How Do I Stop Mental Hunger?

IkirPaulson

I keep blowing through my daily calorie goal and want to get it under control.

Physically I am full, but my mind tells me "Eat more! Clean your plate! Isn't there some chocolate in the pantry? Ooh you better eat that cheese before it goes bad!" For breakfast I just had a 5-egg omelette with a whole onion, 5 slices of deli ham, 2 slices of swiss cheese, a cup of coffee, a cup of green tea and a bottle of water. I should be stuffed (my stomach is hurting right now) but I am still thinking about snacking on whatever I can find in the house.

Have any of you been able to overcome the mental desire to eat, even when you're already physically full? I am already salivating just thinking about what I want to have for lunch today although I barely finished breakfast!

KenosFeoh

The best way is to get busy with something that occupies both your mind and your hands, preferably far away from the kitchen. Hobbies? Chores? Exercise?

Oh, and I had to establish a meal schedule for myself. If I find myself in the kitchen looking for "a little something", and it's not meal time, I drag myself out of there. Otherwise I'd rationalize that it was o.k. to have a meal or a snack.

Fatandfifty3

I hear your pain! I too have this problem of being nagged by food. At the moment I'm doing a 5:2 diet type and so far (7th day) it does seems to work in silencing the chatter.
Things that help-
Drinking instead of eating- hot drinks especially
Waiting an hour before 'snacking'
Use a plate! Put everything on a plate before you eat it. It slows you down and gives you back some dignity!
Chew Everything Well. It gives your stomach time time to realise you've eaten something.
'Do You Really Need To Eat That?'- A good question to ask yourself!
Distraction. Anything. Mindless Facebook games are good.
and dare I say it....
Exercise.

Good luck!
:-D

palmerar

I, like you am always thinking about what my next meal can be...what am I gonna eat, where am I gonna eat, when should I do it. In fact as a joke I often tell people I think about food in the same way men think about sex. If I'm cooking I will always look up recipes finding the next thing I want to make. MFP has actually helped me a lot with this. It takes a long time, but it is important to stop seeing food as anything aside from an energy source that allows you to keep living. For me, growing up food was a reward and a comfort...if you are good you can have a treat, if you had a bad day hey let's make some cookies, they wil amke you feel better...and THEY DID!, etc etc. I try to think of my logging as balancing my checking account....boring and necessary. You need to make sure you have budgeted enough food to get you through the day, the focus is a zero balance. Try pre-logging meals so you know what the cost is before eating. Eat SLOWLY, enjoy every last bite that way once you are finished eating your brain will know that you are full and you will feel like you ate a lot. Good luck and don't stress out too much it will only lead to rebellion against the program (at least for me it does).

tarafleis

chewing gum helps me from mindless eating.

moustache_flavored_lube

Eat imaginary food

f1tforever

I find keeping busy is really the only way to help this!
Because habits are hard to break ..so not matter what, if I sit down after work to watch tv-- I will end up snacking.
Instead I have decided to exercise as soon as I get home (trust me this one was SO HARD) ..but after my workout I have a big meal and then don't want to ruin my workout with going over calories.
I also like to save a few calories for a treat every night -- or just a small snack.

mbellypdx

One option: My neighbor lent me her book "How to self soothe without food" by Susan Albers. It was really good. It"s full of ideas and things to do when you're "bored" eating, "emotionally" eating, "stress" eating, etc. Odds are, you're not really hungry, you're using food as a distraction, etc. (I daydream about food in yoga class a lot. It's just where my head goes.) I stress eat and now can recognize when I'm doing it and substitute it with blasting music and dancing until the stress is reduced. The other posters had good suggestions and if you get a chance to look at this book, check out what she says. Now that you've noticed this, you can control it. Go conquer that demon!

mbellypdx

Also, love your Pomodoro icon. Great pic

lalitacor

Hi
yous should not worry , cause unbelivable you are not the only one who feels the same, I had the same feeling sometimes , the mental neccesity of eat , even if the stomach is full,
What had worked for me
1. Before start to eat again think what are you trying to do? Only feel pleasure of it carbohidrates and then, feel guilty?
Breath and try to think that you don´t want to feel guilty for overeating,
2. Don´t you wanna fit on your past nice clothes, that you could not fit now?
3. Try to replace your temtation to eat sweets, or chocolates or unhealthy food , by apples or whatever fruit you like more , and drink water tooo much water,

YES YOU CAN ; YES YOU CAN.

sbbhbm

I was a compulsive overeater. Distracting myself with random things never worked. The only thing that helped was figuring out WHY I was doing it. Most behavioral compulsions have a source. Mine had a lot to do with growing up really poor, and never having enough to eat- once things turned around for my family, I started eating like I was afraid the food would go away again. I wish I could tell you it's easy to overcome, but I can't. Though I'll get a lot of flack about this, and of course the usual "they have forums where you can talk about THAT sort of thing" I will say I spent a great deal of time in prayer, asking for strength. It dawned on me last week, that I hadn't even noticed that I'd stopped. I opened the cupboard and saw a whole box of Ferrero chocolates from Christmas, and there were only a few missing. Two months ago, I would've eaten the whole box in one sitting, just because they were there and I couldn't just let them be there. Once I recognized what was going on, I learned to remind myself that the food will be there tomorrow.

If it continues to be a struggle for you, I would recommend counseling, or maybe getting involved with Overeaters Anonymous.

raspberryblonde

I am a big boredom eater, and I find distraction works really well. One of my recent favorite fin things is old-school coloring with crayons. It takes a lot of concentration, but you can also really work out some mental stress if you have something preying on your mind!