Jane's Success Story

Jane works from home and when she needs a break, she puts the kettle on and automatically opens the fridge or the cupboard to find something to eat.

She eats whatever she finds; it can chocolate, nuts, dried fruit, fresh fruit, biscuits or pickles. Often, it’s something healthy but not always, and for Jane it’s the regularity of eating between meals that’s concerning her. She can’t take a break now from work without having something to eat.

So, Jane created an If-Then plan to help her eliminate the eating behaviour whilst continuing to take the breaks.

Her 'If-then', or implementation plan, was "If it’s time for a break, then I will put the kettle on and then immediately leave the kitchen until the kettle is boiled"

This was great for Jane and immediately after creating the 'If-then' she was immediately leaving the kitchen on switching on the kettle. 

Jane found though that when she went back into the kitchen to make her drink she tended to sit in the kitchen to have her drink which soon led her venturing for food again in the fridge. So Jane created another Implementation intention plan, this time to take her out of the kitchen altogether once she had made the drink so she wasn't thinking about food which had been linked to being in the kitchen. 

This time her plan was to..."If the kettle has boiled, I will make my drink and immediately move out of the kitchen to enjoy my drink"

This, to her surprise on the next break worked immediately too.

She did struggle somewhat for a few days at breaking through her 10am barrier without eating since that's when she realised she was genuinely hungry after being at work for so many hours. So she made a third 'If-Then' plan so that on this break she was able to have a small snack to refuel to gether through until lunch time. 

Her third  'If-Then' plan was "If it’s 10am and I’m on my break I will eat up to 3 slices of already prepared fresh fruit from the fridge."

This way Jane created space and time for the eating to happen but with rules attached as to the kind of food and the portion size she will eat.