Psychological, Behavioural and Emotional Issues

Diet Cycle

For most people, eating is affected by many factors in addition to hunger e.g. boredom, comfort, stress, social reasons. There can also be great social pressure to be slim and, as a result, 'dieting' to achieve an ideal weight is common. Constantly struggling to balance these factors can lead to a vicious cycle of obsessive dieting followed by bingeing. This can perpetuate feelings of guilt and failure.

When someone is in the 'diet cycle' eating can become very disordered. The following can enable this cycle to be broken

• regular eating
• managing lapses and learning from them
• managing triggers to overeating
• distraction techniques
• managing cravings

Dealing with lapses

Help clients to understand that lapses are a natural part of change and that it is important to learn from each lapse to avoid it happening again.

Most lapses occur as the result of a sequence of events. A behaviour chain, such as the one below can enable a client to work out how to break the sequence and avoid unhelpful behaviour.(blank behaviour chain)

Triggers to overeating

Everyone will have their own set of triggers to eating and overeating which can be very powerful e.g. cravings, mood, feelings, sight and smell, social situations, food preparation.

There are different ways of coping with these triggers which can be practised by clients

1. Avoidance of the situation - encourage the client to list their own triggers and identify how they could avoid them
2. Learn to resist eating in trigger situations - mood food urges are learnt habits which can be unlearnt ('how to deal with cravings')
3. Learn new responses to trigger situations (see 'distraction techniques')

Distraction techniques and how to deal with cravings

Cravings tend to come in waves and can disrupt weight management. Finding a way to resist the urge to eat when the wave is building to its highest helps to control it. One way to do this is to ask the client to draw up their own list of alternative things to do to avoid eating. The list should include simple things which can be easily carried out and which are pleasurable for them. Everyone's list will be different but examples could be :-

• go for a walk
• listen to music
• play on computer or Internet
• have a bath
• paint finger/toe nails
• do some gardening

Advise clients to pick something from their list when they are tempted to deviate from their eating plan. When they achieve this and avoid the unplanned eating they should be encouraged to praise themselves and maintain a positive attitude.