Behavioral Triggers

Behavioral triggers are behaviors that cause and encourage unconscious eating. Unconscious eating is eating without realizing how much is being consumed. Behavioral triggers involve the act of eating with a specific kind of activity simultaneously. This person can eat and eat, but doesn't realize how much s/he is eating. They might not care, either, about how much they are eating. Their minds are elsewhere when they are eating. Hence, the amount they consume winds up being more than what they needed. 

Now sometimes, a person might want to engage in unconscious eating. This might be an escape or a stress reliever. But the problems begin when the weight piles on, and some decision must be made to deal with it.

Trigger behaviors can include eating a bag of chips in front of the TV or eating at the computer while you do work. These types of triggers are often done in isolation. One may even plan to have time alone in order to do this.

If you engage in behavioral triggers, you have two choices:

1.Continue on the way you have been going, continue to gain weight and stay in denial that there is a problem. Note here, that this is a decision: it is a decision to ignore the problem.

2.Change the behavior in some way. You can cut back, you can change the food or the activity, or you can stop doing them together. However, if one attempts to stop the food, but continue the activity, there will be a void. There will still be that urge to eat while engaging in the activity. Something will have to replace the food.

If you have opted for #2, in the case of television, simply turning off the TV might do the trick. But in the case of computer work (that is probably a necessary thing), something will have to be substituted. 

Try keeping a large glass of water right next to your computer. You might also try brewing a cup of hot tea to sip on while you work. Regardless what you change, you will notice that something is different at first, and there will be some discomfort. Move through the discomfort and know that it will dissipate with time. Good luck!