OOOH SHINY! - How to distract from eating?

brenn24179

journaling has helped me a lot for some reason. Writing down my feelings rather than eat them.

DeshotelK

I love this! I've been struggling lately with eating out of procrastination for doing things I find unappealing. I'm going to try a few of these tips. Thanks ladies!

jmjsf

I'm glad I've found this thread. It's hard to explain to people who don't suffer from this but I also eat even if I'm not hungry-mornings are easy but afternoons until dinner are awful. I've tried setting times for snacks, two between lunch and dinner and forbid myself anything in between -otherwise I would be snacking fruits endlessly all the afternoon. I feel less guilty as it's fruit or skimmed yoghurt but it's the same attitude as if I were eating bread and chocolate, just that I gain less weight.
I work at home most of the times which makes it worse and I can't just stand up and go for a walk. Of course if I decide to watch a 2 hour film that makes it easier for those 2 hours but I'd like not to have to organize my life around this.

lagoscarrie

@jmjsf

I also eat even if I'm not hungry-mornings are easy but afternoons until dinner are awful.

Have you tried simply limiting the hours in which you eat? I guess this is technically "intermittent fasting," but I just call it eating later in the day. If I start out with breakfast, I feel snacky all day. So I stick to coffee with skim milk until later in the day and then allow myself to eat all the vegetables I want! (And that's a lot.) I do still deal with the after-dinner-I-still-want to-snack feelings, but they are only for a little while after dinner and usually subside because I've had SO many vegetables! LOL Just a thought.

12Sarah2015

Great ideas! Now to put in practice

oatzilla

I've noticed I get hungry/moody when I stay up late, so I try to recognize it and go to sleep. *Try*

must_deflate

I get hungry in the afternoons. Lately I've been eating the previous night's leftovers as an early dinner around 4 or 5, then watching my family eat their own dinner at 6 or 7 when I am no longer hungry. Beats rampant afternoon snacking followed by what amounts to a second dinner.

ladyzherra

Like some previous posters, I like to take a nice hot bath to distract me. I have a food addiction, so I also remind myself to surrender to my addiction and stick to my very strict plan. I remeind myself that I am a true addict, and that this feeling of wanting to fill myself with food will pass.

Jenn

Azathera

I find that I snack when I’m watching movies. For the entire month of May, I’m not gonna watch anything and just read books instead. I can’t snack while holding a book 😂

MeadowRae

brenn24179 wrote: »

I drink decaf coffee at night, tell myself to not eat so I wont feel guilty and disappointed in the morning when I weigh.

I drink decaf coffee for this reason, also. I also like adding sugar free flavoring to seltzer water. I keep rice cakes, apples, and celery around if I'm craving something crunchy. That way I can indulge a little bit without going overboard.

MeadowRae

Azathera wrote: »

I find that I snack when I’m watching movies. For the entire month of May, I’m not gonna watch anything and just read books instead. I can’t snack while holding a book 😂

What about air popped popcorn? It's really low in calories.

kirstenvalentine

• Gardening is the most effective distractor for me. Dirty hands, focusing on something else.
• Every weekend I get a Costco rotisserie chicken that I use for weekday lunch salads. Then I'll put the carcass and water and veggie scraps in the InstantPot or Crockpot and make broth, and freeze in mason jars. Having a big mug of hot broth (which I control the sodium level of) can be satisfying/comforting/warming.
• Putting my retainers in my mouth when I'm in the kitchen is a very effective snack-deflector, but I hate doing it (because its so effective).
• Drinking a bunch of water (sometimes fancified with bubbles, lemon, or infused with herbs/fruit trimmings).
• Making tea. Sometimes I forget to drink it once it's made, but the process of making tea is somehow therapeutic in itself.
• Brushing my teeth is an amazing re-set.
• Deciding, "OK, I'm going to eat a snack, but I have to put it in MFP first and put it on a plate." Then I'm more likely to choose something smart like 10 almonds + 1 cup of cherry tomatoes than my usual 6 tablespoons of almond butter eaten straight out of the jar...
• Prepping raw meat kind of disgusts me and kills my appetite. I still eat meat because I have food intolerances with eggs, dairy, and legumes, but if I didn't, I could see myself following a mostly-vegan diet.
• Grabbing a handful of dog treats and doing 5 minutes of obedience training then playing with my pup.
• Switching to a task I hate is really ineffective, because then it doubles my desire to eat a snack as distraction from the hated task.
• Chopping lots of VEGGIES is therapeutic. I do eat some pieces, but they're low-calorie, and come in slow enough that I reach satiety as I go. Any other type of food prep that involves handling higher-calorie ingredients like nuts, fruit, or cooked meat is a disaster.

nuzziek

Following Thanks for all the great tips, ladies!