It always starts with just one little thing.
Maybe your child spilled milk or your washing machine quit working.
When you walked into the kitchen, you were attacked by the plate of leftover brownies so you ate several of them.
Later on, you felt exhausted from your day as well as frustrated because you overate. So to get it all out of your system, you finished off the evening by eating a large bowl of ice cream.
While these things may seem like a series of random events, they actually developed into a behavior chain. As the day went on, they all became connected together until they wore down your resistance to food.
In a behavior chain, one thing leads to another, increasing your frustration until you throw your hands in the air and reach for the cookies or the M&M’s.
To identify the links in a behavior chain, start by looking at the exact time you first ate or knew you desperately wanted to eat.
Working backwards from there, ask yourself, “What happened? What bothered me or made me upset?”
Then consider all of the situations or people that may have prompted your stressful feelings or other emotions.
As you identify items in your behavior chain, keep asking “and what else?” to jog your memory about other issues that affected you.
Once you identify all the links in an eating-related chain of events, look carefully at each one. Determine exactly which places you slipped up and consider what you could have done to prevent or catch your negative actions.
Today’s assignment (My answers are in blue)
1. Recall a behavior chain of events you experienced today or in a recent week. Write down the item, person or situation that you think started the chain.
A couple years ago when my husband did not get the university teaching job in Chicago that he thought was a sure thing.
2. Now draw or describe the behavior chain. Keep asking… and what else? Add more items to the list until you’ve exhausted all the possible links in the chain.
Very strong interview, fear it wouldn’t work, anxiety of waiting, news he didn’t get it, devastated but not talking about it, angry, depressed, feeling alone and isolated.
3. With each link, write a note about any actions you could have taken to handle the problem instead of letting it build.
More exercise to let go of stress, allow myself to cry about it, use tools from my work, express my anger and disappointment.
In retrospect, I did not handle this situation well at all. I’m still amazed at how much eating I did over the disappointment of that job not coming through.
Excerpted from Day 81 in the book, 100 Days of Weight Loss