Chapter 8 – Weight Management
On its website the CDC admonishes that permanent weight loss is a result of making changes to eating habits that become a long-term part of a healthier lifestyle. You may access that section on their website in the references at the end of this text. It is also reprinted below for your convenience.
Reflect, Replace, Reinforce: A process for improving your eating habits
Create a list of your eating habits.
For example, you might discover that you always seek a sweet snack to get you through the mid-afternoon energy slump. Use this diary to help. It’s good to note how you were feeling when you decided to eat, especially if you were eating when not hungry. Were you tired? Stressed out?
Highlight the habits on your list that may be leading you to overeat. Common eating habits that can lead to weight gain are:
- Eating too fast
- Always cleaning your plate
- Eating when not hungry
- Eating while standing up (may lead
to eating mindlessly or too quickly) - Always eating dessert
- Skipping meals (or maybe just
breakfast)
Look at the unhealthy eating habits you have highlighted. Be sure you have identified all the triggers that cause you to engage in those habits. Identify a few you would like to work on improving first. Don’t forget to pat yourself on the back for the things you are doing right. Maybe you almost always eat fruit for dessert, or you drink low-fat or fat-free milk. These are good habits! Recognizing your successes will help encourage you to make more changes.
Create a list of “cues.”
Review your food diary to become more aware of when and where you are “triggered” to eat for reasons other than hunger. Note how you are typically feeling at those times. Often an environmental “cue,” or a particular emotional state, is what encourages eating for non-hunger reasons.
Common triggers for eating when not hungry are:
- Opening up the cabinet and seeing your favorite snack food.
- Sitting at home watching television.
- Before or after a stressful meeting or situation at work.
- Coming home after work and having no idea what’s for dinner.
- Having someone offer you a dish they made “just for you!”
- Walking past a candy dish on the counter.
- Sitting in the break room beside the vending machine.
- Seeing a plate of doughnuts at the morning staff meeting.
- Swinging through your favorite drive-through every morning.
- Feeling bored or tired and thinking food might offer a pick-me-up.
Circle the “cues” on your list that you face on a daily or weekly basis. Going home for the Thanksgiving holiday may be a trigger for you to overeat, and eventually, you want to have a plan for as many eating cues as you can. But for now, focus on the ones you face more often.
Ask yourself these questions for each “cue” you have circled:
- Is there anything I can do to avoid the cue or situation? This option works best for cues that don’t involve others. For example, could you choose a different route to work to avoid stopping at a fast fo