I realized one thing that almost guarantees I'll overeat is if an anticipated and/or planned meal turns out to be dissatisfying. Example: Tonight I attempted barbecue chicken in my Dutch oven. It turned out rubbery, tough, and sweet. Yuck! But for some reason, I kept trying to like it, so I ate some. Besides, I was tired, and it's what I had prepared for dinner. About two hours later, I felt so dissatisfied with my meal that I made myself a half sandwich of boiled egg, a bit of mayo, and a slice of red onion (my lower fat version of egg salad); it's what I had been craving all day but hadn't had. Additionally, I ate three mini biscotti (before eating the egg salad).

This incident has just verified something I actually realized some time ago: I tend to engage in "compensatory eating" when I eat a dissatisfying meal. So, my plan to address this problem? When I start eating a meal and discover that I don't like it, I need to stop eating after that first bite. If I don't, then I'll just end up eating what I want to anyway (or eating other substitutes for what I want). That's my plan from this point forward.

What are some circumstances that trigger you to overeat?

Being up super late or all night working. I think it's a double whammy -

1) I am awake a lot longer so I legitimately get hungry
2) I'm tired and cranky and feel like I "deserve" whatever it takes to keep going and not feel like total crap

Hmm. I don't really have trigger circumstances and in many of the circumstances where most people over-indulge, I tend to hold back (I will not be the fat lady over eating in public at the buffet, birthday party, family gathering, wedding, etc. Won't do it. Don't like buffets anyway). I have trigger foods - bread, noodles, rice. I don't like the idea of never having them again, so I try not to keep white bread in the house and if we have rice or pasta, I either cook ONLY as much as we need or it goes in the fridge ASAP.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE bread, rice, and pasta. I am fairly certain I could eat a pasta and rice sandwich on white with some potato chips for crunch and salt and be in heaven. Yup. I'm a carb girl.

P.S. Have never actually done the above

That's one of my unplanned eating triggers, too, OP. If I don't like it, I chuck it, or else I'll eat more.

On top of that, I have a lot of other triggers. It really sucks. But I'm working with it... ugh.

One of mine is eating after 8:30. If I do that, I get ravenous in the middle of the night. No idea why.

If I'm bored, I'm way more prone to get bad cravings and overeat.

If I don't have meals planned out and I get hungry, I grab whatever's in sight and trigger a bine 9.5/10 times.

Sometimes it's just trigger foods. Sometimes I can feel if it'll trigger me, and other times I can't. No one food always triggers me.

I do well at parties, get togethers, buffets, etc. for some reason. It's when I have a lot of down time that I have issues.

thinking of my ex bf

trying on clothes that still dont fit

weighing myself

thinking i am looking better than seeing someone thin and thinking how i need my eyes checked cuz i have such a long way to go

boredom

loneliness

Being hungry and at a place where there is no healthy food... and lots of unhealthy food.

Candy! Can't stop eating it once I start. I can inhale insane amounts, so I'm better to just stay away from it altogether.

- Leftovers
- A bad weigh in day

having a severe migraine (I have them daily but they can get unbearable)
low grade stress or a party
sleep deprivation
having a cold/flu
not being able to workout
missing a meal or snack
pms

in the past, the same thing would be a trigger for me. It wouldn't even have to be bad or something I didn't like, but if I was having a craving for a specific food and tried to eat other (healthier) stuff, I would end up still craving that food anyway, so those healthier substitutes would just be extra calories on top of finally giving in and eating what I wanted in the first place.

But the amazing thing about my current plan is that I do not do that anymore. I do not get cravings for sweets or junk food. I might think that gee, some ice cream or whatever would taste good, but that's it, I just THINK it and move on. On my plan I eat when I am hungry, as long as it's on plan food (lean protein, low/no fat dairy and veggies) and the food is tasty and satisfying but it's not the stuff of food fantasy. So I only eat when I get physically hungry and don't spend much time thinking about food otherwise.

Letting myself get too hungry with no meal planned or quick healthy food around

Going to dinner at the 'in laws' straight after work and being very hungry

So many of these are triggers for me, as well.

Mainly not planning ahead, skipping breakfast, TOM, hard day with the kids.

But, honestly, I haven't gotten the eating totally in control yet. I work out a lot, but, by the end of the day, I just want to veg...without the veggies...and eat/drink beer. Stress/absent-minded eater, definitely.

This + the exhaustion and stress of teaching = gaining back the 40 lbs I lost.

I love it! So funny

The same happened to me about six years ago. I started a new teaching job, got completely stressed out, and gradually (over a year or two) gained back all the weight I'd lost and then some. I was so discouraged by that, that it has taken about six years for me to get back to a point where I even thought about losing, but I'm doing well so far.


It seems that for many of us, unplanned events are triggers. A good strategy might be to brainstorm a list of strategies to handle our most common unplanned situations (although that seems like an oxymoron).