The team discussed preparing for some of the upcoming holidays including Canadian Thanksgiving and Halloween.

Main Topics:

• Appetite Suppression & Food Addiction

Main Suggestions:

• Fall back on asking yourself the most pertinet questions, like;
  • Are you hungry?
  • Why are you eating?
  • If you are hungry, what is the best way to handle it?

The team discussed the various drives to eat, other than mere hunger, including:

• Social cues
• Stress/lack of sleep
• Bored, anxious, sad, lonely, happy
• Worried you will be hungry later
• Hyper-palatable food

Some other tips from the team:

• Anticipate the drive and prepare with strategies (Swiss Cheese Defenses Model)
• Buy yourself some time: distract yourself, fill your stomach with seltzer, tea,
  decaf, etc.
• If your appetite is regulated, the desire to eat may pass with simple time and distraction

Specific advice for handling social situations, like parties and celebrations:

• Eat before you go, don’t go into a challenging situation hungry!
• Set an alcohol limit – alcohol can bring your defenses down and lead you to
  make decisions not in your best interest
• Discuss your concerns with your host – it can be challenging to be
  vulnerable and share weaknesses, but your health is at stake. It’s not
  worth it to undo your hard work just to appease others
• Ask your host about the menu, and offer to bring a dish and/or dessert that
  works for you
• Above all, remember your reason for maintaining your lifestyle: How do you want to feel the next day? Nobody ever regretting maintaining their lifestyle the next day, but many have regretting not keeping up their good habits.

Studies discussed by Dr. Tro:

• Food imagery and stress drives hunger, anxiety, food intake and junk food intake
• https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32918391/
• Bottom line: Food cues, stress and anxiety drive us to eat and we face all these during
  the holidays which shows why most of us have a hard time.

*Please note that this is a summary of various discussion points of the group health
coaching call. Nothing in this summary or on the calls should be construed as medical
advice.