Taste Life Blog

You feel guilty after you ate a donut at work. You weren’t planning on it but… Time to break down how you ended up eating that donut by using the ABCS of Behavior.

Antecedents

Eating is driven by external and external cues. These cues are known as antecedents.

They are events, feelings and the situation that occurred before any behavior, action or emotion including an undesired consequence, circumstance, event or feeling we had not originally considered.

An antecedent is an eating trigger that can be removed or controlled from your environment.

  Behavior 

This is the activity itself like eating. It could include your speed of eating, taste of the food and any events that occur during the eating.

Consequence

These are the events, feelings and attitudes that follow eating or any activity. These factors happen after eating and will determine whether you eat again.

Example: Lee had a stressful day at work. He came home and on the kitchen counter were potato chips her kids had left out. To relieve her stress she gobbled up the potato chips and felt guilty later.

The antecedents were being stressed out and the potato chips on the counter. The behavior was quickly eating the potato chips and consequence was her guilt about overeating.  Analysis helped reduce Lee’s odds of overeating or not eating when hungry. Lee could not buy potato chips, as she knows it’s her trigger food. When she is stressed out she could listen to a meditation CD on the car ride home or workout. Her consequence? She would feel resilient and like she was in charge of her life. Your beliefs shape your life. Ask yourself, who do I want to be today?