Old Habits...

artzymummy

I'm working late tonight. I put my kids to bed, hubby decided to go lay in the bath for a bit and so I am on my own and trying to take advantage of it. I started work on a new piece (I'm an artist) that has been floating around in my head for a couple of months now and as with most of my work I find myself stopping and staring a lot while I contemplate my next move. That's where the problem comes in. I'm looking for my old friends, either Gold Fish Crackers or Rold Gold Pretzel sticks and now that I've thought about it I can't not think about it. Fortunately I have neither in the house and living in a small town means that everything has been shut down for hours now but it's seriously obstructing my work. I am making a cup of herbal tea to try and take my mind away from it, but wow, I did not expect this sort of challenge.

For those who have faced similar challenges, what did you do?

codygish

If you have enough calories in your day, in-shell sunflower seeds are a possibility. The process of getting the seed out of the shell can help get you past a craving. However, you have to be careful because they are very calorically dense.

Kamikazeflutterby

Snacking isn't necessarily bad. Snacking on things that destroy your deficit and leave you hungry is. Can you budget the pretzel calories? I was under the impression that pretzels aren't too bad per serving size. If you just need something crunchy you could switch to vegetables and help hit your daily veggie servings, or you could also make roasted chickpeas for something crunchy, salty, and filling.

No matter what you pick, weigh out your serving size before hand. Snacking from the bag or a large bowl leads to madness and anarchy. Anarchy! (Okay, not really. But it's easier to over eat.)

And as with most habit changes, start small, and build on that. If your goal is to remove snacking all together, try smaller snacks at first. You can quit totally after a few weeks. There is no deadline, or final exam. There's only you.

artzymummy

Thank you both. If this had hit during the day it would have been easier to work with. I am ok with having a small amount of what I crave and then moving on so if I had the pretzels on hand I would have had a portion of if ( I know the dangers of eating out of the bag, did that while pregnant with my second child, an entire bag of ketchup chips just vanished... And that didn't end well.)

Anyway I don't eat back my exercise calories so that if a snack craving hits I have a hundred or so to work with. I think I was more shocked at how much I had associated a certain food with a certain routine, it was something I had never realized before, and it's a habit I would like to break since it falls under mindlessly eating.

The tea helped, gave me something to sip while I contemplated. Tea of any kind is my go to when things don't go as planned - probably because that's what my mum and nanny always suggest. Tea solves anything and everything in my family, lol.

llbrixon

I incorporated an old habit into my diet. I love ice cream each day. I found an an ice cream that I like ... 1/2 cup= 120 Calories. I have ice cream everyday and I love an adult beverage each day too so that is in my food log too.