Hey everybody. Welcome back to the podcast. Today I want to talk about being triggered. Being triggered to overeat, being triggered to emotionally eat, being triggered to binge. And how you can short circuit that pattern, how you can disrupt it, short circuit, the urge to overeat.

So, I guess I could ask the question do you ever feel triggered? Do you ever feel triggered to over eat? Do you ever feel like you have been triggered. So you ate mindlessly, you ate on autopilot. You didn’t even realize that it was happening.

Triggers for overeating can be strong and they can sometimes feel in surmountable. I know a lot of smart women get really frustrated when they find themselves mindlessly eating food that they don’t want. Especially when they’re not sure how to take their control back or how to prevent being triggered again, the next time in the same situations. How do I not just go on automatic and eat the things or overeat or binge after the stressful day?

Do not let your brain convince you. Which it will, that this is a pattern that you can’t break. Over eating triggers can be beaten. And that’s what I want to talk with you about today. Here’s how you short circuit that urge to overeat. Let’s start by talking about what a trigger really is. A trigger is something that elicits a reaction.

So for instance, you might feel stress. You have a stressful day and then you automatically reach for something to eat. Or maybe you sense that you’re going to have to have this uncomfortable conversation so you automatically nibble away at the leftovers. Maybe because you want to postpone it. You want to put it off. Or because you don’t want to think about it. You’re trying to push down the feelings.

Or maybe you leave work after an incredibly hard day. It’s something happened. It went sideways, things went off the rails and you don’t even think about it until after you’ve placed the door dash order. After you’ve eaten more than was physically comfortable. And you have that, like what just happened to me experience.

Triggered reaction is very different from a purposeful, intentional decision. When you’re acting purposefully, you don’t have that driven feeling or you don’t have that autopilot kind of numb feeling.

When you’re purposeful you’re present. Right. When you’re present, you have the ability to assess the situation. You’re aware of what’s going on. You evaluate your choices and then you can make a decision about how to respond.

So for instance, if you are able to get present, if you’re able to move out of autopilot, stress, eating you’re in this situation. Right? You’re autopilot, stress eating. If you’re able to move out of that after your awful Workday. And you’re able to get perspective or get centered. Then it’s a whole lot easier to see a bigger picture. To see that eating or finishing the pizza isn’t going to help with the stress. At least not in the bigger, longer, broader picture. Right.

When you are present, it is possible to see that eating all the things is not going to leave you feeling better in the end. It’s not going to solve the problem. If you’re able to get purposeful, if you’re not in the heat of the moment, or if you’re not actively experiencing being triggered, you’re not actively triggered right then.

You also have this opportunity to plan. Being able to see the trigger approaching. Oh, this is going to be a really stressful day or I have back-to-back meetings all day long and I’m not going to have a good chance to, to check in with myself. Being able to see the trigger approaching and then. Being able to create or plan a strategy that will address the stress or the overwhelm or the difficult emotion or whatever the trigger is. That begins to give you your power back.

Being triggered is passive. Not being triggered and making decisions about your eating. Is proactive. Being triggered is a reaction. Stepping out of being triggered, being purposeful, being grounded, being planful is proactive.

One of those things is empowering the other clearly isn’t and we all know that right. So let’s talk about this proactive process of taking your power back from things or situations or experiences that have triggered you to overeat in the past.

There are some pieces that need to be included in a process of being proactive. A process of breaking patterns of overeating. The first thing is that you want to be able to identify and hopefully even anticipate many of the triggers. Not all of them, it’s not always possible but if you can identify when it’s happening, I’m feeling stressed right now.

Or if you can anticipate, like I said earlier, this is likely to be a really stressful day or this is going to be a really hard week. Or this afternoon, I know things are going to really speed up. If you can identify or anticipate a trigger You’re going to have more power.

And as I am talking about the difference between being reactive and being purposeful. I want to point out that even this first step means that you are going to take enough time and space to have some perspective on your upcoming day or your week, or even the next hour. Being able to identify or anticipate triggers, being able to know what’s going on in the moment.

I’m really stressed. It calls for not moving reactively from one thing to the next, to the next and taking just a few moments, it doesn’t have to be huge, but taking a few moments to look at the big picture.

What’s upcoming for me. What’s going on now? What am I feeling? What is going to be happening over the next few hours or the next week? What am I likely to need? What am I likely to feel?

Okay. That’s the first step. Doing what you can to be aware of triggers as they’re happening and upcoming potential triggers. Once you have done this, what you want to do is to work at consciously breaking the link between the trigger and the urge to overeat. Between the stressful day and the, there I am in the pantry, you know, going through the jar of cashews without even thinking about it. Breaking the link.

Autopilot overeating happens when there is either a lack of awareness about what is going on. So that would look like mindless eating. Or there is this belief that somehow food is going to take care of you. By helping with a feeling or easing a frustration or numbing you or something else. And usually that belief is very easy to be swayed by.

It’s a very easy to push you into overeating because it is a belief that is maybe pretty entrenched. It came up pretty automatically. And it’s not something you’re very carefully examining and certainly not challenging.

So, for example, imagine that you’re having a hard day and you’re feeling at your limit and you’re out of bandwidth and that voice in your head says something like. You’ll feel better if you have some ice cream. Or, you definitely deserve an extra helping tonight. or the ticket here is definitely a big bowl of popcorn and a glass of wine. That’s going to help you wash this day away. You’re going to feel so much better.

These thoughts, they show up on autopilot. We don’t think about them. You accept them as truth. And if there’s nothing to challenge this or to even reality, test them just a little bit. Of course, you’re going to grab a pint of ice cream and a spoon and dive right in. Of course, you’re going to do that.

And every time you do that, every time you have the automatic trigger. And then you have the automatic thought and then you automatically reach for the ice cream. You are reinforcing both the thought and the behavior. The whole pattern. That stress. Leads to ice cream, which is what you need to feel better.

So you break the link between the trigger and the eating and you stop being triggered to overeat. When you reset your mindset. All of this stuff becomes very possible to shift when you reset your mindset away from believing that overeating is the answer. When you can do that when you start playing with this. Everything starts to change. Okay.

So triggered over eating is a reaction. And to break that cycle of autopilot reacting. You need to engage your mind. Because your mind is reacting on autopilot as well.

I use the term mindset reset. To describe this whole mental resetting or reframing that you can do, and that can be very effective in helping you stop being triggered to overeat. As I talk about this, I’m going to refer to a, I guess it’s like a mini program that I’ve just had it to my online shop. That many readers of my book have used and loved over the years. It’s called the smart woman’s daily mindset reset.

It is also referred to as the success soundtracks. And it’s really a great illustration of what you can do to rework your mindset. Okay.

So here’s how you use a mindset reset to short circuit over eating triggers. Again, let’s go back to the beginning, much of the time automatic thoughts guide urges to overeat.

I gave you some examples before. Yeah, some other ones I’m stressed. So I need a donut. I had an awful day. I deserve a bigger helping tonight. I’m not going to make it through this day without chocolate. Right?

Mindset reset as I’m using the term. Mindset reset is a deliberate process of pausing. Checking in with your beliefs, your thoughts, your feelings. Taking inventory of your needs and then proactively strategizing so that you can make conscious choices.

Mindset reset is the process of assessing the situation, evaluating your choices, and then deciding how to respond. Okay.

Now this may all make sense, but here’s the problem. You already see the problem. If you’re in the middle of a busy day or a stressful time, or you’re just simply reacting on autopilot because your life is full of triggers to overeat.

The whole idea of a deliberate process of pausing and checking in with your beliefs and thoughts and feelings and taking inventory of your needs and proactively strategizing or making a conscious choice, and then deciding how to respond. Not only sounds impossible. It also sounds like a lot of work.

If you are rolling your eyes right now, or throwing up your hands, I am right there with you. When you’re busy. When you are in a situation that is triggering you. What you really need is a simple time efficient process that is going to help you focus on what’s really important.

Help you keep your goals in mind, help you take stock and help you move forward in a way that takes care of your needs.

If you are on autopilot, having something really automatic that can move you in another direction. Not in the unhelpful direction that your brain just wants to take you. But something really automatic that can say, hey, look over here. Let’s go this way. That’s going to be way more helpful Then a lengthy, intellectual instruction manual.

The mindset reset program that I created is a super simple set of short audios. It’s an alternative to that automatic soundtrack that’s playing in your head and triggering you to overeat. So instead of just moving forward with your automatic thoughts, what you can do with the mindset reset program is you put in your headphones, you take 10 minutes to follow my voice and instructions. And let your brain be guided in another direction.

It’s plug and play no complicated instructions. You just follow along. But you followed down a different path from being triggered or tempted, or just being hard on yourself and getting down on yourself.

 The way, the mindset reset program is set up. Each of the soundtracks has a different theme. One is for managing stress. One is for getting more clearly focused. One is for setting intentions. They ground you. They give you your power back.

Here’s another point about how to be successful with overeating triggers. You are going to have the best results. If you are not addressing the triggers, when you are in the absolute middle of being triggered.

You are going to be most successful if you are not trying to take care of not being triggered to overeat when you’re in the middle of the storm. When your resourcefulness is at its lowest and when your own autopilot soundtrack is the loudest right? It’s set on its most automatic.

One of the things that I recommend for people who are doing mindset reset work, or if you purchase my mindset reset program is that you set aside time at the beginning of your day. for that program, it’s 10 minutes. Set aside time at the beginning of the day and use that time to not just reset, but to calibrate for what is ahead of you so that you can become intentional. Right.

You can plan, you can do all these things that we talked about. For the day that is ahead of you. So that you have thought about these things before you’re in the middle of the storm.

With the mindset reset program. If you are choosing to go that route, you just put on your headphones at the beginning of the day, pick an audio and you push play. They’re very easy to listen to.

And you can, of course get proactive about your triggers, your overeating triggers on your own. Here is what I would recommend.

I would recommend that you take some time first off to identify what your trigger situations tend to be. Or, what are the feelings or the circumstances that tend to lead to overeating or to bingeing or to excessive emotional eating?

Start to become more aware of what those, what those places look like. And then set aside 10 to 15 minutes at the start of your day when you are fresh. And use that time to check in with yourself. And also do a little planning. Anticipate the challenges or the potential triggers in the day ahead.

Give some thought to what are your priorities for the day? Where might your eating get sidetracked? What are the hardest times of day? How do you want to show up? How do you want to meet the challenges that you are going to face?

Ask yourself, powerful questions like how can you be purposeful? How can you be planful so that you’re less likely to be triggered or surprised in the moment? Ask yourself, how you can take care of feelings, your feelings. How can you take care of your needs? What could you do today? To take care of yourself in ways that aren’t related to eating?

And then again, the thoughts and the beliefs are so powerful. So ask yourself, what are the thoughts or the beliefs that you want to reinforce, or you want to remind yourself of today?

Creating a consistent practice of proactively creating the mindset and the approach that you want for your day is one of the most important acts that you can take to create peace with food and freedom from overeating.

It is key to ending the experience of being triggered to overeat. Your mindset is so powerful. Don’t underestimate it.

By the way, if you are interested in checking out the mindset, reset audios, I will put a link in the show notes. And I’ve also made these a lot easier to find on my website. They’ve been kind of hidden away. So. Just go to TooMuchOnHerPlate.com/shop and you will find the mindset reset audios as well as some other good stuff that has been really difficult to find. We’ve put it all in one place, so that it’s easy for you to find if it’s something that you’re looking for.

Okay, do not underestimate the power of your mindset. Start taking control of your thoughts and you really truly can stop being triggered to overeat.

I’ll talk to you soon.