Mindless snacking

crystrusty

I love to snack when I am reading or watching TV. I'm not talking a handful of chips....I have gone through bags of them.

Today when I got home from work I grabbed a mtn dew and a snack bag of crunchy cheetos. Needless to say I finished them and afterwards beat myself up about eating/drinking them.

Tips on how to handle this...I have baby carrots for the crunchy snacks but what do you do when you want the sweet stuff?

obscuremusicreference

Don't sit and watch TV. I don't watch unless I'm exercising in some way (even if it's curls with 5 lb hand weights). Or allot calories for that time period.

TimothyFish

A mountain dew and a bag of chips isn't the end of the world if you just make it your supper. I hardly ever buy suger sodas anymore. I've gotten so used to sugar free sodas that the others make me feel sick. But generally, I put in enough exercise to make up for some sweet stuff.

AglaeaC

Maybe use a bowl into which you've measured how much you want to eat? Or don't buy the stuff in the first place, if you have such poor self-control?

honkytonks85

Two things that help me:
1) I rarely ever buy things I am likely to snack on. Since I have two kids and having snacky foods is unavoidable, I have to ask my husband to hide things. Yes it is crazy but I prefer not to have the temptation.
2) Fit snacks into my calories and portion out a serving size and eat them slowly and mindfully - don't just grab the box and go nuts!
3) Drink water/coffee/tea to satisfy my need to be putting something in my mouth

smr09012

Find something that you like to do that can occupy your hands (knit, needlepoint, cross stitch, word searches, etc.) and suck on a hard candy when you get started. It really helps me.

KellyDo416

i use to be a big snack and watch tv person but i stop doing that but if i do need a snack i eat this thing called organic puff kamut it has a crunch that helps and its only 50 calories per cup. lucky for me i don’t have a lot of time for tv. I need a 21 day sugar free thing and that helped me a lot with my sugar cravings i have not crave for soda since.

crystrusty

Thanks everyone. I have a daughter and she always has friends over ....so hide the snacks is a great idea

Cortneyrenee04

I never sit down with a bag of anything, and I try not to have a bag/container of anything in the house. For example, when something comes into the kitchen, it gets opened, weighed, and put into small dishes or bags so I can grab proper portions quickly.

For me, I try to make any eating a special event and make sure I'm tasting and enjoying my food. In the past, I would wolf things down and not even rember how it was or I would eat things I didn't even like. Now, with fewer calories to work with, I love everything I eat. No calorie is taken for granted!

segacs

Pre-plan your snacks so they fit into your daily totals. And up the quality of your snacks. One square of really high quality chocolate makes me feel more satisfied than twelve low-quality candy bars ever could.