This blog is not intended to replace medical and psychological support and guidance. If you believe you may have any risk factors for an eating disorder, please speak to a medical professional.

Why do we overeat in situations even when we don’t want to? We often discuss the benefits and importance of controlling your environment (you can’t eat what isn’t there), however sometimes it goes beyond that and it isn’t just as simple as setting up an environment that is conducive to your goals, especially when we think of work, family and social settings.

Firstly, let’s define a few terms.

Urge: a strong desire

Impulse: a sudden strong and unreflective urge or desire to act (in this instance to eat)

Binge: loss of control episode of eating, unplanned 

*these are all generally opposite to a goal behaviour

A few studies have been done on the mindset of dieting. 

These results confirm that merely planning to go on a diet can trigger overeating in restrained eaters, reflecting the dynamic connection between dieting and overeating. (Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we diet: Effects of anticipated deprivation on food intake in restrained and unrestrained eaters: D Urbszat - ‎2002)

The last supper effect : merely thinking you’re on a diet can trigger overeating. It can promote a good vs bad foods, all or nothing, on/off diet mentality. 

The brain doesn’t seem to hear “don’t, no, can’t.” So when you say no pizza, no chocolate, no biscuits, no ice cream, the brain just hears pizza, chocolate, biscuits, ice cream. This strategy is also used for athletes in skill development by instructing them what to do, not what to do.

In nutrition, saying eat more protein, eat more plants instead of don’t eat this, don’t eat that.

Some people may be bored of their diets and seek highly palatable foods. A strategy for this is to improve the taste, texture and variety of your meals within your energy needs that are aligned with your goals. So looking to flavour your food with low calories sauces, herbs, spices and seasoning.

Emotions are complex processes. Our emotions also need to be nourished and can drive unplanned eating. When our emotions become stimulated by something the whole body gets in on the action. It is an idea to learn to gain a sense of knowledge over your emotional states and the physical sensations/urges your experience as a result of your emotions.

But when it comes to nutrition and food choices reflect on the following:

• Is food a form of comfort? Excitement? Only source of enjoyment? 

• Is it a form of safety? A way to distract from emotions?

• Is it a form of rebellion or self sabotage?

What we can do is collaboratively work together (client and coach) to find out why this is happening. If not with a coach, then play detective on your own.

Now some people use food as a reward to self medicate as a result of stress, emotion, anxiety, depression, etc. This is to achieve a sense of control and also by choosing highly rewarding foods that signal a dopamine, pleasure response.

The eating episodes are driven by vulnerabilities such as:

• Thoughts: “I deserve a treat”

• Emotions (sad/anxious/angry)

• Physical (hunger/tired) 

There are 5 Stages of Impulse control:

• Urge 

• Tension

• Acting

• Relief

• Guilt / Consequences

The urge and the tension is a bit of a chicken and egg situation, it is unsure which comes first and it may also be dependent on the situation/individual.

Example:

• Tension Build Up

• Followed by a thought: “I can’t stand it”

• Followed by physical urge to eat

• Followed by thought: “I must do something” to relieve tension/urge

• Followed by the behaviour of eating 

• Followed by relief

• Followed by thought: “Why did I do that?” as a result of guilt/consequence. 

If you experience bouts of emotional eating you can learn to describe your experience.

• Where do you feel it? Are there physical symptoms?

• List your emotions/feelings/mood

• How bad are the urges/cravings on a scale of 1-10?

• How long do they last?

• What happens afterwards?

• Is it a true impulse or has it been influenced your environment?

A lot of our unplanned eating episodes are affected by our vulnerabilities.

• Hunger

• Anger, negative emotions, low mood

• Self sabotage

• Loneliness, boredom, procrastination

• Tiredness, feeling overwhelmed

• Peers, environment

• Access to highly rewarding foods, high risk situations such as functions, work/office/buffets

• Peer pressure

Our vulnerabilities tend to be our antecedents: a thing that existed before the behaviour of unplanned eating, which is then followed by a consequence.

A way we can learn to overcome these bouts of unplanned eating is to do a CHAIN ANALYSIS.

The term chain is used, because you can break the chain at a number of points and prevents the following sequence of events..

The CHAIN ANALYSIS looks at:

• Vulnerability (hunger/tired/low mood)

• Prompting event (access to food)

• Links to thoughts (deserve the treat)

• Problem behaviour (over eating)

• Consequence

Attached is an example of a CHAIN ANALYSIS you can complete next time you experience an unplanned eating episode.

VULNERABILITY + ENVIRONMENT = HIGH RISK OF PROBLEM BEHAVIOUR

Remember, beating yourself up won’t help the situation.

Look over the chain analysis, the events leading up to the episode and see where it can be broken. Can you reduce/avoid the high risk situation? Can you work to reduce vulnerabilities such as hunger, mood, fatigue? 

Just as before where we mentioned the brain doesn’t hear no’s/don’t/can’t, suppressing feelings doesn’t help either. Trying to suppress a thought/feeling increases it. 

If I ask you to think about a shark, you might be able to.

But if I ask you not to think about a shark, you’ll only think about sharks. 

Strategies to put into practice:

*Key word PRACTICE. They won’t work first time every time. 

Retrain the brain

Practice doing something different is the same circumstance. Create new habits, patterns, pathways, memories.

Practice new behaviours in a challenging but not high risk situation to build the skill. 

Practice portion control when you’re strong/confident not when tired/vulnerable.

Urge Surfing

• Ride out the cravings until they go away

• Remember urges pass by themselves, we normally give in before the urge passes which reinforces the craving/behaviour

• Just like ocean waves urges start small, grow in size then break up and dissipate

• Practice mindfulness regularly and sit with it

• Watch your breath, notice your thoughts, describe your thoughts and feelings

• PRACTICE THIS DAILY or when the craving/urge regularly occurs

In summary, identify and list the steps that lead up to the episodes of unplanned eating. 

• Where in the order of events can you break the chain? 

• What strategies can you put in place to avoid/reduce the risk of the situation? 

• Can you create a new set of behaviours to positively deal with emotions/thoughts? 

• Can you ride out urges/cravings?

If you feel you need further assistance identifying/controlling/dealing with your thoughts/emotions/feelings, this is beyond our scope so please don’t be afraid to talk to your GP to get referred to a qualified practitioner. 

To learn more about controlling your environment or food choices that are aligned with your goals, contact us today