How Your Environment Triggers You to Eat

One of the first things I tell all of my clients when they begin their weight loss journey is that they need to clean up their environment.

I don’t mean to make you paranoid, but the weight loss deck is stacked against you. Everywhere you turn these days, you’re confronted with food in your environment. If you don’t understand the ways you’re being triggered to eat all the time, you’ll remain powerless. 

Believe it or not, research shows that you probably made around 200 food decisions today. This is the reality of the environment we live in now! Every image, mention or smell of food sets off a decision making process that’s followed by a physical reaction.

What you may not realize is that when you see, smell, feel or talk food, that can be just as powerful of a driver to eat as true hunger! Marketers understand they can spark a secondary hunger system in you by showing images of food or sending smells wafting through malls. They manipulate your environment to appeal to each of your senses in an effort to spark what I call fake or “faux” hunger. 

In order to avoid the environmental traps that are all around you, begin to build a moat around you of habits and behaviors that will keep you safe from your enemies! Think of yourself as a castle that needs a layer of protection.

Understanding your hunger allows you to understand your internal environment. Understanding hunger and fullness is not something most people feel strongly about, but it’s your first line of defense in the weight loss battle.

There are three types of hunger you need to know about so that you know what true hunger and satiety feel like:

Physical Hunger: Sets in slowly over time and is happily satisfied by healthy foods. Any food will do. You open the fridge and everything looks good.

Emotional Hunger: Emotional hunger is endless. It sets in suddenly based on an emotional event. This could be happiness, like a birthday celebration, stress or sadness. It’s erratic, sudden and you crave high-fat and sugary foods. You don’t want to eat and apple because this type of hunger is hard to satisfy. 

Faux Hunger: It sets in suddenly after seeing, smelling or talking about food. It can have physical hunger symptoms like causing your mouth to water. You didn’t have a food craving 2 minutes ago, but suddenly your hunger is driven by your brain and environment.

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Now that you’ve tackled your internal environment, it’s time to move to your home environment.

If you enjoy watching late night TV in the living room, try moving upstairs to avoid late night snacking. If there’s tempting treats in your line of vision, try moving them to a higher cabinet so they aren’t so easy to grab.  I’ve had more success helping people move furniture around the house in order to trigger new behaviors than I ever have giving someone a meal plan!