Seriouls have no self control with anything!

jgnatca

I think a little self awareness will help. Fighting the same fight and getting the same result is a recipe for frustration.

Habit by Duhigg is really good. Figuring out what triggers you can help you not shoot off in the first place.

A tip I learned in my eating therapy class is to own my decisions. So if I take the family size Twix, say to myself “I choose to eat this”. The alternative is to blank out the experience and pretend an alien force took over that I was powerless to overcome. How can I fight aliens?

sgtx81

If you saw your favorite candy sitting on a desk free for the taking but you knew it was laced with hemlock and it would undoubtedly kill you right away would you eat it? I bet you would find a lot of self-control all of a sudden.

What if you had the same setup every day, except that the candy wasn't poisoned, but it would still lead to death, just not as quickly as the poisoned candy? Would that help you find some self-control?

You say you swear you will have diabetes. Do you know what happens to uncontrolled diabetes? People get neuropathy which leads to pain and also to organ failure. Uncontrolled diabetes leads to amputations, and it leads to blindness, it leads to wounds that won't heal, incontinence, etc.

Could avoiding all of that help you find some self-control? I promise you your self-control and motivation is there, and you can find it if you really consider what is at stake.

You say you're able to picture yourself getting diabetes. Picture yourself living with all or any of the fun things that come from not controlling diabetes, which has a very good chance of becoming a reality if you don't control yourself around junk food.

There is a lot of type two diabetes in my family. Knowing what is at stake makes it a whole lot easier to find my self-control.

lemurcat12

CurvaciousKeda wrote: »

MegaMooseEsq wrote: »

So it's 9 am and you've had coffee with creamer, a 3 Musketeer bar, a donut and a fun size Twix, and you want to replace that with cauliflower and a string cheese? I'm not surprised that you're struggling! Give yourself a break and start small. I spent several months logging everything I ate without making a real effort to change anything, and it gave me some amazing insights into my eating habits. If you want to lose 40 pounds in two months, you're going to have to make major changes overnight. But if you want to lose 40 pounds in a year (which is around where I'm headed right now) you don't have to dramatically overhaul your diet. Just figure out your maintenance calories and start making changes that brings your calorie intake down to something comfortably below that number. It takes a lot of willpower to completely stop eating things that you love, but it takes surprisingly little willpower to eat a bit less of the things you love, while adding in things you like that are healthier or more filling.

Thank you! I've just recently started and some days I'm close to the calories I'm supposed to consume and others I'm like a few hundred over the limit, but I keep feeling depressed about it. And then I have the same problem the original poster has, I eat ice cream and cake etc at work. I'm staying truthful in my log though and I'm surprised to see where most of my calories come from. I guess I'm just gathering data and making small changes at this point.

I think this is a great way to start. NOT the feeling bad about it, of course, but gathering information and understanding where the calories come from. Try to hit your goal, but when you don't try to understand what happened -- think of it as a learning process, not something to feel bad about!

lemurcat12

buffgrl wrote: »

My motto- if it's not in the house, I won't eat it. Stay far, far away from temptation.... Keep all junk and snack foods out of your physical sight- studies show that if it's out of sight, our willpower increases.

Both OP and others in the thread have mentioned workplace treats, so this is not always realistic. For me, learning to deal with the food on offer that I could not "hide from" or avoid was important. I never personally had an issue with food in the house, since even before I focused on losing most of the food in my house was meal-related, not high cal snacky stuff.

The other thing you can do is become educated about all the horrible ingredients they put into processed foods and become an avid label reader.

So base it on a lie? Plus, a good bit of the treats in my office are bakery or homemade stuff, not foods with labels. The problem with the average cookie is not "horrible ingredients" (butter, flour, sugar, vanilla, etc.) but calories and that it might result in easily overeating.

KateTii

You need to close the temptation gap while you are still learning how to say no to all the office snacks. What I mean by this is if the option is between donuts and yogurt, it is really going to be a difficult choice. When I first started and was learning it was ok to not eat all the office sweets, I set my goal at maintenance and made sure my lunches/snacks were just as damn good, but fit into my calorie allowance. Eventually, it got easy to not eat the office food and I decreased my calories from maintenance.

amyepdx

lemurcat12 wrote: »

buffgrl wrote: »

My motto- if it's not in the house, I won't eat it. Stay far, far away from temptation.... Keep all junk and snack foods out of your physical sight- studies show that if it's out of sight, our willpower increases.

Both OP and others in the thread have mentioned workplace treats, so this is not always realistic. For me, learning to deal with the food on offer that I could not "hide from" or avoid was important. I never personally had an issue with food in the house, since even before I focused on losing most of the food in my house was meal-related, not high cal snacky stuff.

The other thing you can do is become educated about all the horrible ingredients they put into processed foods and become an avid label reader.

So base it on a lie? Plus, a good bit of the treats in my office are bakery or homemade stuff, not foods with labels. The problem with the average cookie is not "horrible ingredients" (butter, flour, sugar, vanilla, etc.) but calories and that it might result in easily overeating.

Don’t forget about the cancer-causing cupcakes!!

MegaMooseEsq

amyepdx wrote: »

lemurcat12 wrote: »

buffgrl wrote: »

My motto- if it's not in the house, I won't eat it. Stay far, far away from temptation.... Keep all junk and snack foods out of your physical sight- studies show that if it's out of sight, our willpower increases.

Both OP and others in the thread have mentioned workplace treats, so this is not always realistic. For me, learning to deal with the food on offer that I could not "hide from" or avoid was important. I never personally had an issue with food in the house, since even before I focused on losing most of the food in my house was meal-related, not high cal snacky stuff.

The other thing you can do is become educated about all the horrible ingredients they put into processed foods and become an avid label reader.

So base it on a lie? Plus, a good bit of the treats in my office are bakery or homemade stuff, not foods with labels. The problem with the average cookie is not "horrible ingredients" (butter, flour, sugar, vanilla, etc.) but calories and that it might result in easily overeating.

Don’t forget about the cancer-causing cupcakes!!

Mmmmm... cancer cupcakes... They're probably pink, right?

quiksylver296

MegaMooseEsq wrote: »

amyepdx wrote: »

lemurcat12 wrote: »

buffgrl wrote: »

My motto- if it's not in the house, I won't eat it. Stay far, far away from temptation.... Keep all junk and snack foods out of your physical sight- studies show that if it's out of sight, our willpower increases.

Both OP and others in the thread have mentioned workplace treats, so this is not always realistic. For me, learning to deal with the food on offer that I could not "hide from" or avoid was important. I never personally had an issue with food in the house, since even before I focused on losing most of the food in my house was meal-related, not high cal snacky stuff.

The other thing you can do is become educated about all the horrible ingredients they put into processed foods and become an avid label reader.

So base it on a lie? Plus, a good bit of the treats in my office are bakery or homemade stuff, not foods with labels. The problem with the average cookie is not "horrible ingredients" (butter, flour, sugar, vanilla, etc.) but calories and that it might result in easily overeating.

Don’t forget about the cancer-causing cupcakes!!

Mmmmm... cancer cupcakes... They're probably pink, right?

I'd think they would be glow-in-the-dark green.

jgnatca

Red velvet, just sayin', gets it's colour from a whole lot of red food dye......

lemurcat12

There's a single carrot-cake cupcake that has been sitting out in my office since Monday morning. Someone must know something...

CILLAJ8

Allow yourself a small treat. It can fit into your daily calorie goal. Then drink water and go for a walk. My job celebrates birthday's every month with a cake or some type of baked treat. Vendors will often bring baked goods in too. Since they are usually given at break time I'll take a 15 minute walk. The fresh air helps and then I realize burned x amount of calories rather than eating xx amount of calories and that always make me feel better. Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels. I want to be healthy for myself and my family. You have to find your why. You can do it.

toxikon

I control my office sweet-tooth by keeping tasty protein bars and brown sugar instant oatmeal at my desk. They taste sweet enough to allow me to choose them over doughnuts and chocolate bars. And they have a lot more fiber and protein in them.

The key, of course, is to hold yourself accountable. If you want a chocolate bar, log it in your diary. Your body logs every calorie, so you should do the same if you really want to lose weight.

ludazatobom

You and i are the same. Something eventually clicked. It's a mental game. You really have to gear yourself up mentally. It's not all about eating just the right stuff or exercising a lot it's a big mental component especially to people like us who have lived a certain type of way for years if not most of our entire lives. You're gonna feel the pain...the sadness...the anger. You'll hear that voice saying "just stop...go back to your old life it's easy and fun and you're happy!". BUT YOUR NOT HAPPY YOU'RE MISERABLE! Like me. I wake up everyday and i hate myself physically and mentally. What i do is i keep a journal. I write and write....sometimes not so nice things but i get it out. And if you fall....dont let it be a big enough excuse to quit because you'll tell yourself that like i do. If you need someone to communicate with or vent to who is in the same boat but has been slowly swimming to the top for the past 3 weeks you can contatc me and heck you can add me on social media as well if it's easier. Just never stop.

Slowfaster

Just my opinion and we're all different, but I would guess that it's the sugar that is sabotaging your will-power. When we eat foods high in sugar it causes our insulin levels to rise. The insulin comes out to handle the sugar and then excess insulin stays in our blood stream for awhile looking for more sugar, making us crave a Twix bar soon after our donut.

That's me anyway. I have no hope of sticking to a healthy eating plan unless Rule #1 is to cut out anything that has more than 3 grams of sugar.