Selected Behavior and Motivation
I’ve realized recently I have been struggling with eating a lot of candy. Every time I see some, I really don’t hesitate to pick up a piece and eat it. I wanted to see when I eat a piece of candy if there’s a main reason or me to eat it. I chose this behavior because I have realized how much candy I have been eating but it’s so natural that most of the time I don’t even realize I have a piece in my mouth. I want to see if I can figure out what the reasoning for always grabbing a piece of candy, whether it’s convenience, flavors, etc. I would like to see what causes me to just grab candy.
Data Collection:
Tracking: I tracked from Saturday to end of Sunday (January 10th – January 11th)
How I logged: wrote down the data on my phone
Data:
- The thoughts I had right before
- What kind of candy
- Context
- Mental state (i.e. emotional state)
I tracked this for two days specifically the weekend because I knew if I was around the apartment I could probably get more of an understanding of how my normal life is like.
Logging the data wasn’t too hard luckily! It was definitely a challenge a bit at the beginning just because I would continue eating candy before I remembered to log stuff down. I realized most of the time I would be eating Lemon Drops, caramels, and chocolate truffles. It definitely got much easier over time as I would notice how often I would just take another piece of candy when I just got one. I really tried to make sure the logging wouldn’t affect normal consumption but it definitely affected it a bit.
What I realized:
- Need for something to do while working: I realized I ate candy more so because it was nearby and I was focused on whatever I was working on.
- Easy access to candy made it more common: We left candy out on the table mostly due to the fact my parents sent us candy. I was mostly hoping others would eat it, but it appears that’s not the case.
- Less hunger, and more highs and lows: Eating the candy definitely made me less hungry overall but also it gave me short highs and lows for focus and emotionally. I realized I was having happy short bursts of energy but would wake up and feel sluggish.
What I would do next time:
- I would focus more on what it would be like outside of the apartment. I think the goal would be doing chores or something more to see if it changes anything
- I would consider doing another few days with the actual change or thought of resisting, it would be interesting to see what else I could learn from those moments
- I would also consider maybe changing access to candy, maybe see if moving it further away access wise would be interesting to see what changes or happens
