8 Common Triggers That Influence Your Eating Habits (and How to Change Them)
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Noticing your eating triggers can help you make choices that support digestion, energy, and overall well-being.
Pause before eating, check in with your hunger, and keep nourishing grab-and-go options on hand to support your body and energy.
Curious how your daily habits shape your gut health? Download your free 7-Day Gut Health Journal.
If you often feel drained, crave comfort foods, or struggle to stick to healthy habits, I wrote this blog with you in mind.
📌 Keep reading - or save this post for when you’re ready to notice your triggers and make choices that truly support your body.
Have you ever found yourself standing in front of your pantry late at night, searching for something sweet, even after you’ve had a full dinner?
It can feel like the craving comes out of nowhere, but there’s usually more to the story. Sometimes it’s the ripple effect of a stressful day, or the fatigue that sets in when your body is ready for rest but your mind is still buzzing. Other times it’s a dip in blood sugar, or a subtle emotional pull toward comfort.
These patterns aren’t just about willpower. They’re about what’s influencing you in that moment. Over the years, I’ve seen the same handful of triggers show up again and again, shaping food choices in ways you may not even realize.
As a Holistic Nutritionist and Gut Health Expert, I’ve helped people uncover these hidden influences so they can make choices that actually support digestion, energy, and overall well-being. Once you can spot your own triggers, you can start creating simple strategies to let your behaviors work in your favor.
Let’s look at eight of the most common triggers and how they might be showing up in your daily life.
The 8 Triggers That Can Shape Your Food Choices
I’ve had so many clients tell me, “I know what I should eat, but I just have a hard time actually eating that way.” You might have said this yourself. This has nothing to do with willpower. The real challenge in choosing what moves you toward your goals often comes down to behavior triggers: situations, emotions, or physical states that influence your food choices in the moment.
Sometimes those triggers work in your favor, like ordering a veggie-packed lunch when you’re out with health-minded coworkers. Other times, they can steer you toward foods that increase digestive symptoms and drain your energy. Then you find yourself wondering why you couldn’t stick to your plan.
Here are the eight most common behavior triggers that can make healthy choices feel more challenging:
Stress
Fatigue
Sleep quality
Emotions
Social influence
Blood sugar imbalances
Gut microbiota
Pain or physical symptoms
Shared environments, workplace culture, and social connections can easily influence your food choices and, in turn, your gut health and overall well-being.
How These Triggers Can Affect Your Digestion and Energy
These triggers don’t just influence what you choose to eat. They also shape how your body responds to food, your energy levels, and even your overall sense of well-being. Here’s how each one might show up in your day-to-day life:
Stress can increase cravings for highly processed comfort foods and interfere with how well you digest your meals. You might notice more bloating, discomfort, heartburn, or changes in your bowel habits during times of high stress.
Fatigue can increase appetite and make it harder to follow through on healthy choices, especially in the afternoon. Even with a planned snack, you might still find yourself reaching for something sugary or high in refined carbs which can affect your energy and digestion later.
Poor sleep quality can intensify stress and fatigue, and even increase abdominal discomfort. When you don’t get quality rest, it’s much easier to crave and give in to comfort foods that, in turn, increase digestive symptoms.
Emotions like sadness, guilt, or anxiety can influence what and how much you eat. You might reach for sweet or familiar foods that feel comforting, even if you’re not physically hungry, which can lead to overeating and digestive discomfort.
Social influence can subtly shape both what and how much you eat. You may match your portion sizes to those around you, order something indulgent to feel connected, or join in on group treats more often than planned…all of which can impact digestion and energy.
Blood sugar dips can trigger intense hunger and cravings for sweets or refined carbs, making it harder to stick with balanced meals for the rest of the day and setting you up for the same cycle the next day.
Gut microbiota (the trillions of microbes living in your digestive system) can also affect cravings through your gut-brain communication. Certain microbes feed on sugars and refined carbs, steering you toward the very foods that can disrupt digestion and drain energy.
Pain and digestive symptoms can push you toward comfort foods to feel better. But those same foods can increase stress, disrupt sleep, intensify fatigue, affect emotions and blood sugar, and alter gut microbiota, creating a cycle where discomfort and cravings reinforce each other.
When you understand how these triggers affect both your food choices and your body’s response, you can start to spot them in real time. That awareness opens the door to creating simple, realistic strategies that help you respond differently to those triggers.
Stress, poor sleep, intense emotions, blood sugar dips, gut microbiota imbalances, and ongoing digestive symptoms can all contribute to fatigue.
Practical Ways to Navigate Each Trigger
Your goal isn’t to eliminate your triggers. It’s to notice when they crop up so you have space to find an alternative choice. Think of yourself as an investigator, finding clues to what works and what doesn’t for your digestion, energy, and goals. No perfection, just observation and new tools to help you along the way.
Here are some practical tips for when you notice your behavior trigger influencing your food choices.
1. Stress
If you notice stress before you eat, give yourself a 60-second pause before picking up that fork. This could be some slow deep breaths, saying grace, or just taking in your surroundings. Taking a pause is a great way to get your body out of “fight or flight” and into “rest and digest.”
If stress has you crunched for time, keep your favorite nourishing grab-and-go options on hand. When time is short, this trick makes it easier to prevent stressful moments from turning into frantic choices.
2. Fatigue
If you’re used to that afternoon slump, start adding some hydration to your afternoon routine. Mild dehydration can cause fatigue so you may find this small trick creates an unexpected pick-me-up.
Start your day with a breakfast of protein, fat and fiber. This balances your blood sugar from the get-go and creates steady energy which reduces fatigue.
That mid-afternoon energy dip doesn’t always mean you need another snack or more caffeine. Sometimes, it’s simply your body asking for hydration. Try sipping water through your afternoon for a quick pick-me-up.
Curious how something as simple as water can support your gut? Explore my blog: How Hydration Supports Your Gut Health.
3. Sleep Quality
Treat your hours before bed as sacred time to unwind and recharge. Anything that feels like a wind-down routine for you, a bath, a cup of tea, or your favorite show (as long as it’s not too binge-worthy!) can help you feel restored from your day. This can make it easier to feel sleepy when bedtime comes.
If your mind races at night, try breathwork, a sleep story, meditation, or even some journaling before your head hits the pillow. This can help reset your thoughts for a more restful sleep.
4. Emotions
When an emotionally charged craving shows up, name it. “This is stress,” “this is boredom,” “this is lack of control.” That awareness of your emotions and how they drive your cravings gives you powerful insight to create strategies around them.
Create a list of things that bring you joy that are not food. Things that genuinely make you feel heard, seen, connected and happy. These are your best go-to’s when emotions run high.
Curious how mindfulness and stress management can support your gut and overall well-being? Dive into my blogs: How Mindfulness Supports Your Gut and Balancing Your Nervous Systems.
5. Social Influence
When dining out, take a moment to check the menu ahead of time and choose items that you know will be satisfying and supportive. Begin with these so you’re less tempted by other options.
If you know the setting has no healthy options, decide ahead of time which things you’ll enjoy and which you’ll skip, and try to eat more mindfully. And don’t forget to give yourself grace with whatever you do choose.
6. Blood Sugar Imbalances
Just like with fatigue, you’ll want to include protein, fat, and fiber at breakfast. In fact, aim for this type of plate all day long. This can crowd out refined flours and sugar as well as balance your blood sugar, energy and cravings.
Notice any patterns around your blood sugar dips. You may not be eating enough, or too far between meals. Awareness is key to finding strategies around better blood sugar balance.
Including protein, healthy fats, and fiber at breakfast (and really every meal) helps balance your blood sugar, reduce cravings, and maintain steady energy throughout your day.
Want to learn how to find balance in your meals? Check out my blog: 4 Tools for Blood Sugar Balance
7. Gut Microbiota
It’s hard to know who is taking up real estate in your gut and how they’re influencing your food choices. So, the easiest way to support a healthy population is choosing fibrous foods. Think of adding more veggies and fruits to your day, which can help crowd out some refined flours and sugars.
Add in some fermented foods like kimchi, kefir, plain yogurt, miso, tempeh, and even kombucha throughout your week. These can help repopulate your microbiota to a healthier population.
8. Pain and Symptoms
If your pain patterns are digestive, like chronic heartburn or abdominal pain, start a food and observation journal to discover which foods are triggering your symptoms. That awareness is your first step to finding less reactive foods and fewer symptoms.
Practice self-compassion and find your support system to help with your pain and symptoms. The simple act of finding the right support can be a game-changer in pain management, and allow the mental space to make choices that work for your digestion and energy.
Struggling to understand what’s affecting your digestion, energy, or pain? Download your FREE 7-Day Gut Health Journal today to start connecting the dots between your symptoms and food choices.
Final Thoughts: Find What Works for You
Your eating choices aren’t just about willpower. They’re shaped by your body, your emotions, and your surroundings. When you notice the triggers that influence your decisions, you can start experimenting with strategies that feel manageable, supportive, and aligned with your digestion, energy, and overall well-being.
The small experiments you try today can guide you toward choices that truly support your body and your goals.
Love more tips to help you feel better in your body? Get them delivered straight to your inbox with The Mindful Digest.
RESOURCES
Pain Specialty Group. The impact of pain on dieting. Published March 8, 2023. Accessed October 31, 2024. https://www.painspecialtygroup.com/blog/the-impact-of-pain-on-dieting
© Stephanie Walsh and Walsh Approach, 2025. I pour a lot of care into creating this content, so please don’t copy or reuse it without permission. You’re always welcome to share excerpts or links if you give clear credit back to Stephanie Walsh and Walsh Approach.