Page 152 - Nutrition Counseling and Education Skills: A Guide for Professionals

SELF-ASSESSMENT 2

1. What are your cues for eating?
2. What are strong mediating variables to your eating behaviors?
3. The introductory paragraph included the example of a man eating cookies in the kitchen. How could the

cues in this situation be modified?

Studying may be a cue to eating.
Source: Copyright Wolters Kluwer.

The behavior-modifying strategy involves decreasing the exposures to situations in which food is used as a
reward or as a focal point of an activity. A list of suggestions for changing behavior that have been
recommended by various authors for persons desiring to lose weight is found in Box 7-1.5,11,12 To modify
antecedents, the nutrition counselor may suggest removing negative cues (not buying inappropriate foods);
introducing new, more positive cues (exercising instead of eating); restricting behavior to one set of cues
(eating only at designated times); cognitive restructuring (discussed in Chapter 8); and role-playing (new
responses to old antecedents telling a friend you would rather go to a movie than out for pizza). Breaking
response chains and preplanning behavior are other strategies.2,4

Preplanning meals and snacks and having only appropriate foods in the house are preferable to expecting
self-control when hungry. Preplanning social occasions and exercise are helpful. Small portions of favorite
foods may need to be included in the diet to avoid feelings of total deprivation and potential abandonment of
dietary changes. Doing the right thing is enhanced by stimulus control. The goal of preplanning to control
antecedents is to decrease the number of times the person is exposed to tempting situations so that the client’s
behavior is tested as seldom as possible.14

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