So now I know that I can no longer buy the breakfast/protein bars "Zone Perfect," since they've now become a big-time trigger food for me. Despite my best intentions, I wound up eating an entire box of five bars after buying one late yesterday, though I should only eat two for breakfast once a day. Yesterday I gobbled a whole box down, then followed it up with devouring most everything in the refrigerator and pantry and seeing my waist go up a half-inch overnight. I utterly felt like crap before bed and turned in early in misery. I also blew off going to the gym, though I had planned on it all day. In hindsight, I see that as bad as hunger pangs can be when sticking to my diet, the after-effects of binging are worse. I'm going to remember that the next time I'm tempted to eat more. It was an expensive lesson.

I think it's great to learn what your triggers are. I'm starting to learn that, too, after making some mistakes. A big one for me has been the holidays and other "special" days (trips, weddings) etc. It's weird, because the last time I lost weight, I don't remember having as much trouble with these things. But anyway, I think the important thing is to learn and not beat yourself up over it. I am guessing pretty much everyone trying to lose weight has bad days sometimes.

I used to always dive into a bucket of fried chicken when I had to deal with my mother. (She is a piece of work!) I broke up with her a year ago and have happily had a fairly KFC-free existence since then. Then this week, I had to deal with her again and was surprised to find how badly I wanted to go to KFC right after the encounter (which lasted only 5 minutes!). I did some hard thinking about it, thought about the other days over the last year when I wanted to take a run for KFC. Every one of those moments was about dealing with someone who was invading my life and trying to coerce me into something I didn't want.

So now I'm thinking about a plan of attack so that my KFC buttons aren't pushed. Rule #1...stay away from manipulative people!

I think that's smart. The best way to avoid the triggers is to have a plan in advance.