Trigger foods

[Alexa]

I am starting to learn how scary and controlling a trigger food can be.

I wanted to get a discussion going about how you identified a trigger food; whether you can still lose weight if you eat a trigger food and whether you have cut it out totally or limit it or what.

For me cocoa is seeming to be a trigger food, recently prompting a massive binge after I ate it legally. Previously I ate too much of it, definately, but it didn't cause cravings and I still lost weight.

Ok this is lame, but I feel like really sad that I might have to cut it out. Chocolate is my weakness, and one reason i felt I could do this WOL was because I could have legal desserts with cocoa powder. I guess a lot of you will say there's the proof you need that it's a problem food and I agree, but I just don't think I can quit it forever. Maybe I can learn to control it like I did before.

Anyhoo, what's your experience of trigger foods?

[Hoping]

Re: Trigger foods

Ice cream and heavy cream, but mainly ice cream. Once I have ice cream I just lose control. I want more and more and more, so no...I don't lose weight if I eat it. Heavy cream, on the other hand, I can control on most days. And yes, I do lose even if I consume heavy cream.
I feel you on the sadness, I feel the same way about ice cream and other dairy products. It's sad.

[hrgillespie]

Re: Trigger foods

I have found that anything sweet is a trigger for me. I have to avoid them at all costs. Even sugar free comepletely legal sweet tasting foods send me into a tail spin fighting cravings for days ........ it's just not worth it for me. It's like my body overrides the fact that it's sugar free and if it tastes sweet it acts just like I ate pure sugar ......... It's a no win situation for me so I ahve given up even trying.

[julirama723]

Re: Trigger foods

Sometimes it's instantaneous. The second I put 1 cashew in my mouth, control seems to slip. I guess it's something about the taste, the salty, slightly sweet taste. Other times I notice it after I've eaten, maybe after 30 minutes. Apples do this to me--I have a strong desire to eat again, although I just ate. It's like a "mouth hunger" and not actual hunger. Sometimes it will happen hours later or even the next day. This is what watermelon did to me. I ate it after dinner one night, and the next day, I was a ravenous, craving monster. I'll start to crave random foods that never tempted me before, and the foods I crave might not even be "related" to the trigger food.

Basically it has to do with control. If I eat a food and don't think twice about it, it's not a trigger. If I eat something and I begin to think about it, plan the next time I eat it, think about the taste of it, count the minutes until I can have it again, then it's a trigger food.

[TitianWasp]

Re: Trigger foods

Julie, I am with you on Cashews (macadamias too!). One serving just doesn't happen. I end up eating a cup of the darned things. Then I want other stuff.

[julirama723]

Re: Trigger foods

And what's funny is that I don't even really LIKE cashews that much! Geez, what a stupid trigger food.

[dreamof145]

Re: Trigger foods

For me, I had to find substitutes or I just thought about them all the time. I was a salt-a-holic. Like most people can't pass up a dessert with sugar...I couldn't pass up pretzels or chips or bread/butter. Through keeping a food journal, I know that when I'm anxious about something or stressed, I need to have pepperoni chips or cheese chips available to get throught the temptations. The only way I know of getting over these issues is to plan them out ahead of time and be prepared. I know I will always face stressful situtaions so I try to always be ready. I also keep a poster on the back porch of quotes, motivational sayings and a before photo of me at the top. This definitely works for me. Figure out your food triggers (a food journal is fantastic) and make out a plan before hand of what to eat and do when those triggers are calling your name.

[TitianWasp]

Re: Trigger foods

Julie - how bad is this? I started thinking and thinking about cashews and finally broke down and bought a bag. Doh!

[julirama723]

Re: Trigger foods

It's human nature, and tough to resist.

Another thing to be wary of--just because something was OK in the past does not mean it will ALWAYS be OK! I used to eat apples with no problems. Then, after my watermelon incident this summer, apples became deadly. Life isn't fair.

[Alexa]

Re: Trigger foods

Hey,

thanks for all these thoughts on trigger foods. Cocoa powder desserts were my planned way of dealing with situations of temptation - but it's not worth it if I makes me spiral out of control!

Titanwasp - I hope I didn't inadvertently prompt a cashew issue with this post!

[mitzimarie]

Re: Trigger foods

Hello

Well, I'm sure most of you know what trigger food I've identified recently if you've seen my posts... PECANS! OMG, I lost my mind. And this went on for several days... I had TONS of extra calories from these blasted things. I am on Day 4 of giving them up, and I feel like I've lost most or all of the weight I put on that week. This has taught me a valuable lesson - When it comes to nuts, I'm nuts! I have been able to handle the ounce of almonds a day for 6 months now, with no problem. But that's because they are natural ones, that I put into my MUP. I seem to have a problem with nuts that are eaten by hand... not mixed into something. And if it's salted... well, forget about it. I would probably have a hard time stopping before they are gone. So, other than my natural almonds, I am going to have to avoid nuts forever, I think.

Julie makes a good point. Just because you have been able to eat a food in the past without a problem, does not mean that you will be able to eat it forever. I've eliminated cottage cheese, and can only eat greek yogurt very occasionally (not multiple times in a week). I think those things were part of my problem last week, too, because I had just added them back after eliminating them since the first of September.

Alexa, I can see how cocoa could be a trigger food for me, too. And I used to eat it daily, because I stirred in a tablespoon of unsweetened cocoa and a few drops of Splenda into either cottage cheese or greek yogurt daily, and it was awesome. But, the dairy was slowing my losses big time, so I had to eliminate them. When they went, I no longer had a reason to use cocoa. I guess that's good, because that could be a problem for me.

I am very frightened of any legal treats... even if they are made by me. Aside from the MUP I eat daily, greek yogurt maybe twice a month, and an Induction friendly cheesecake I made for Easter Sunday, I NEVER make treats. I know that may sound a bit extreme to some, but I just know that slippery slopes are all around me. And I had a taste of what it could do to me last week, inhaling pecans. I learned that I will always have to be strict.

Julie said something in another post that really resonated with me... how she would never cheat with a non-legal food, but sometimes it's hard to stop eating the legal ones. That's me, exactly. Since my re-start in late February, I haven't eaten a single non-legal thing... but I have found some mighty dangerous legal things.

Great topic, Alexa.

[ValidRouge]

Re: Trigger foods

Nuts and dairy/sweetner combinations are triggers for me. If I combine a sweetner with cream, cream cheese, or anything like that...I go off the deep end.

This is my OPINION, of course, but we got fat eating 'treats' on a daily basis. Chips, crisps, desserts, etc. There really isn't a place in our daily eating for these types of foods (and behaviors) anymore anyway. I continue to try to allow them in and am met with a binge almost every single time. You'd think I'd learn, right? I am, but it is hard to let go.

If I only allow desserts/treats on special occasions, and prepare myself for the binge, then maybe I allow those foods very carefully, but I have to prepare myself that I am going to go bonkers for a while and to have a plan in place for managing it. That's why I don't agree with the whole planning to cheat thing. Think about how hard it is for us who've been at this a long time....anyway. Those are just some of my thoughts.

Also note that most people's trigger foods are "snacky" type foods...even if legal.

[Atkid]

Re: Trigger foods

Watermelon is a craving food for me....once I eat it, I crave more...but it didn't stall me..I actually lost when I was having it. Then towards the end of the summer I got a yucky watermelon that was gritty and gross and suddenly those cravings stopped. Ice cream is a bad food for me. Icecream is what got me fat to begin with. I cannot just put some in a cup or a cone and be done with it, I put it in the bowl and then I take a bite and then I grab a new spoon to grab some to eat while I put the icecream back away. When I started Atkins I stayed away from the icecream until someone from the board convinced me to try the lowcarb Rocky Road. OMG, in heaven, but right back to my icecream addiction, so I haven't had any in like 4 or 5 months and doing fine without it. Its like the potato chip, I can't just have one.

[blue996]

Re: Trigger foods

Unfortunately pumpkin is a huge trigger food for me. As soon as I eat it I become so hungry. It makes me sad as I think of all the great things I can do with it.

[msnicksmom]

Re: Trigger foods

I totally agree with the snack trigger philosophy, and my experience (and I'm an emotional eater) has been that if my suspected trigger food is used as a snack, treat, or reward, it does trigger quick mouth hunger. If it's a planned part of a meal or an ingredient, it does not have the same affect. For example, I can't snack on nuts, but I can put them on salad, use almond flour in a legal tart or cheesecake, or put them on top of yogurt. I make a legal, though pretty high carb, apple crisp on special company occasions. It's FINE for the meal I plan it for. But if there's some left over the next day or the next its a BIG problem. I don't know if that's related to blood sugar or just a mental thing.