Mounjaro Exit Strategy
Day 3
Interrupt It!
What to do in the moment - before the autofill completes
You can see the patterns now
Two days of data. Your own data. The timestamps, the whys, the patterns beginning to show themselves. That’s real.
And sometimes — once you can see a pattern clearly — knowing what you’re doing but not yet having a different response can feel more frustrating than not knowing at all. You write it down. You name it. You eat it anyway. And then there’s that moment of ‘so what do I actually do?’
Today answers that question.
The 90 second rule
Here’s something worth knowing about emotional urges. Research suggests that if you don’t act on an urge within approximately 90 seconds, it begins to subside on its own. The wave builds, peaks, and then starts to fall. Not because you suppressed it or talked yourself out of it — but simply because that’s how emotional states move through the nervous system when they’re not immediately acted upon.
The problem is that most people act within the first few seconds. Before the wave has had a chance to break.
The Reverse Food Diary is already creating that pause. Every time you stop to drink water and write before eating, you’re inserting 90 seconds of conscious awareness into what was previously an automatic process. That alone is often enough.
Today we’re going to make that pause even more deliberate — and give you something to do with it.
Redirect, don't supress
The jab suppressed the urge. It turned the volume down on the signal. And that worked — for as long as you were on it. But suppression isn’t a strategy you can sustain on your own. Trying to white-knuckle an urge into submission is exhausting and it doesn’t build anything.
What works instead is redirection.
An unplanned eating urge is almost always energy — emotional energy — looking for somewhere to go. The trigger fires, the energy builds, and the brain looks for its usual channel. Your job isn’t to block that channel. It’s to give the energy somewhere else to go. Somewhere that discharges it without the eating.
This isn’t distraction. Distraction tries to ignore the energy. Redirection acknowledges it and moves it. The difference matters.
Some options that work well:
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A short walk — even five minutes. Movement changes your neurochemistry faster than almost anything else.
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Three slow deep breaths — in through the nose, out through the mouth. This activates the parasympathetic nervous system and begins to reduce cortisol within seconds.
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A glass of water — already your first response. Now used actively as a redirect, not just a check.
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A two minute stretch — particularly effective if the urge is stress-related and the body is holding tension.
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Stepping outside briefly — a change of environment interrupts the loop.
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Free writing — not the diary, just whatever is there. Get it out of your head and onto paper.
None of these need to take long. The goal is 90 seconds of something different. That’s often enough to let the wave break.
Slow the eating down
This applies not just to unplanned eating but to every meal. Your brain takes approximately 20 minutes to register that you’re full. If you eat fast — and most people with a complicated relationship with food do — you’ve already overeaten before the signal arrives.
Slowing down isn’t a diet trick. It’s giving your brain time to catch up with your body.
Practically: chew properly. Put your fork down between mouthfuls. Eat without a screen in front of you — no TV, no phone, no scrolling. When you’re eating, just eat. The autofill runs easiest when your conscious attention is elsewhere. Bringing your attention to the meal — to the taste, the texture, the experience of actually eating — is itself an interrupt. Consciousness is the tool.
Water - why it matters more than you think
You’re two days into the water habit. Here’s something that might surprise you about why it’s worth keeping.
Dehydration raises cortisol — the stress hormone. And cortisol is one of the primary drivers of stress eating. So staying well hydrated throughout the day isn’t just good for your body. It is directly reducing one of the triggers you’re working to interrupt.
Two litres a day. Not all at once — steadily, throughout the day. A glass when you wake up. One mid-morning. One with lunch. One mid-afternoon. One with your evening meal. One more in the evening. That’s six glasses. Add the one you drink before any unplanned eating moment and you’re there.
Your daily routine continues: unplanned eating urge → glass of water → diary → 90 second pause → redirect if needed → then decide.
Today's task
​📋 Open your workbook and build your personal Redirect Menu. Five go-to responses — chosen now, calmly, not in the heat of the moment. Write them down. Commit to them. A decision made once works repeatedly. Keep the diary going today — now with the fifth column: what did I do instead, and what happened?