Triggers- What's causing your healthy/unhealthy choices?

Hi Guys,

Sorry about the absence last week, time got away from me once again. I had an interesting session with the parents of my Nutrition and Activity program yesterday and thought I would share with you all.

Yesterday’s topic was external triggers that cause unhealthy/healthy eating and that cause physical activity/inactivity. A trigger is basically anything that causes a certain behaviour in a person. We don’t always recognise these triggers until after we have actually acted and are faced with the possible consequence of our actions.

External triggers are things in our environment that may cause us to eat unhealthy or healthy foods. For example if you find yourself in the staff room at work and there is a plate of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies on the table chances are you are going to want to eat one. Afterwards you may think to yourself “why did I eat that? I’m not even hungry”. The trigger here is one of the obvious ones, that you saw/smelled these cookies. What if you found yourself in the staff room and there was a bowl of fruit on the table instead- do you think this would trigger you to have a piece of fruit?

While external triggers are things within our environment, internal triggers are things within ourselves e.g. our thoughts, feelings and emotions. Had a bad day? More than likely an internal trigger (feeling down) might lead you straight to the fridge and in the fridge there is a nice big piece of chocolate cake (external trigger) and the two triggers are going to cause you to put that cake straight in your mouth without a second thought. Will you feel better? No most likely not. Will you realise until after you have done it? No most likely not either.

Every day we are faced with both external and internal trigger that set off behaviours in us. Sometimes these behaviours are good for us and other times they are not so good. The important thing is we learn to recognise these triggers that cause unhealthy behaviours and actions and try and eliminate them (if we can) or find ways to curb them. A lot of them time It comes down to willpower and self- control but these are things we need to build upon and if you don’t feel strong enough then it is best to try eliminate the trigger altogether. 

For example removing food triggers from your home is a great way to start. Don’t trust yourself to not eat the chocolate cake in the fridge? Then don’t buy it or anything else you know may cause you to overindulge after a bad day.

We also can create triggers that will promote healthy behaviours in us as well. For example sticking that picture of your favourite fitness model on your wall, fridge, screensaver. This may help trigger you to want to hit the gym and work hard because this person inspires you.  Creating a routine where you meet a friend for a workout is another example because you have made that commitment to go.

 So this week think don’t just eat that cookie or take the lift instead of the stairs. STOP and THINK about the triggers good and bad in your own lives. Try to eliminate or take action to curb some of the unhealthy triggers and promote some healthier triggers J

  As always eat CLEAN, train MEAN and live LEAN J