the BAD food and how I cope

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moujie
moujie Posts: 229
in Food and Nutrition
Here's your chance to wax poetic on the delights of your favorite bad for you food - the one you can't get enough of, the one you cannot stop eating if it's in front of you. So, list the food and then list what you do to cope with it. Here are the rules: no "I can't get enough of baby carrots" - this is not the topic for that! and don't say you cope with it because you don't even crave it anymore now that you're such a great clean eater! boo hiss! I want a food that drives you mad no matter how awful it is and then real coping strategies that might actually help someone else deal with their own food demons!

ok I'll go first:

my favorite bad food that I cannot get enough of, cannot stop eating if it's in front of me is:

lipton onion soup mix & sour cream dip with Utz potato chips - this is a big deal for me because I'm a sweet-a-holic so the fact that this is my worst offender is huge! and I pitty those of you who do not live in the mid-atlantic region of the u.s. and can't get these fan-freaking-tastic potato chips.

how I cope:

ok I figured this out about 5 years ago that the ONLY way I can deal with this addiction is to give into it. I know that sounds like a lame coping strategy but wait there's more. I only eat them once a year. really. New Year's eve I make a double batch (that's 2 16oz. containers of FULL FAT sour cream, and 2 packages of the onion soup mix) so we're talking tons of fat and tons of salt here. and then I eat it pretty much all day long and into the night. I actually don't make a real dinner. and let me tell you - you'd think I'd get sick but I don't, you'd think I wouldn't be able to finish it all...but I'm no quitter! ok I do let my partner have some but I doubt she eats more than about 1/4 of it. the rest is mine all mine! and this insane plan actually works for me. I don't crave it all year long - if I see it at a party I can easily walk away from it (all my friends will say, oh that's right it's not New Year's Eve) and it really doesn't have power over me because I know I'll get to have it again to my heart's content. and because of this I rarely - really rarely - ever eat any kind of potato chip. but sometime after thanksgiving I start to think about the impending chip & dip fest and by the time New Year's rolls around boy am I ready for it!

That's my story - what's yours?

Replies

  • lulabellewoowoo
    lulabellewoowoo Posts: 3,125 Member
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    My BAD food is peanut butter. Yeah, yeah, I know, it can be healthy for you. But not in the amount that I eat it. Open jar, insert spoon, and keep on eating....YUMMY

    How do I cope:

    I melt 1 tbsp on my oatmeal every morning. Then I put a tiny bit in my mouth, take the container and hide it in the bottom of my kids' junk food box and push it far back on top of the refrigerator. When I start having a breakdown, the effort it takes me to get a chair, pull down the box, and dig through to find it usually gives me enough time to come to my senses. But not always.

    This is a daily battle for me. I had my husband start buying crunchy peanut butter because I thought I didn't like it. But what do you know, I have since developed a taste for that as well.

    When it gets really bad and I'm losing self-control day after day, I have to switch to the little mini-tubs so that at least it is measured out.
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  • sweetpea03b
    sweetpea03b Posts: 1,124 Member
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    OMG you are totally right! I LOVE chips and onion dip. And... when you try to make it with reduced fat/reduced sodium and all that... its just not the same! I'm not as good as you... I don't give in just ONCE a year... but like you I try to only make it a few times a year because I will totally pig out... and guess what? One of those "few times a year" is on New Year's Eve!


    Okay... my coping. I have a total addiction to sweets and candy... cookies... cakes.. you name it. I LOVE to bake. So.... I keep candy in the house and I always get the mini candy bars... and when I want candy I get ONE. That's it. I just eat one and i'm done! At work I keep mini bags (like the kind you give out at halloween) of M&Ms... when I get a craving... I eat a bag and I'm satisfied. As for the baking... cakes, cookies... I make whatever... I "taste" it... eat one or two cookies... then I take the rest to work. The people at work are like VULTURES! It's gone within 20min... so... I get to bake something... taste it... and get rid of the rest :)
  • Crunchytxmama
    Crunchytxmama Posts: 169 Member
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    Just one?! Mine is going to have to be kind of general. I love carbs covered in cheese. Cheese and crackers, mac and cheese, cheese on toast, cheese grated over a potato, grilled cheese sandwiches, nachos, pasta with lots of cheese...you get the idea, lol. When I was heavy, cheese was my serious weakness. I could easily take leftover spaghetti and grate 4 oz. of cheese over it and not bat an eye. And since it's pretty natural, I really didn't think of it as one of my worst food addictions.

    I still eat cheese a little bit. I had some on my spinach salad yesterday. Mostly, it kills me that a teeny-tiny ounce of cheddar cheese is 110 calories, so I talk myself out of it.....I remind myself how much more I could eat of other things for 110 calories! But on bad days, I still tend to eat a little cheese and crackers occasionally. I would say I don't eat 4-5 ounces at a time anymore, but that temptation still gets me, especially on the weekends. I don't ever, ever grate tons of it over anything anymore. That reminds me too much of when I was 200 lbs., sitting in front of my computer stuffing cheese-laden leftover spaghetti in my mouth. I just feel too out of control. I keep stuff like mac and cheese out of my house. I can't think of the last time I ate mac and cheese. If I know I cannot control myself with a food addiction, I just keep it out of the house.
  • Nikiki
    Nikiki Posts: 993
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    I have two: dark chocolate & red wine... preferably together...

    This is my new plan to cope
    I'm not rolling in money so I have convinced myself that the cheap brands of wine & chocolate aren't worth my time and the workout I'll have to do to burn it off. I can only afford to buy 1 bottle of good red wine a week and I ordered a bunch of mini chuoa firecracker chocolate bars that are about 90 calories each. I know that a bottle of red wine has about 600 calories in it so I'm taking my total calorie allowance for the week (9,450) and subtracting off a bottle of wine and 5 firecracker bars (8,400) so I stick to 1,200 calories a day and I can have the wine & 5 mini chocolate bars at any time in the week without adding them to my total. :)
  • fitzfour
    fitzfour Posts: 1,306 Member
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    Ok, mine can change from time to time, but the consistent one is Twizzlers Cherry Bites...every time I visit my parents, I know my dad has some hidden in the candy cubbord, as that is his "sweet treat" after dinner each night. Well, typically I'll have a handful, and another, and another, etc.

    The way I cope: I told my mom and dad about how I've been eating clean, and made sure to mention that Twizzlers doesn't fall into that. I also happen to gete HORRIBLE stomachaches if I do eat something "unclean". So, right as I'm reaching for some, I usually hear my mom remind me that I'll be hurting if I eat them. Most times she catches me, but sometimes I just sneak a few and I'm done. I never have them at my house, as I'd eat them till I was sick!

    I've got other foods (mainly sweets) that are like that for me too, but as long as they aren't in the house, I am fine!
  • Laceylala
    Laceylala Posts: 3,094 Member
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    My FAV food is plate of really high quality artisan bread sliced up, evoo and a good thick balsamic in the middle mixed together with rock salt and italian seasoning. Chunks of a really good gouda cheese and sliced tomatoes and cucumbers. The issue is the cheese and the bread and the evoo. But OMG is it ever delicious. And to top it off - a good book while eating it and a glass of wine to boot.
    How I cope: Don't buy the bread. Eat cheese at a bare minimum which I am okay with. And don't make the combo up, ever. Read a book with other meals and look forward to a glass or two of white wine on a Friday night.
  • auntbliz
    auntbliz Posts: 173 Member
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    Oh chocolate, how do I love thee, let me count thy ways.... So this holiday season I've been HORRIBLE! I make fudge before Thanksgiving and don't stop making it until Christmas, which, of course, means there's fudge around the house until after New Years. I give it for gifts and I can't stop myself from eating half the darn batch (of every batch I make). I've tried eating healthy dark chocolate to try to curb the craving and binging, but I just end up eating that AND the fudge. I've been losing and gaining the same two pounds since November, but until the last of the fudge was gone yesterday, it was a lost cause. Sigh, my coping, well, at least I only do it in November and December, ALL STINKIN MONTH LONG! Oy, what a way to cope. I do have a tendency to bake a lot of cookies through the year, but I don't have the same kind of purpose, so I can limit what I make and encourage the kids to eat it and my husband to take it to scouts and send a plate to the neighbors, you get the idea. I definitely need some better coping skills for the holiday fudge disaster though, I've got another 10 months before it happens again, so hopefully I can figure something better out in that time!
  • rose1617
    rose1617 Posts: 469 Member
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    Definitely stuffed crust pizza with pepperoni from pizza hut. I have a thyroid disease so I'm constantly craving dairy and this is absolutely no exception.
    How I cope? Limit quantity! If my husband says "hey let's order pizza" I don't eat four slices like I used to... I limit myself to one or two (and a serious workout). Even if I wanted to eat four slices now my stomach says no way.
    We only order pizza like once a month now anyway so I'm doing pretty good. It used to be once a week.
  • moujie
    moujie Posts: 229
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    .... So this holiday season I've been HORRIBLE! I make fudge before Thanksgiving and don't stop making it until Christmas, which, of course, means there's fudge around the house until after New Years. I give it for gifts and I can't stop myself from eating half the darn batch (of every batch I make). I've tried eating healthy dark chocolate to try to curb the craving and binging, but I just end up eating that AND the fudge. I've been losing and gaining the same two pounds since November, but until the last of the fudge was gone yesterday, it was a lost cause.

    oh auntbliz how I feel your pain!! I had surgery on December 2. so in addition to not being able to exercise my main activity was to walk into the kitchen and eat a cookie. and because I was home recuperating I baked and baked and baked. my average daily cookie consumption was probably somewhere around a days worth of calories!! you'd think that would have curbed the chips and dip on New Years Eve but then I needed the salt to balance all that sugar!

    but it could be worse instead of gaining and losing the same two pounds you could have gained and gained and gained.
  • kimber607
    kimber607 Posts: 7,128 Member
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    Another chocolate addict here, specifically peanut M&M's
    I've boxed them out of my life...NEVER buy them for the house
    I allow myself some if They are at a friend's house, b-day, special occasion...but never ever have the on my house or buy them

    Kim
  • auntbliz
    auntbliz Posts: 173 Member
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    Oh yeah, didn't gain too much because when I stick the 2 pounds back on, I'd quit eating anything HEALTHY so that I could save my calories for the fudge. Sometimes I would even exercise so that I could eat more, you guessed it, FUDGE.

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