Know Your Style

Michelle Adams
 

When you see the word “style” you may automatically think of outward style; how you dress, your signature hairstyle, you wear natural colors or bright colors, or the type of shoes you wear.  Your style is a reflection of your habits and of what makes you feel comfortable. The “style” we are focusing on in this article is different.  We want you to learn your eating style.  What is your pattern or triggers?  Do you stop eating or eat more when facing difficulty?  Do you crave sugary foods or bread when tired?  Just what is your style?

Knowing your style is important because knowledge is power.  Once you know you have the power to continue the pattern or to change it.  There are a couple of factors to look at when we look at our style.  First let’s look at how we eat.  Think of how you eat when things are going well.  Do you eat three times a day, once a day, or four to five times a day?  Do you eat full meals or multiple small meals?  Do you snack on veggies?  Do you eat fast food or prepare the food yourself?  Now let’s look at your eating habits when things aren’t going well.  Ask yourself the same questions we asked about eating when things are going well and compare how you eat when things aren’t going well.  Do you find yourself eating unhealthier or junk food?  Do you find yourself not eating at all?  Hopefully you are writing this down so you can visually see your eating patterns in good times and not so good times.

Now that you can see what you are eating and how many times a day you eat let’s look for your triggers.  Triggers are things that cause other things to happen.  What triggers you to overeat or under eat.  Yes, I said under eat.  Just in case you did not know not eating enough is just as unhealthy to our bodies as overeating.

So let’s look at some styles and triggers:

Stress & Anxiety – for some people stress triggers their eating pattern.  Feeling overwhelmed or that you may not be capable of handling a situation can throw off your normal eating pattern.  In order to deal with the uncomfortable feelings some people eat.  Eating becomes a way of diverting attention from the stress and anxiety. 

Bored and/or Lonely – sitting around with nothing to do or feeling alone and like no one wants to be around us can trigger our eating.  In order to fill the lonely space we can reach for something to put in our mouth.  Food can become our companion or the thing that we use to alleviate our boredom.

Sad/Unhappy – we have all seen the commercials or television shows where someone is unhappy and they turn to “a tub of ice cream” to feel better.  Look at yourself, does sadness trigger you to change your eating pattern?

Happy or Celebrating – feeling like we accomplished something may lead us to want to reward ourselves.  Do we reward ourselves with food?  Does happiness trigger and lead to a change in your eating pattern?

The above list does not include every pattern.  And for some you may find that you have more than one of the above triggers.  The most important thing is to find your trigger(s) and know your style.  Once you know you can make a choice.  If you realize your trigger is boredom when you find yourself bored before you reach for that food to comfort yourself, question yourself.  Ask yourself, “am I hungry or bored?”, “are there activities I can do?”  Work on things you can do in place of eating i.e. call a friend, go to the park, journal, etc.  This is called giving yourself alternatives.

So again we say “Know Your Style” and then use your power.

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