Step 3: Avoiding High-Risk Triggers

As you might expect, or just know from experience, a slip is typically accompanied by a trigger, a high-risk situation that precedes and increases the probability of a return to the problem.

About 60 to 70 percent of people who change report triggers surrounding their first slip. For instance, someone trying to lose weight might attack a pint of ice cream after a stressful day at work. Similarly, someone cutting back on alcohol shouldn’t be spending their weeknights at the local watering hole where drinking buddies and beer await!

Triggers can be practically anything that has historically been associated with the problem—from moods and behaviors to places, people, and physical cravings. Excessive stress, negative moods, lack of control, positive emotions, and physical cravings lead the pack of the most common triggers.

Those stopping smoking and losing weight tend to fall more often to physical cravings and environmental cues. The good news is that physical cravings taper off over time; the bad news is that feeling stressed and a lack of control increase in frequency as triggers over time.

Surprisingly, yes, even positive emotions can result in slips! The historical pairing of unhealthy overindulgence with good times leads many of us astray. Can’t celebrate without rich desserts, calorie-rich drinks, or a smoke? Then you join the fray too.

Do you face any of the above-mentioned common triggers?