Impulse control?

MaddixPryce
MaddixPryce Posts: 2 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I would love everyone's opinion about how I can learn to not be so impulsive when it comes to eating. I'd rather get take out of fast food than cooking at home. It's like I cant tell myself no even when I know I should.

What are somethings you all have done to help with this?

Replies

  • joey32411
    joey32411 Posts: 22 Member
    Committing to cook at home can be a bit of an uphill battle, simply given the time commitment involved. To jump from regularly buying food out to preparing your own meals is a challenge all on its own. If you find it to be a little overwhelming, the easiest thing place to start, I would suggest, is to make healthier swaps at places you eat (less dressing, more veggies, grilled instead of fried, the easy stuff like that). When I was in school and it was really challenging to find time to cook(and even now), I would make bags and bags of freezer meals that I could take out the night before and dump in the slow cooker in the morning so dinner would be ready when I got home. Now I tend to plan meals around what I can adapt for the pressure cooker. Most meals when I don't want to cook take maximum 10 minutes of hands-on time, and then I turn it on and walk away. I just made a big batch of shrimp, spinach and tomato fettuccine in my pressure cooker, and my hands-on time was probably 5 minutes to cut the tomatoes. I plan out my meals for the week using Yummly, buy what I need, and if anything is going to take more than a few minutes to throw together during the week, I set aside time on the weekend to pre-prepare things.
  • LyndaBSS
    LyndaBSS Posts: 6,964 Member
    I fill out the food diary a few days in advance. That keeps me from being lazy or impulsive with food purchases.

    Plus, I'd rather eat my own cooking than fast food any day of the week.

    I only keep enough cash on hand for the farmer's market. That helps, too.
  • CravingGooey
    CravingGooey Posts: 4 Member
    Hey MaddixPryce 🐯

    I struggle w impulse eating too. Through this app I followed stories with clicks and ended up 🏄🏽‍♀️ the web and read this: https://zenhabits.net/self-discipline/

    It’s not all amazing/applicable and junk, but there’s one part I thought I’d try (pictured).

    I feel like it’s the discipline and habits I need to work on, so I’m researching how to form discipline lol

    Ps mindfulness is actually an amazingly helpful tool and practice. Highly recommend if you haven’t tried/heard of it. I haven’t been able to get back into it in years, but when I was, I understood myself more and had more room to appreciate mysbdo00ax8jjrw.png
    elf and thus make better, more overall healthful choices.

    🐯
  • CravingGooey
    CravingGooey Posts: 4 Member
    Ima try to set a timer for 10 mins when I’m tempted to chose impulsive eating, and sit down and use the time to reflect on myself and eating... ????

    Haven’t done it yet. Through all the clicks and reading that happened Tuesday, I’ve been okay and not impulse-ish. This will just be a backup plan.

    Idk
  • hmhill17
    hmhill17 Posts: 283 Member
    This week, I started putting everything I'm going to eat that day in the tracker until I'm max calories with my morning coffee. Then I go walk. I make as much as I can on Sunday (poached chicken, bags of cheese and nuts, salads that won't go all wilty.) Then it's just a matter of eating what I have.
    I was raised on cooking 5-6 nights a week with 1-2 leftover nights and I was helping in the kitchen before I could read, so that probably has a lot to do with it.
  • COGypsy
    COGypsy Posts: 1,349 Member
    Impulsive food choices are a challenge for me too. I find that having something ready to eat at home will (usually) convince me to keep driving. I don't cook, so for me that means making sure that I've either got Freshly meals ready to go in the fridge or something in the freezer I can dump in a bowl and zap. Otherwise, it's a losing battle!
  • Hannahwalksfar
    Hannahwalksfar Posts: 572 Member
    Cook once a week and then freeze. That way you just have to reheat.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    When I fail to plan, I am much more likely to give in to temptation and impulses.

    When I worked in an office, I did a bunch of cooking on Sunday that gave me lunches, snacks, and dinners through Thursday. Friday I got take out for lunch, ate half of it, and had the other half for dinner.
  • hixa30
    hixa30 Posts: 274 Member
    I have experimented with a 2 hour food requirement. If I want to eat *anything* I need to write it down on a piece of paper, at least 2 hours before eating. It does require commitment but it's helped me
  • hmhill17
    hmhill17 Posts: 283 Member
    I used to subscribe to a service called eMeals. Back then it was here are a bunch of recipes that use ingredients on your chosen store's weekly ad. Saving money always nice. But the best thing about them is that they were easy to make. Recipes were usually 5-10 ingredients and only a few steps. Of course, there were lots of canned things and higher fat things in it so not necessarily the healthiest option.
    Now, they have all sorts of meal plans for different diets, Heart Healthy, Clean Eating, Paleo, Vegan etc etc. You can buy add ons for breakfast and lunch too.
  • jrh_this_better_work
    jrh_this_better_work Posts: 92 Member
    quiksylver296 wrote: »
    Commit to logging the food into your food diary before it goes in your mouth. Don't tell yourself you can't have it, just tell yourself you have to log it first. Once you log it, it's possible the "sticker shock" will help you pass it up.

    This for sure. This has saved me many times. "I'll just see what that does to my food diary" has more than once lead to "Are you bleeping kidding me! I'm not eating that!". Great tool!
  • whmscll
    whmscll Posts: 2,254 Member
    Instead of junk food, you can stock your freezer with healthier/lower calorie frozen packaged meals. Not necessarily Lean Cuisine or other “diet” dinners, but the bags of chicken stir-fry with rice type meals that take only 10 minutes or so to prepare. Could be a happy medium between junk food and cooking at home. (Just read labels carefully, some of those packaged meals are calorie bombs: looking at you, orange chicken). Another option os to buy a whole, cooked chicken at the deli counter of the supermarket and keep that in your fridge so you can nuke a portion for dinner each night. Pair with some canned veggies, and voila.
  • pdmatthews
    pdmatthews Posts: 37 Member
    Totally agree with quite a few comments above. What I do:

    1). Log a rough plan of tomorrow’s food not necessarily to stick to exactly but just a guide
    2) log BEFORE eats rule
    3). A really really powerful one is the 10 min rule but it takes a lot of willpower to do it. If I want a snack I force myself to wait 10 minutes - 99 times out of 100 I realise it’s not the be all and end all and I won’t have it. It’s hard but do it enough and it gets easier.

    Also think of alternatives with more volume. Eg rice cake instead of a biscuit,

    Hope that helps

  • floofyschmoofer
    floofyschmoofer Posts: 209 Member
    It has to become a habit. For me, it has been a concentrated effort over time and it's now STARTING to become habitual.

    "Bad"/not mindful/unstructured eating is a habit I had to break.
  • Dreamwa1ker
    Dreamwa1ker Posts: 196 Member
    edited August 2019
    A few things that have helped:
    1. On the weekend I prep everything for the week to make home food WAY easier than driving to get something - lower the effort/barrier of entry for during the week and after work when you are already tired and it is easier to be tempted. That could be cutting up everything for salads/snacks, it could be cutting up and measuring ingredients so that later I only have to do the "fun" part of cooking - the actual cooking. Makes cooking feel way faster, and it's similar to what chef's do with "mise en place". Has made me a better cook.
    2. Make sure the food I make and keep in the house is stuff I will really WANT to eat (while still being fairly nutritious). This could be done through getting some interesting cookbooks or recipe sites (I like to cook lots of diverse things like Indian, Chinese, Italian, BBQ, to keep things interesting) or through having some easy pre-prepared meals from frozen or from a service, but importantly they have to be tasty so you will want to eat them.
    3. I plan ahead to go out to eat for a nice, relaxing, social meal on Fridays. This can help you by remembering - we're already going out Friday, and it will be better than what I'll get grabbing something right now. Can help you not impulsively go out today instead. This is similar as planning treats in moderation rather than going cold turkey, so you aren't miserable.
    4. I pre-log my meals. If it's already logged, I don't want to have to go back in and change it because I ate something else for dinner - again making there a higher effort for me to eat out vs just eating what's at home.
    5. I make huge batches of stuff and then freeze it so I can be truly lazy and just reheat some nights - basically making up your own version of the frozen dinners
    6. Learn cooking methods where you can make a large batch of stuff in one go without much effort - sheet pan meals, slow cookers, grilling if you have a big grill. That way you can have a whole week's worth with little effort, or can freeze some for later. Cookbooks can help keep this interesting but still easy - I love this one!
  • zebasschick
    zebasschick Posts: 1,067 Member
    i work a LOT right now, so i have tons of foods that require virtually no prep in the house. quest bars - around 200 calories per bar, 20 grams of protein. potato chips and tortilla chips - i eat half an ounce, all i have to do is weigh and eat. and a piece of cheese adds some protein. tasty fruit or vanilla yogurts. trader joe's cauliflower bowls are great for my calorie and nutrition goals. a blaze pizza with cheese and sauce is under 700 calories, and if you eat half, you'll have half for later. or you can eat a third and have each of the other two thirds when wanted.
  • Hannahwalksfar
    Hannahwalksfar Posts: 572 Member
    I lost impulse control today and despite thinking I was cheating I ended up eating 300 cal under my daily intake because I’m naturally just making smaller portions and choosing better options without realising it.
  • MelanieCN77
    MelanieCN77 Posts: 4,047 Member
    Lots of good options here already! I bet you will find your best way is a combination of bits of everyone's ideas. Sift through and think about the ones that seem doable and implement small changes slowly. Personally I'm a big planner, so I have a sheet with a couple of days worth of meals planned out and I use it to shop from so I am prepared to execute what I have written down. It's become a very ingrained habit to the extent that I think twice before switching one meal for another if I am in the mood for something else because my mindless default is just to follow the plan. Taking the choice/decision out of the equation when you're most vulnerable, ie. hungry, is a big part of sticking to my desired plans.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    hixa30 wrote: »
    I have experimented with a 2 hour food requirement. If I want to eat *anything* I need to write it down on a piece of paper, at least 2 hours before eating. It does require commitment but it's helped me

    I'm confused. Do you do this for regularly scheduled meals or just when you have the urge to snack?

    Because you said *anything* it sounds like you mean for regular meals, which seems...odd.

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