Losing weight in a house full of snacks
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New_Heavens_Earth wrote: »ladyreva78 wrote: »2 tricks did it for me:
1. It's not mine and I'm not a thief.
2. Pictured the dog slobbering all over it if 1 didn't cut it.
Same with the office snack. Just pictures the guy who never washed his hands after the bathroom. He also had the annoying habit of rifling through all the snacks. Not eating that :sick:
The office snack visualization works all the time for me! Especially since I work in a lab, and you know, urine samples
We used to have a "one bite bandit" at the office. She would take a bite of a communal treat and then put it back down on the tray. Got me out of the habit of eating communal snacks real quick.
As the one who does the grocery shopping, OP, I just quit buying things I couldn't resist. I still buy my family foods they love, just not the ones I can't stay away from. Literally no one has noticed a difference. I'm a firm believer that just because I'm trying to reach a healthy weight doesn't mean the rest of my family should have to suffer. And now, a few years of lose-maintain-lose-maintain cycles, I can have double stuffed oreos in the house without literally doing a line of them.
If you're insistent on the lack of time/self control excuse, buy some quality protein bars you like, and keep some handheld fruit around. But as a mother of 3 ranging in age from 2-13 and the manager of a busy family medicine clinic that prioritizes wrap around care, I can say conclusively that there IS time. You just won't find it until you truly decide to.7 -
ladyreva78 wrote: »2 tricks did it for me:
1. It's not mine and I'm not a thief.
2. Pictured the dog slobbering all over it if 1 didn't cut it.
Same with the office snack. Just pictures the guy who never washed his hands after the bathroom. He also had the annoying habit of rifling through all the snacks. Not eating that :sick:
This made me chuckle
Sounds like my place of employment as well.
@GlamGoals66 I also have two kids so I can understand the struggle.
It's been said many times already, but the best option to help yourself (and the fam), is not to buy as much junk. Start slow and just buy less each time. No need to cut it out completely though.
Also, food shopping after you have eaten will help impulse purchases. I buy lots of crap when I shop hungry.
Then make yourself accountable. Log every cracker or cookie you eat.
Try foods that are low glycemic, or fiber rich, to help you feel fuller longer.
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GlamGoals66 wrote: »I'm the issue here with my impulse eating and grazing on snack habits, so any suggestions for that instead of robbing the kids of their treats? They eat just fine, fruits, veggies, protein, I promise. Let's focus on my lack of control instead?
Ok, then I suggest telling yourself what you stated in this same post, that you're "robbing the kids of their treats". Remind yourself that the treats are theirs and you'll have separate snacks. But, first evaluate if they're even necessary. If you're just snacking out of habit then replace that habit with a new one.
Also, if you log your food here then MAKE yourself log every single thing you eat. Or, keep a notebook on the counter and write down (in list form) every snack and bite and taste you take during the day (outside of your normal meals). Just seeing the list will probably make you see that they're almost entirely unnecessary.8 -
happytree923 wrote: »OP, I'm noticing that you're using a lot of absolute statements- I don't have time to eat, I don't have any self control, etc. I'm saying this because I have a major issue with this too, thinking 'it's too difficult for my specific circumstances' will drag you down. When I start thinking like this I find it helpful to go into the success stories section and look for people who were successful with circumstances similar to mine.
I totally agree! On my first day back I wrote a big rant about how I felt like a failure and that I didn't deserve to choose better circumstances for myself. Immediately I told myself, wait what?? I'm talking like someone that will fail. So I deleted that whole text and re-wrote one that acknowledged those thoughts as past behaviors I was chosing to kick to the curb because I deserve only the best, I know who I am and what I want and I am done making excuses. I know what I need to do and will do everything to achieve it! Etc.
I think it's time that you have a sit down with yourself and put all your excuses on the table to examine them. I'm not saying your situation isn't hard, but you need to come up with solutions that you can execute. You need a plan! And you surely need to change that negative self-talk if you do want to develop good habits. I know, I've done it!! I have three kids under four and a very needy husband (when he's there, and he's often not as he works late and works weekends often, so I often juggle everything and when he is there he barely gets up for anything) that eat all sorts of junky food, often in front of me too! I divided the pantry in baskets, and there is a basket for my hubby's treat and one for the kid's treats. It mentally works as a barrier, like those don't belong to me and I won't reach for them.
I also used to graze on the kids junk all day, while preparing them healthy meals. My solution was to stop snacking altogether. My problem was that I used to be snacking all day long on less than nutritive things. I needed balanced meals! So now I eat three meals a day, that I pre-log at the beginning of the day to ensure I meet my calorie goal. I make sure to include plenty of veggies and focus on real food that will fill me up and keep me from obsessing about the snacks in the pantry.
For breakfast I've been eating lately is a quick veggie loaded egg wrap in the morning (whole grain tortilla, two eggs fried with onions and peppers, cut up spinach, tomatoes, with mayo, hot sauce and a tiny bit of shredded cheese) which takes about 5 minutes to make. I also used to make a huge frittata in the oven on the weekend that would last all week, so that's another option if you want to prep ahead!
Lunch is usually a huge caesar salad because I just love it lately! I have a few chicken breasts that I baked ahead of time and chopped, as well as bacon bits (I cook the bacon on a pan lined with foil in the oven, clean up is minimal!). I add creamy caesar dressing, cheese and croutons. It all fits in my calories, is delicious and very filling! Takes less than 5 minutes to prepare! I also plan on trying a taco salad soon, which has ground beef with a ton of veggies and tacos seasonning and tortillas in pieces on top! YUM! Otherwise I also have leftovers from dinner with a salad or frozen broccoli that I can reheat in the microwave in 3 minutes.
And for dinner I usually eat whatever I serve the family, but a small portion with a huge salad on the side.
I also cut out pop and juice and drink plenty of water, from my water pitcher filtration system I got from the store. Loving that thing sooooo much. Makes drinking water much more enjoyable to me!
Whether you chose to go for hard-boiled egg and instant oatmeal/overnight oats for breakfast, a greek yogurt parfait or salad for lunch and whatever for dinner. Just figure out ahead what you're going to do, and it will be much more manageable once you get in the midst of the chaos that is running a household!
Hope these tips help! Feel free to add me if you want to connect and support each other!!
Good luck oxoxox2 -
GlamGoals66 wrote: »Why would you feed your own kids junk food in such amounts? If something is not good for your diet, it most certainly is not good for the kids either. One thing to have a treat here and there, another to stock junkfood. Why not lead by example and teach the kids that a perfect snach can be a fruit, a yoghurt, some nuts, cheese and so on?
My kids only get junk food at snack times. One in the morning, one in the afternoon for the toddler, and only one in the afternoon for the big kid. And it's mostly not cookies and brownies, (treats like that are more for rewards, bust still in the house) it's more goldfish crackers and cheerios with the occassional oreo. Just generally very carby/caloric foods that are fine as a snack, but not so much to fill my entire diet. (And the toddler loves cheese, but hasn't figured out the spoon just yet to manage yogurt without coating the entire kitchen in a layer, but hates me feeding her because "I'm big and can do it myself!"
I basically just can't stop once I start eating, and have no time to eat more than finger foods. Impulse control is my biggest issue. I see those crackers, tell myself one or 2 is fine, then end up eating the whole pack.
As a working mother to 3 kids, sorry, in the kindest possible way: excuses. While you are feeding your kids this super healthy super balanced meal, add a serving for yourself. You are sitting there anyway, the food is already prepared, and kids love to eat what their parents eat, so you are also making lunch and dinner more pleasant for everyone.
Other than this, edible treats as a reward is a terrible system, setting up kids for an unhealthy relationship with food, dividing foods into "bad" everyday food served at meal, "good" treats they get as reward. Work the occasional treat into their daily meals, reward them with playing with them a board game, getting them to the playground, reading them a story, letting them choose a movie for family movie night.
THIS! Food is NOT a reward. This is 50% of where I got my bad eating habits... celebrating good grades or other accomplishments with special high-calorie meals or sweets (the other half is what my mom deemed "happy plate." You only had a "happy plate" if you ate all the food on your plate, even if you weren't hungry. It wasn't about eating foods I didn't like, because I was OK with most everything. It was about eating, period.)
You can keep making excuses (I don't have time to eat real food; I don't have time to meal prep; I have to keep sweets for my kids), but you'll never succeed that way. Real talk: you have to put your foot down for yourself. Adopting a healthy lifestyle and a healthy diet (not dieting--I'm talking about a lifestyle change) requires you to take action. Right now, it doesn't feel like you want to take action. If you wanted to, you would have already.
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GlamGoals66 wrote: »I have 2 kids (3 if you count my husband) who all have various sugary, high calorie snacks laying around the house, from fruit snacks to lunchables, cookies, poptarts, etc... How do you avoid temptation when eating healthy takes more time, more effort, and has zero flavor payoff compared to sweet treats?
I have NO self control. Any tips on restraint?
My tips that have helped me with restraint:
Visualize why you want to avoid/limit these foods. Is it for weight loss? Healthier living?
Put a sticky note on it that says - my glam goals (your name!) are more important then my immediate satisfaction.
When you want those snacks- ask yourself- why do I need this right now?
Focus on why you want to make this change. For whatever reason you are choosing to limit snacks or omit them...make the reason more important.
Remember why this goal is important for you and tell yourself you are important enough to commit.
I have a hard time moderating amounts of pizza, chips, candy. I omitted them all to banish the craving for them. I can’t eat 1 chip. I can’t eat 10 fries. So I decided to switch up my diet to foods I could control and would be more filling. Now 6 months later- those foods aren’t calling out to me anymore.
Wish you well glamgal! No worries - you got this!
🤗
M
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First off: If you think that eating healthy tastes boring, then you're eating the wrong things! There's loads of really delicious "healthy" foods out there.
2nd: Weigh loss doesn't require you to eat a certain way. You don't have to cut out a bunch of food that you used to eat. All you have to do is eat less of it. Most of us on here don't abstain from certain foods just because they're calorie dense, we just eat less of them. Some find that certain foods are "trigger foods" and those are the ones that you keep out of your house, but other than that, there is nothing wrong with eating calorie dense food in moderation.
3rd: Just because you have children, does not mean you have to have loads of sweet snacks in the house. Excuse me as I make a possibly completely unfair assumption here, but if you do the shopping/cooking in your house, you just don't buy those things that you don't want to eat. Replace them with something else or reduce the amount you buy. Try making sweet snacks an exception, not the norm.
This.1 -
I was an impulse eater as well and still am if I have not prepared in advance. I set aside a total of 2-3 hours a week (usually 15-30 minutes a day after my son goes to bed) to prepare healthy snacks/breakfasts/lunches throughout the week. I buy large bags of raw nuts, weigh them, and bag them as single servings while catching up on a TV show. I make sure when I shop to buy a variety of fruits and vegetables, such as apples, grapes, avocado, etc. I rinse and individually bag the grapes. I carry a knife, fork, and spoon in my purse to cut apples and avocados on the fly if I need to. I sometimes pre-log my food at the beginning of the day and use it as a checklist to make sure I don't over indulge. If someone throws something like a chance to eat a cupcake my way, I don't eat it unless I have unbudgeted calories left or can get some exercise in to offset the cupcake. Someone else has already said it...you need to make sure to eat fulfilling meals at almost the same time daily to ensure you do not go hungry. I keep Lara Bars in my purse and car glove compartment. I binge when I am too hungry because I have not planned well. I eat 2 large eggs, either hard boiled or scrambled almost every morning and a small avocado on the side. If I eat this, I am typically not hungry until lunch, but am always sure to have a premeasured bag of nuts or a piece of fruit at hand in case I do get hungry. Find a go to meal or two that you can count on to keep you fuller longer. The big thing is you need to look at your calories like your paycheck. You have to convince yourself that you cannot live beyond your means. If you have $200 and want to buy a purse that is $220, you need to work some overtime; when it comes to weight loss, exercise is your overtime. Increase your bank of overtime and you can snack more if you need to, but prepare and you should not need the extra calories.2
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Fiber is your friend , when you are running around with a gut that is empty it causes you to make poor choices .I stock the house with fibers and snacks meant to fuel me . almonds for minerals , yogurt for probiotics ( I buy plain and add frozen blueberries and a little sweetener ,Stock loads of veggies to allow for a filling meal addition or snack while adding fiber and vitamins You can have 2-3 cups of broccoli with a little butter for the same calories as a serving of pop tarts , I make baked treats that are healthy baked apples ( skin on ) with a little honey and rolled oats and a sprinkle of low cal sweetener , Brownies with black bean some oat bran and flax seed meal ( they are not low calorie as much as lower calorie with nutrition .a TBSP of oat bran added to a chicken and veggie soup bowl . yogurt and fiber in a smoothie . all of these things can help by making you more satisfied that will allow you to snack with restraint I am 1 and a half years into this journey and 44 lbs down . the most important thing is to not spend your non eating time feeling hungry . Hunger derails you .
I have a husband that is constantly buying junk food , and feels it is his job to get me to have some .( at 71 he is not changing and he will not stop buying these things , I do sometimes move them so they are not in my constant line of sight ! ) I have learned to have 1-2 slice of Pizza and a large salad rather than 4 slices of pizza . or 1/4 of a huge bakery muffin and a cup of coffee . so you do not have to give up your favorite foods you need to learn how to feed your body so these snacks do not control you . it gets easier as you learn to enjoy healthier snacks and start to see progress . your charting and coming here for support is the easiest way to help yourself . This is a very supportive community and charting your foods will help you to see what works for you0 -
GlamGoals66 wrote: »First off: If you think that eating healthy tastes boring, then you're eating the wrong things! There's loads of really delicious "healthy" foods out there.
2nd: Weigh loss doesn't require you to eat a certain way. You don't have to cut out a bunch of food that you used to eat. All you have to do is eat less of it. Most of us on here don't abstain from certain foods just because they're calorie dense, we just eat less of them. Some find that certain foods are "trigger foods" and those are the ones that you keep out of your house, but other than that, there is nothing wrong with eating calorie dense food in moderation.
3rd: Just because you have children, does not mean you have to have loads of sweet snacks in the house. Excuse me as I make a possibly completely unfair assumption here, but if you do the shopping/cooking in your house, you just don't buy those things that you don't want to eat. Replace them with something else or reduce the amount you buy. Try making sweet snacks an exception, not the norm.
Any chance you can give me healthier snack ideas? I normally just munch throughout the day on whatever I got for the kids, because everyone is on a different nap/school/playtime/bedtime schedule (tried to rearrange them to match better, but the toddler and big kid have VERY different needs)
The kids end up eating super balanced and healthy meals (minus snack times) but I hardly have time to even microwave a Lean Cuisine while trying to manage everyone else. Husband helps when he can, but he often has to work from home AFTER an 8hr day already at work.
Why can’t you also eat the healthy, super-balanced meals your kids eat?
Perhaps you know something that may just keep me full longer instead of low calorie? To avoid binging?
Maybe the big kid and the bigger kid (husband) can help more with the food. Or just make what you want to eat, that’s healthy and they’ll adapt or start pitching in.
Find treats you like as healthy substitutes. Personally, I like Quest protein chips. Whenever we have a catered lunch (sandwiches) at work, I bring my own chips. I also love these low calorie/high fiber tortillas. bring them and substitute the bread. Voila! Healthier lunch for me!
I’ve found better pasta alternatives for me (higher protein and fiber without sacrificing taste). And made no-bake healthy snack balls. There are tons on Pinterest. I also like these protein bars I found. To me, they taste like candy bars but with waaay better macros.
I also don’t really eat much snack food. I’ll bring smaller meals as snacks. For me, much more satisfying.2 -
Don’t keep them in the house. Let your kids pick something 1x/ day. It doesn’t save $$ to buy in larger quantities if you have to keep replacing what you are. Your h can get his own. Eliminating the constant snacking will be good for everyone. Make it intentional and enjoyable, then move on to something else.4
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@GlamGoals66 your case I think is typical for most with kids in the house.
Back in Oct 2014 I went Low Carb High Fat (LCHF) trying to manage my joint pain at the age of 63. The son and daughter had just turned 16 bringing in tons of sugar stuff setting on the table, counter and everywhere. For 40 years I had been trying to lose weight only to eat something sweet and wind up eating all of the sweet stuff in sight and where they stashed some of it out of my sight.
Finally I got pissed and left food with added sugars and or any form of any grain. It was a hellish 2 weeks but it has been about 4 years since I have wanted to raid their sweet stuff because my 40 years of carb binging was over mainly in 30 days after going Keto.
I wanted to master a way of eating for pain management and LCHF (keeping total carbs to about 50 grams daily) has been my ticket back to the best health in decades.
The funny thing is how much all three have cut back on processed foods without me saying anything after they saw how I was regaining my ability to walk more that 100 feet without needing to rest and all of my lab work becoming normal for the first time in their lifetime. Swimming in carbs was something I had to deal with because that was my monkey and not theirs.
I do not know what will resolve your craving to bing but you will find your way forward in time. I was old and running out of time but I do not think I would have ever "tapered" off of carbs personally because I had tried for years. The freedom to live these last 4 years has been beyond AWESOME.
Best of success.2 -
Think about how your eating is setting a bad example for your kids. Eat what they eat for meals and have healthy snacks - you've gotten a ton of great examples. This will set a better example for them. And rewarding them with junk food is the worst way to reward them but is a great way to set them up for a lifetime of bad eating habits. Exchange that with activities. They may balk at first but most kids like doing things with their parents and will find this more rewarding.3
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happytree923 wrote: »OP, I'm noticing that you're using a lot of absolute statements- I don't have time to eat, I don't have any self control, etc. I'm saying this because I have a major issue with this too, thinking 'it's too difficult for my specific circumstances' will drag you down. When I start thinking like this I find it helpful to go into the success stories section and look for people who were successful with circumstances similar to mine.
As far as your self control, I would bet that your perceived lack of self control is just straight hunger. You're active looking after young children and from what it sounds like, not eating full meals at all during the day. You can create meals out of snacks as people have suggested above, combining cheese sticks, fruit, etc. into a single meal. Look up ideas for bento lunches, some of them will be full recipes but a lot are just combinations of different things that only need to be cut up.
I was gonna say, if I had to subsist on Lean Cuisine I would eat my own arm out of desperation.
Do some prep on weekends. Demand help from your husband while you do it. I find it's most helpful to prep parts of meals rather than whole meals: slice vegetables, wash fruit, prep protein such as a roast pork loin and roast chicken, prep slow cooking grains and beans. Then you can easily throw meals together and it's less tempting to make bad decisions.
Also, if the kids are too young to shop for themselves, you are shopping for them, and they don't need to eat so much junk. A little junk won't kill them, but they should be reaching for real fruit, not "fruit" snacks. Fruit does not take a long time to prepare.5 -
I remember the day I had to decide to just have a strong resolve that I was going to eat differently than my daughter and my husband. She had to have her frozen pizza's Mac n' cheese.. cheese burgers and fries.. all that.
I bought my own healthy food and ate differently than them. I realized I couldn't control what they ate but I could control what I ate. After making the firm decision ... I never ate their food at all and I lost all my weight. In recent years I regained.. but I am now at goal weight again.
I am now an empty nester..and LOVE that I have zero junk food in the house..and my husband is older and very much wanting to lose all his weight..so junk in the house is no longer a problem.
But looking back with some wisdom.. I would have just told them. "we're eating healthy at home now.. it is just the way it is.. and made sure all the food in the house was healthy.. and that would be that! I wish I had, as now may daughter is grown, recently she's been gaining weight and it looks like she may end up with a weight problem.2 -
GlamGoals66 wrote: »Why would you feed your own kids junk food in such amounts? If something is not good for your diet, it most certainly is not good for the kids either. One thing to have a treat here and there, another to stock junkfood. Why not lead by example and teach the kids that a perfect snach can be a fruit, a yoghurt, some nuts, cheese and so on?
My kids only get junk food at snack times. One in the morning, one in the afternoon for the toddler, and only one in the afternoon for the big kid. And it's mostly not cookies and brownies, (treats like that are more for rewards, bust still in the house) it's more goldfish crackers and cheerios with the occassional oreo. Just generally very carby/caloric foods that are fine as a snack, but not so much to fill my entire diet. (And the toddler loves cheese, but hasn't figured out the spoon just yet to manage yogurt without coating the entire kitchen in a layer, but hates me feeding her because "I'm big and can do it myself!"
What's wrong with serving your kids fruit and veg for snacks? Things like carrot sticks, apple slices, etc.
And as for the rewards, you could consider changing them to doing interesting things like going to the playground, beach, zoo, etc. or things like books, colouring books, etc.
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Kids don't need to snack. You're not depriving them if you aren't constantly feeding them.
And I would back up a lot of the sentiments of others: Why not eat the same as your kids? Kids do not need to exist on "kids food" (a term I abhor). They have just as complex pallets as their parents, so introduce them to foods that you like so you get a chance to eat with each other (and you actually get to eat)8 -
Kids don't need to snack. You're not depriving them if you aren't constantly feeding them.
And I would back up a lot of the sentiments of others: Why not eat the same as your kids? Kids do not need to exist on "kids food" (a term I abhor). They have just as complex pallets as their parents, so introduce them to foods that you like so you get a chance to eat with each other (and you actually get to eat)
+1
Once my brother and I got onto solid foods, my mother made one meal, at each meal time, and we all ate it.
The only time we were allowed choice was at breakfast. We could choose from one of several different cereals.
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Why not get everyone on a healthier eating habit? It's a great thing to build healthy eating habits while they are young. I know the kids wouldn't be psyched about it at first but you can always not give them an option.4
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Something I started doing is keeping a little notebook. If I really want something, I write it down, write the calories, write what I had instead, and write how many calories I saved by doing that. It helps me really visualize how much I would have been eating I'd I had whatever I wanted3
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Healthy eating should not have zero taste. For instance, last night I made chicken sausages with potatoes roasted with onions in butter. It was delicious.
I can sympathize with you on the snacks. The key for me is to come up with my plan which currently is 16:8 IF with lunch, one snack, and dinner and stick strictly to the logging. So if you do grad something else factor it in to your calories.
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The big thing is you need to look at your calories like your paycheck. You have to convince yourself that you cannot live beyond your means. If you have $200 and want to buy a purse that is $220, you need to work some overtime; when it comes to weight loss, exercise is your overtime. Increase your bank of overtime and you can snack more if you need to, but prepare and you should not need the extra calories.
I like this!
It's sort of how I look at it. Gotta pay for what you want otherwise you end up in calorie card debt!
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My simple solution is to lock all the good stuff in box boxes in the pantry. Seriously. :-) Only my family knows the codes to get in them, so they can have their treats. But *I* can't have their treats. I don't miss them. I don't even want them. If they were where I could get them though, I'd not be able to think about anything else but eating them. it seemed like a really extreme solution when I bought the boxes, but sometimes you've just got to do whatever it takes. I appreciate that that's not the best solution when you have little kids.
The harder solution is about spending about 4 years and counting learning what my trigger foods are and only eating them when I am 100% certain I can stop after a normal helping. To help me stop after a normal helping, I measure out one serving and put the rest of the package away. And then, when I'm not 100% certain, learning to walk away, do something else something else to create a delay when I feel like I want something that I know is going to trigger me. Often I can just forget all about it if I can stop myself and give myself a few minutes to calm down. If I have to, I leave the house and walk around the block. Otherwise, I find a chore or an activity to do somewhere away from the food. I don't always catch myself in time, so then I take the walk or whatever after I've eaten the first cookie, which usually stops me eating more. And I make sure to treat myself with kindness and understanding when I eat too much.
It makes it easier if I can I can still graze throughout the day on other stuff, and that at weekends I eat at maintenance so that I can relax around food. I eat lots of protein, fibre and fat because graze a lot less when my day has been very high in those things. I try to make myself proper meals that are balanced. I pre-prepare them, and buy pre-prepared veggies and stuff to make it easier and quicker.
I have a range of go-tos that are definitely treats but don't trigger me to eat more. Anything high protein and sugar-free works. That usually means preparing them myself, but really, it's not much work to make frozen yoghurt or protein cookies, or steam some edamame or even just weigh out some peanuts into little bags.
I honestly don't think I'll ever completely fix this. A troubled relationship with food seems to be welded to my personality. Accepting that has helped, oddly. But I think it is possible to improve, all the time as long as I keep paying attention. I lost 100 pounds despite my crazy food cravings. Now I'm learning to manage them better so that I'm never 100 pounds overweight again. I've had to develop a mindset that says I'm acting in my own best interests rather than depriving myself. That I'm happier when I cook myself actual meals and eat real food. I'm more calm and relaxed when I don't eat my trigger foods. These days I actually associate eating them with the awful out of control feeling that comes afterwards, so I often genuinely don't want them. That's taken a lot of work, and it's not even effective 100% of the time. But constantly working on this has meant that I've kept MOST of the weight off, and definitely the rate at which I regained (because life, injury, stress, laxness, illness...) was very slow compared to what it would have been otherwise.
I think what it really comes down to in the end is remembering that you, especially as a busy mum, really need and deserve to spend time and money on feeding yourself in a way that is healthy and happy. You have to give yourself that as freely and generously as you give it to your kids.2 -
rheddmobile wrote: »
I was gonna say, if I had to subsist on Lean Cuisine I would eat my own arm out of desperation.
Those things make me so sad. I weirdly feel MORE hungry after I've eaten one. They only have so few calories because they are tiny portions served in a sea of watery sauce that makes them look bigger than they are. They are baby food masquerading as an adult meal.
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This thread got crazy long so I admit I didn't read the whole thing. However it sounds like OP wants to have snacks and I don't think that's an issue. I lost all my weight and I still snack. Here are some ideas I use and I'm sure some are repeats:
1. Popcorn (I use Boom Chick-a-Pop from Costco at 140 cal/4 cups)
2. Carrots or red bell pepper
3. Sugar free applesauce
4. low fat string cheese
5. Fresh fruit - much more filling than candy
6. Kool-aid drops in water
7. Sugar free pudding with low fat cool whip
8. Plain yogurt with fruit (berries) and artificial sweetner
9. Pretzel crackers with laughing cow cheese
The options are endless. As for the lack of control that often is an issue of eating the wrong foods. Try to make sure veggies are always a part of your meal. The higher the fibre the better. For example I sub shredded cabbage on tacos for shredded lettuce. Be sure you get enough protein. Watch how many carbs you eat in the form of processed foods. I find when I start eating too much carb (particularly processed) and not enough protein I lose control.
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rheddmobile wrote: »
I was gonna say, if I had to subsist on Lean Cuisine I would eat my own arm out of desperation.
Those things make me so sad. I weirdly feel MORE hungry after I've eaten one. They only have so few calories because they are tiny portions served in a sea of watery sauce that makes them look bigger than they are. They are baby food masquerading as an adult meal.
I'm 80% sure Lean Cuisines are a long-running extremely profitable prank. I'm sorry to anyone who likes them but I can't figure out how anyone could eat them as a full meal.4 -
happytree923 wrote: »I'm 80% sure Lean Cuisines are a long-running extremely profitable prank. I'm sorry to anyone who likes them but I can't figure out how anyone could eat them as a full meal.
They're fine as a base to add veggies and chicken breast to. Lunch, but not satisfying enough for dinner.1 -
happytree923 wrote: »OP, I'm noticing that you're using a lot of absolute statements- I don't have time to eat, I don't have any self control, etc. I'm saying this because I have a major issue with this too, thinking 'it's too difficult for my specific circumstances' will drag you down. When I start thinking like this I find it helpful to go into the success stories section and look for people who were successful with circumstances similar to mine.
As far as your self control, I would bet that your perceived lack of self control is just straight hunger. You're active looking after young children and from what it sounds like, not eating full meals at all during the day. You can create meals out of snacks as people have suggested above, combining cheese sticks, fruit, etc. into a single meal. Look up ideas for bento lunches, some of them will be full recipes but a lot are just combinations of different things that only need to be cut up.
I agree that the OP may be hungry, and also not getting enough protein. Lack of protein (and/or sleep, and regular exercise) is a recipe for the munchies for me.
@GlamGoals66 how much weight are you trying to lose and what is your weekly weight loss goal set to?
What is your protein goal, and do you meet it regularly?2 -
happytree923 wrote: »rheddmobile wrote: »
I was gonna say, if I had to subsist on Lean Cuisine I would eat my own arm out of desperation.
Those things make me so sad. I weirdly feel MORE hungry after I've eaten one. They only have so few calories because they are tiny portions served in a sea of watery sauce that makes them look bigger than they are. They are baby food masquerading as an adult meal.
I'm 80% sure Lean Cuisines are a long-running extremely profitable prank. I'm sorry to anyone who likes them but I can't figure out how anyone could eat them as a full meal.
Yep, they are absolutely not in any way a full meal. I very occasionally buy them on special offer and use them as a sauce for other things, like chicken and spinach. I'd never, ever eat a Lean Cuisine or similar diet "ping cuisine" meal on it's own. It's a sure fire way to lead me to binging on the contents of the fridge. AND because they are basically selling you frozen water, unless you get them for a rock bottom price, they are a total rip off.0 -
for some years it was just me & husband. He eats lots of sweets, I like salty so I just have snacks around that I like & don't even try to have a little bit of his because it might get me started. the last 2 months, my dtr & her 3 kids have been staying with us temporary so there's all the snacks you mentioned. I stay away from their stuff but do make my own sweet snacks I like to have sometimes. Mostly non fat plain greek yogurt with 2-4 Tbl of lite cool whip I eat it plain or add some strawberry jam, or got coco mix. Tastes like a mouse & very filling. I also found low can recipe for chocolate cheese cake bites & am making apple pie with very little sugar. I decided not to eat certain things0
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