4 Triggers to a Challenging Food Day (and Strategies to Try)

You’ve been traveling along your intuitive eating journey and making progress. You remember that it’s not about perfection, instead it’s about learning and growing. You have done great work in rejecting the diet mentality and recognizing the diet culture messages that swarm all around you.

So why does food feel so difficult today? Why are you feeling blah in your body today?

The answer might very well lie in one of 4 triggers that I see often when working with clients.

1. Mindless eating

Do you find yourself eating without full attention to what or how much you are eating? This is mindless eating. You may go through your day not even realizing that you picked on the cake on the counter, ate from the chocolate bowl on your bosses’ desk, or popped several grapes in your mouth each time you passed through the kitchen.

When you engage in mindless eating, you are not eating to satisfy a physical hunger and at some point, you feel it in your body. Perhaps you feel sluggish, bloated, or tired. Then you blame the food and vow to be “good” the rest of the day (or tomorrow!).

Strategy to try: Call yourself out each time you find yourself engaging in mindless eating. Bring yourself back into the present moment and name the behavior. You will find, over time, that you are no longer mindlessly eating.

2. Distracted eating

Watching TV while you eat dinner? So many people do. This, however, is distracted eating and it prevents you from appreciating your meal, tuning in to your fullness signals and having full satisfaction.

You might tell me that eating while watching TV slows down your eating, and maybe it does. But it is still distracted eating and your body views distraction as stress which triggers the fight or flight response which effects your digestion and absorption of nutrients.

Looking at your cell phone, eating at your desk while working, reading or sending texts, and reading the newspaper, a book or the mail is also distracted eating.

Strategy to try: Make a commitment to yourself that you will not watch TV during dinner. If your spouse wants the TV on, calmly explain to him/her why it’s important to you that the TV be off. Do not bring your phone to the table, and save the reading for after dinner.

3. Lack of planning

Planning is not dieting. That is, if you can roll with the punches and be flexible. If planning meals means you put pressure on yourself to “follow” the plan and if you “can’t” you break out in a sweat, then we should talk. That’s still dieting.

Without proper meal planning, you run the risk of grabbing food on the go, popping through the drive through, or maybe even skipping dinner and mindlessly snacking instead.

To me, as a busy working mom, I have to plan meals or my family (and me) won’t have food at the ready. So, think ahead to your week and what you might want to eat for dinners. Make a shopping list so you have the necessary ingredients on hand. Write out your plan if it helps and prep ahead as much as possible.

My freezer is really my best friend. I often cook extra and freeze for a future meal. I always think tonight about what I want to have tomorrow night so that when I get home from work (or my kids get home from school and I’m working late) there is a dinner ready to go.

Strategy to try: Plan a few dinners for the week ahead of time, go shopping to have the ingredients in the house and give thought to what you can prep ahead of time.

4. Emotional eating

You are human which means you have emotions! And yes, sometimes, you might consciously acknowledge that you’re feeling sad (fill in any emotion here) and a bowl of ice cream would really help you to feel better.

This in my opinion, is not of issue.

But when the first and only way you cope with difficult emotions is to turn to food, then this is an unhealthy behavior that needs to be addressed.

If you are having a challenging food day, give thought if perhaps you are using food to numb, sedate and distract you from some underlying emotions that you’d rather not feel.

Remember, challenging food days are a natural part of your intuitive eating journey. By recognizing these common triggers and trying out the suggested strategies, you can continue progressing toward a healthier, more mindful relationship with food.