What Is Your Trigger Point?

Why can't you get started?

How many nights do you get ready for bed and say to yourself: "Wow, I really ate too much today. Tomorrow I need to start losing weight"?

How many mornings do you weigh yourself and say: "This is it. Today I get control of my eating"?

Then you have a big breakfast (after all, you've heard that is good for you) and maybe a pastry or other mid-morning snack. Next there's lunch with a friend (where you eat more than you should, but stop paying attention half-way through the meal).

Maybe some chips, nuts or cookies in the afternoon (a bag could have 600 or more calories and lots of fat). If you don't also go out for dinner, you may "just grab something" (that happens to be calorie-laden). Or you cook something delicious (maybe something also loaded with calories) -- and over-eat that.

Lastly, there's the popcorn in the evening (not the buttered kind, so it can't have many calories, can it?). And maybe some wine or other beverage to go with it.

Oh well, there's always tomorrow.

What is the trigger point? The thing that makes it happen?

This is a complex issue. Unfortunately, there isn't one true answer--something that works for everyone all the time. We all make many false starts. So what is it that finally stops us in our tracks? Let's try to find that for you.

• It could be something as simple as catching a glimpse of yourself in a store window. Maybe you tried on something that was a stunningly too small. Maybe it was a photo that made you wince.
• Maybe you had some event coming up where you wanted to look thinner.
• Maybe it was a health scare.
• Maybe you saw a friend succeed in getting to a healthy weight, and you thought it was worth a try.

The trigger point is like a phantom, seductive but elusive

Okay, let me tell you what it was for me so you'll see how unexpectedly a trigger point can occur.

Back in March, I went to my dentist to have some tooth and gum treatment. As usual, I was in the capable hands of doctors Steven and Matthew Grossman and their staff at Kingston Dental Associates (across from Panera and Barnes and Noble and next to the newly enlarged Mother Earth Storehouse). [Check them out: they're high-tech, friendly and have never hurt me--honest].

But I digress. After the treatment, Suzanne told me not to eat anything solid for a couple of days. Okay, I thought, now's the time!

It was as simple as that. I formulated my plan, and, six months later, had gone from nearly overweight to the thin person I was supposed to be. To this day, I don't know why it happened when it did. Just reporting.

What will be your trigger point?

Of course, the exact same thing won't be your trigger. The real message here is to be open to your trigger. Look for almost any excuse--something that moves you off your routine.

The one thing I know doesn't work is going on a diet to try to get thin for a particular occasion. I've seen that one fail too many times (and I imagine you have, too).

Heath scares seem to work, but who wants to wait for one of those to occur?

You're looking for something that causes you to stop in your tracks and say: "From today forward, I'm going to eat only the most delicious, nutritious food--and I'm not going to eat more of it than I need to be a healthy weight!" And from that point forward, that's what you're going to do.

Not "go on a diet." Not a temporary fix until the social event you are planning to attend. But a new way of seeing your food intake and making choices that lead to a healthy weight for you. 

If you received this by email, click here for more tips