Habits.
They cut both ways: good and bad.
A habit is simply a behavior or action you do so routinely you do it without any thought at all.
That can be re-assuring if you are thinking about a good habit you have...
like brushing your teeth or keeping your house clean.
But what if the habit that you unconsciously follow is a bad habit that is destructive to yourself or your self esteem? The good news is that you can find ways to break the cycle.
If you know your patterns you can almost always predict your behavior since errors typically follow the patterns repeatedly.
When it comes to eating, you eat far more by habit than you probably realize.
If you are eating out of habit and those habits are bad then there it will be tough to lose weight and gain the control you want.
The same people, same food, same time, same stresses, the same reasons you slip will invariably follow a pattern.
To gain control you must understand your habits and you do this by looking for the pattern.
The following are questions that will help you uncover the patterns that trigger your undesired eating habits.
Only when you gain some insight then you can begin to create a strategy for change.
People - who were you with when your eating went wrong.
Sometimes it is an unknowing friend or family member.
Maybe it was a party or business function.
If you tend to slip in a group setting beware.
Studies show that people tend to eat much more when in a large group than they do alone.
Time - eating mistakes usually have a favorite time of the day or week.
Maybe late afternoon when your sugar levels drop off.
If you are not eating breakfast, that danish at the office meeting will start looking more irresistible than Brad Pitt.
Or, maybe it is Friday night happy hour after work or Sunday breakfast with the family.
Environment - maybe it was at the office, movies, or best friend's house.
Is there a specific location where you are tempted by items that seem so hard to resist.
Restaurants can also trigger habitual eating.
But think deep on this one...
It could have been a vending machine, holiday season or party.
Many times there is an environment where you do really well controlling eating and another environment where it is easier to get off-track.
Food - What types of foods are you eating when the derailment started.
Was it salty, sweet, crunchy, creamy? How as it prepared - fried, baked.
Brownies and potato chips are my nemesis.
A good clue to look for here are these 4 simple words: "that sounds so good".
Once you say these words to yourself you are very close to falling off the cliff.
Take note and learn a work around.
Mood - I saved the best for last.
I can't tell you how powerful mood is when considering eating patterns and habits.
To help you but this one in context think BALT.
Or bored, angry, lonely, tired.
Being sleep deprived not only messes with your metabolism it can make you overeat.
There are lots of other emotions that can trigger you as well.
The key is next time you are eating something you don't think you should be stop and think about the larger picture.
Look for a bigger pattern than that brownie or ice cream staring you in the face.
Try becoming the disinterested observer.
In other words, someone who can see what is going on but is only making notes about the situation and not judging it.
Judging can impair the truth from surfacing.
Once you have some notes about the time, mood, types of food, environment, and people then you should start seeing patterns emerge.
If you see patterns and habits causing you to go off-course then you can start thinking of alternatives and a work around.
One final note: a huge part of changing your habits is trial and error.
If your first attempt at this is not immediately successful then keep watching, think deeply and try a different work around.
Remember the path to successfully changing your habits often looks more like a zig-zag then a straight line.