What Are Your Food Triggers?

How many thoughts do you have each day about what you’re going to eat, how much you ate, how you feel about yourself about a food choice, or how you feel in your body? Do you ever share what you’re feeling or thinking with someone else? If the answer is no, it’s not uncommon. 

There can be a lot of guilt and shame around our food choices and our relationship with food in general, so we keep it to ourselves. That leads to feeling alone or isolated in your journey but there are likely other people experiencing similar things to you. 

It’s also challenging because one of the main triggers that leads people to eat out of alignment with their goals is feeling isolated, alone or lonely so it can feel like a self-fulfilling prophecy. 

Does this sound familiar? You feel lonely, you avoid feeling the feeling, so you sit down on the couch to mindlessly scroll through social media, and you grab a bag of chips. You devour half of the bag, you lose self-trust, and then it loops back into the trigger of feeling isolated or alone again, so the cycle starts over. 

You might beat yourself up afterward thinking you should have had more willpower or discipline but that would only go so far. If the real reason you ate out of alignment with your goals was because of the trigger of feeling isolated, alone or lonely, no amount of willpower or discipline would help get you through. We really need to address what you’re actually craving. 

In this case, a first step would be to try to create some sort of connection, whether that’s with another person, or even yourself. That can be challenging as it can feel risky or emotionally unsafe in some ways.

Since we’re often turning to food as a form of protection, it’s important to get to the bottom of why you’re binging, mindlessly eating, stress eating, etc. since most likely it isn’t because you just love food too much. You can enjoy what you eat AND have neutrality around it (meaning there’s no guilt, shame or mental gymnastics around the food choice). 

Written by Tribe Pro-level member: Laura Folkes

We recently interviewed Laura, who is a Certified Holistic Health Coach, to discuss how isolating it can feel when it comes to your journey around food and your body. She shared with our members that there is an alternative. Tribe Subscribers can view the interview here, under Heart & Emotional Self-Care.

If you could use support to get to the bottom of what leads you to self-sabotage and fall off track with your eating or exercise, schedule a 40-minute Curiosity Call with Laura. You’ll fill her in on your challenges with your relationship with food, gain insight, and will have a safe space to talk about what’s been swirling around in your mind. You’ll walk away knowing the steps to create sustainable change (no willpower required)!