes up for you mentally. It is working on your thoughts around the process of figuring it out, your thoughts about you when you mess up, how you keep going even if you might at first not want to.

Acceptance does not mean giving up or tolerating but just giving yourself a break and not giving yourself the usual beat down.

It is the work that really is the key to sustainable weight loss it is about getting control of your own mind but also making the journey more joyful.

ROUND-UP

No matter what your triggers are, it is important to be aware of them and find ways to deal with them. Otherwise, you run the risk of letting them control your eating habits and your life.

So your homework:

• Get to know your triggers?
• What can you do to overcome them with curiosity and kindness?
• How can you set yourself up for success?
• Work on releasing judgement to find more joy.

If you are ready to find sustainable weight loss by ditching mainstream diets to find more joy PLUS Food & Life Freedom check out the VIP Coaching Membership HERE.

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Categories: : mindset, Weight loss