Trigger Foods... what are they... what are yours?

Have you stalled in your weight loss? Are you comtemplating eating a better way, but don’t know how to start? Do you need to do something… anything… to get a few pounds off?


Are you aware of “trigger foods”? Do you… on a daily basis…begin to eat well in the morning… and then by the afternoon, you’ve lost all resolve and just give up and go to the drive thru?

If you answered “yes” to any of these, or all of these questions… YOU HAVE COME TO RIGHT PLACE!

I am experiencing a major stall in weight loss. PRIOR to eating this way, I would have thrown in the towel, and gone back to my horrible choices in food…for comfort, for ease and for just plain laziness. NO MORE! A couple of months of staying the same weight IS NOT going to send me into a tail spin…I REFUSE to let it happen!… and to be quite honest with you… IT WOULD BE VERY EASY TO DO!!! Yes, you read that correctly… I’m human, and I feel the same way everyone else does when the scale isn’t cooperating… I get frustrated and want to do the easiest, fastest thing to do to make myself feel better… I want to just thrown in the towel and give up… BUT WHY DON’T I? Well… simply because I HAVE NEVER FELT THIS GOOD ON AN EATING PLAN IN MY LIFE… it would be such a waste to ruin all the good things I’ve done… and after I would have thrown in the towel… I would be no better off than I was 70lbs ago. I DON’T WANT TO KEEP LOSING THE SAME WEIGHT OVER AND OVER AGAIN… I just want to get to goal and STAY THERE FOREVER! I want to be normal again… I want to feel on the outside… the way I have always felt in the inside…THAT I LOVE MYSELF, AND CARE FOR MYSELF, and I want my outside to be proof of what I feel.

TRIGGER FOODS… what are they? How do I avoid them? They are insipid things, really. A trigger food is any food that you love, {that is basically bad for you} that ’sets off’ your eating binges, or sets off cravings for other bad foods. For instance, my trigger foods are bread, pasta, and pizza… see a trend? Carbs. I’m a carbaholic. In the past, I’ve tried all the other diets that limit them and told me I just needed to “count’ them and weigh them, or only eat them in this little container only… and quite frankly… it just made my cravings worse. I can’t eat even a little bit of that stuff, if I want to really keep the weight off. EVENTUALLY, I know I’ll be able to eat a little bit now and then, but not until I am at or very close to goal weight. Your trigger foods may be different… some people may have a candy trigger, or a chip and dip trigger… or even a fancy coffee drink trigger. The sad truth is…we must get RID of the triggers to truly stay on a good weight loss path.


I know… I know… ALL THE EXPERTS talk about portion control, and “EVERYTHING IN MODERATION” and all that mumbo jumbo… but many of us are addicts and don’t know or are willing to admit it. That’s okay… no one needs to come out of the proverbial closet, as long as you know how you react to food inwardly, you can start to make a change.

I’ve found, that the foods I tended to “miss” the most in the beginning, were also my trigger foods. Remember… I actually CRIED over bread! Bread! I bake it every. single. day. I’m over the trigger. I have lived a wonderful, yeast free life the past 8 months, with not one illness, cold, or infection!!! DON’T GET ME WRONG.. Bread is WONDERFUL food, expecially when you buy fresh, whole grain, dark, preservative and process free bread… but for me… I need to stay away from it altogether. My hubby lost 45 lbs while eating my bread every day with lunch only… so it isn’t a deal breaker on an eating plan… but for women… mostly… it should be avoided most of the time if your trigger is bread and carbs.

This morning… my scale finally moved DOWNWARD… only a pound.. but still… IT MOVED!


For the past month or so… I have been tasting my bread for salt. I do it all the time… and for the past two month, I have been making homemade, whole grain sourdough for my family because fermented bread is 100 times better for your digestive system than unfermented… {more on that in another post} {remind me if you don’t see it soon}. What I haven’t been doing, that I USED to do… is SPIT THE TASTE OF BREAD OUT, after chewing it. I know… I know… gross… but true… a good cook MUST taste the food being prepared… but not ALWAYS SWALLOWING THE FOOD!…{Every been wine tasting? Yeah, they spit too)… I mistakenly thought that since I’ve lost so much, that a few bites here and there weren’t gonna hurt me… BUT THAT IS SOOOOO NOT TRUE!… Ever since I’ve not been spitting, I’ve been OVERLY FAMISHED all the time… and eating tons of GOOD FOOD… BUT … still… too much of a good thing is still calorie filled… even veggies…

SO MY WEIGHT HAS STAYED THE SAME.. for two months…

Eating healthy, with lots of veggies, and salads, and beans is a great way to eat.. but even too much of that can stall a good weight loss track record… and the reason for my hunger at all times… was that little piece of trigger food every day… It was very small, like the size of a quarter… but twice a day, for weeks, starts to add up.

Soooo…figure out what your trigger foods are.. and steer clear of them. If you start to make excuses for wanting to eat your trigger food like… “It’s only this one time” or “I deserve to treat myself, I’m worth it” or “I’ve read that if you can’t eat all the things you love on an eating plan, it’s not a good one”… think again. I love chips and dip… but they are garbage.

The dang bag says right on it…”Betcha can’t eat just one!” AND THEY ARE RIGHT!!! HELLOOOOO… TRIGGER FOOD ALERT!!!! If you want to lose and keep weight off, there HAS to be some sacrifices in exchange for your best health… period. The sooner we all learn that… the thinner and healthier we will all be.