Despite our best efforts, sometimes events, interactions with others, emotions or just the sight of a particular food can result in us abandoning our healthy eating plan. These are called ‘triggers’.

Triggers can be internal and include feelings, thoughts, beliefs and degree of hunger. Triggers can also be external and include situational events such as the sight and smell of food.

Internal triggers

• Anxiety
• Boredom
• Anger
• Happiness
• Frustration
• Loneliness
• Low mood
• Stress
• Tired, low energy
• Self-defeating thoughts
• Cravings
• Hunger

External triggers

• Lack of time
• Seeing food adverts
• Social situations, such as a party or a restaurant
• Shopping when hungry
• Preparing food
• Suitable foods not available
• Other people tempting you or offering you food
• Situations associated with food, for example passing a bakery
• Eating alone
• Smell of food
• Sight of food
• Special offers

Trigger foods

These are foods that you find very difficult not to eat. If you experience any of the following when eating a food it is probably a trigger food.

• Eating the food whenever you see it.
• Finding it hard to stop eating it.
• Eating the food even when you are not hungry.
• Eating the food instead of a meal.

It is better to avoid eating these foods. They can be reintroduced back into your diet once you feel that you are better able to control your eating behaviour. You may also find that gradually exposing yourself to the trigger food will allow you build up your willpower to overcome it.

Some people find that cutting the trigger food out altogether makes them crave it much more. If this happens to you it may be possible to still include it in your diet but in a much more controlled way.

• Try buying single or two-packed chocolates and biscuits and single, small packets of crisps.
• Plan when you are going to eat and avoid snacking at other times.
• Don’t miss meals.
• Before you start to eat your trigger food, think about how you will feel afterwards.

Trigger situations

Sometimes it is not what you eat, but when and how you eat it that causes you to lose control. Try to identify your trigger situations. Here are some of the common areas.

• I eat very little all day, but snack all evening.
• I often eat whilst watching television.
• I always eat biscuits with tea or coffee.
• I eat whilst preparing food.
• If I wake up at night, I eat something to help me get back to sleep.
• I often eat out with friends and/or family.
• I eat on the way home from the supermarket.
• If I open a packet of biscuits or chocolates I usually eat them all.
• I always eat after drinking alcohol.
• I eat because of emotions, for example having an argument with someone and feeling angry or hurt.
• I east from frustration, for example that you have not lost as much weight as you hoped.
• Being bored and having nothing to do.

What are your triggers?

Identifying your trigger situations is a big step towards coping with them. Make a list of your triggers to help you remember them when they happen.

Can you think of a strategy to overcome each trigger and who can support you with this?

Strategies to help you cope with external triggers

Different people have different external triggers and not everyone is aware of the things which trigger their behaviour. Once you have identified your triggers, you could try using the following strategies to help you beat them.

Avoid the trigger (stimulus control)

Using stimulus control means trying to avoid the triggers that make you overeat. For example, if seeing the biscuits in the cupboard triggers the beginning of a binge, don’t keep biscuits in the house for a while. Some triggers can only be avoided for a while and there are some that you can’t avoid at all.

Do something else instead (response substitution)

This means finding other types of comfort, reward or distraction other than eating when you are faced with things that normally trigger you to eat. Apart from food what else do you find comforting, is a treat or helps to take your mind off things? For example, a soak in the bath, doing a crossword, going for a walk or buying a new magazine. What would work for you?

Include small amounts of your favourite foods (flexible restraint)

It will not be possible to avoid all the triggers which lead you to overeat all of the time. If you deny yourself certain foods completely then it may increase your sense of wanting to eat it. Flexible restraint is when you follow your eating plan or personal goals most of the time, but occasionally include favourite foods. Flexible restraint greatly reduces the risk of ‘all or nothing’ thinking. It will help you to be satisfied by small amounts of your favourite foods (as you know you can eat them again at some point) rather than a particular occasion being your ‘last chance’.

Summary – how to deal with external triggers

• Identify those things that reliably lead to deviation from your plan.
• Make a plan about how you might overcome this trigger:
  • stimulus control
  • response substitution
  • flexible restraint
• Make a SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time specific) goal to help you deal with external triggers, and set a reward for achieving this.

Strategies to help you cope with internal triggers

Some triggers to overeating may not be so obvious because they come from ‘inside’ you. They may include the way you feel about things or the way you think about things, but they can also include physical states of your body such as hunger or thirst.

There are four different sorts of internal triggers that can make it difficult for people to keep to their lifestyle plans. These are:

• hunger
• cravings
• unhelpful thoughts
• emotions.

Hunger and cravings

Many people experience a strong desire to eat even when they can’t possibly be hungry. For example, you might have a strong desire for a pudding at the end of a very filling meal. These intense desires (usually for a specific type of food) are known as cravings. It can be difficult to tell the difference between true hunger (when your stomach rumbles) and cravings so you may eat when you don’t need to. Having a regular eating pattern will make it easier for you to identify the difference between hunger and a craving.

• Stop and think – are you really hungry? Is the hunger coming from your head or your stomach?
• Have you eaten a meal recently (within the last three to four hours)?
• Ask yourself why you want to eat?
• Think about the consequences of your action. Imagine you have just eaten the food and how it will make you feel – will it be worth feeling like that?
• Are you thirsty rather than hungry?

How do I deal with cravings?

Knowing you are having a craving doesn’t always help you to resist the food you desire. The longer you can delay eating, the weaker the urge will become as a craving rarely lasts more than 15 to 30 minutes.

• Always wait 20 minutes before eating if you think you are having a craving.
• Distract yourself by doing something else that gives you pleasure.

Unhelpful thoughts

The way in which you think about things may affect how you feel about a situation and the things that you do. Unhelpful thoughts can get in the way of your healthy eating plan.

Below are some examples of unhelpful thoughts and alternative, more helpful ways of thinking.

Unhelpful thought	More helpful way of thinking
“I’ve got to keep this up for so long. I don’t think I have the strength to keep it up”.	“Anyone would give up if they thought about being on a diet forever. I am going to focus on what changes I can make now”.
“I am useless and I have blown it again. There is no point in carrying on with my plan”.	“Apart from that, I’ve achieved quite a bit so far this week. If I carry on doing as well, I’ll treat myself to that magazine at the weekend”.
“Everyone else is really good at keeping to their plans. That just proves I am useless. Why don’t I just forget all about it?”	“Everyone is different and we all work at our own rates. I won’t get anywhere unless I keep trying”.
“It’s not fair that I have to watch myself in this way. Other people don’t have to keep a food diary, so I don’t see why I should”.	“It is just how things are. I know that keeping a food diary helps so I am just going to keep doing it”.

Now identify your own unhelpful thoughts and write down some ideas of how to overcome them.

How do I deal with unhelpful thoughts?

• Ask yourself if the unhelpful thought is helping you to solve one problem, but creating others.
• Challenge your thinking. Find more helpful ways of thinking.
• Think about the last time you over-ate or didn’t do any activity. How did you feel afterwards? Was it worth it?
• Stop and remind yourself what you are trying to achieve and why.

Emotions

Many people eat because they are in a bad mood or feel stressed and need cheering up. Sometimes being in a good mood can also trigger eating if you feel like celebrating. Food can therefore be used to help get rid of negative moods or enhance good moods further. If you think your main triggers for overeating are emotions that affect your mood, try to identify your emotions so that you can work to find more useful ways to respond to them.

Sometimes this can be difficult. It may help to talk to close friends or family members, who you know can support you best.

How do I deal with emotions?

• Learn other ways to comfort, distract or reward yourself.
• Ask yourself if you are having unhelpful thoughts and deal with those.
• Ask yourself if eating will change the problem you are currently facing.

Summary – how to deal with internal triggers

• Identify what your particular triggers are.
• Think about which strategies you could use for dealing with those triggers.
• Make a plan to deal with one particularly important trigger and put your plan into action.

 Things to try which may help you manage your triggers

• Limit the opportunity for seeing tempting foods other than at mealtimes, for example by putting things away in cupboards.
• Don’t shop when you are hungry.
• Write a shopping list and keep to it.
• Don’t buy foods you know you can’t resist, or only buy them occasionally as a treat.
• Take a route home that does not involve passing a tempting food shop.
• Plan meals and shopping in advance so you have appropriate foods available to eat regularly.
• Carry around suitable snacks.
• Never miss meals.
• Plan what time you are going to eat each day.
• Avoid tasting when cooking as this may lead to overeating.
• Avoid unnecessary exposure to food and leftovers.
• Clean your teeth after a meal or when you get the urge to overeat.
• Do nothing else while eating and eat slowly.
• Do not eat in front of the television.
• Have a drink (non-alcoholic) and wait and see if the craving will pass.