Triggers and responses

I was listening to a Jillian Michaels podcast earlier today.

Aside:


This is what I do when I'm working in the kitchen. I listen to podcasts. It keeps my brain engaged while my hands are busy and makes my tasks less onerous. 

The podcast was very therapy-esque, but one thing that really caught my attention was when the person who called in started talking about eating triggers. Mine is boredom. When I am under stress, I sleep, but boredom ... yeah. ::chomp chomp:: And availability. I can't say that enough. If I'm in the kitchen and it's readily available, I'll probably snack on it.

I've started putting all of the snacks away in a cabinet, except for the bowl of fruit that we keep on the counter. We used to keep a bowl of individual bags of crackers, cookies, and granola bars as well. I realized relatively early that this was way too much temptation for me, and I put that bowl inside a cabinet under the counter.

Michaels answered the caller's question by talking about responses to triggers that can't be changed quite as easily as my bowl of salty snacks. The idea of responses resonated with me.

I had set a response without realizing it.

Several months ago, I was in the kitchen with my head in the fridge, just looking for a snack. Then it hit me that I had no idea if I was really hungry or if I just wanted to snack. Most of the time if I don't have something specific in mind, I'm not hungry. Thankfully, this was one time that I came to my senses before I was stuffing my face, and as a result I decided to go get on the treadmill for just five minutes. Five minutes.

In that short amount of time I was on the treadmill, I realized that I was hungry, not snacky. And I decided what I needed. Since then, if I start feeling snacky at an unplanned time, I head to the treadmill for that five minutes. It gives me distance and clarity that just isn't there when I'm standing in front of the cabinet or fridge. It may only burn 45 calories or so, but it sometimes saves me 200 or more.