How can i get food off my mind?

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heatherheston218
heatherheston218 Posts: 8
edited November 2023 in Getting Started
So today I have started yet another diet. In the past I was able to loose 110 lbs and kept it off for over a year. Today I cannot stop thinking about food. I started my diet today and by 11:00 I already ate breakfast , snack and lunch. This is going to be a long day! I work in a very boring atmosphere. I was wondering if anyone has any ideas that may help me??
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Replies

  • ViktoryaC
    ViktoryaC Posts: 124 Member
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    If you find any good ideas, send them my way....I too work in a very boring office where I eat ALL DAY LONG, and I've gained 53 pounds in a year. I'm already at 2,000 cals today. We need to find a way to rein this in....
  • KANGOOJUMPS
    KANGOOJUMPS Posts: 6,472 Member
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    drink some vodka.
  • derekj222
    derekj222 Posts: 370 Member
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    eat more filling foods. Veggies are really low in calories, but fill you up. Flavored gum can help with food cravings.
  • qtgonewild
    qtgonewild Posts: 1,930 Member
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    drink lots of water. plan your snacks. then drink some more water.
  • scot30316
    scot30316 Posts: 169 Member
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    So far every time I have thought about opening this bag of deliciously wonderful BBQ potato chips sitting a few mere feet from me on my desk, taunting and tempting me to eat him, I read another success story on the message boards. It has been here unopened for 5 days now. It's working for me...and drinking water, cold cold water
  • joannadalina
    joannadalina Posts: 112 Member
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    Same here. Currently at work. I drink water and plan my snacks for the day. I have a 10am snack and then have lunch at 12pm, and then have to stay strong until around 6pm when I eat dinner. It's hard. I am a muncher, definitely. I am trying to drink water when I think of eating but that results in me running to the bathroom, which I hear is suppose to good, right?

    We need a support group for this with matching t-shirts and pens, the whole sha-bang!

    Stay strong! I won't cave if you don't!
  • JesterMFP
    JesterMFP Posts: 3,596 Member
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    You could try either enforcing three square meals a day, or some form of intermittent fasting. I find that when I am eating little and often through the day, I'm more pre-occupied with food. Having one medium meal (lunch) and one large meal (dinner) in the day means that I don't think about food as much, and because I can eat more at dinnertime, I feel more satisfied. I'm not saying the same structure will work for you, but you could experiment to find the combinatinon of meal timing and number that suits you best.

    Also, make sure that you're not going too low on calories, and try not to cut stuff out that you enjoy. It's natural to obsess about food a bit when you're "on a diet", so if you can do everything you can to not be "on a diet", then it won't be as bad. If you cut out everything that you like eating, you're bound to start craving it.
  • 4legsRbetterthan2
    4legsRbetterthan2 Posts: 19,590 MFP Moderator
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    well usually i say stay busy, but i guess if work is boring then you cant

    I just make rules, not allowed to eat till xyz time and stick with it. Make sure you keep all food and snacks away from your desk, hopefully you have a lunch room or somehting? That will help you not break your own rules.
  • heatherheston218
    heatherheston218 Posts: 8
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    LOL that has empty calories.
  • TX_Rhon
    TX_Rhon Posts: 1,549 Member
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    I have the same issue at work - its boring so I'm more inclined to snack. However, I know that about me so I make sure I have good snacks and keep busy. For me, its a mental thing. Then again, some days I am more hungry than others especially when I exercise. Pre-planning meals/snacks is working for me. Good luck :)
  • MinnieInMaine
    MinnieInMaine Posts: 6,400 Member
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    Being able to view your diary would help but here's some general advice. I agree with eating more filling foods - those higher in protein and containing good fats. Also stick with more whole grains like steel cut oats and quinoa. If you eat rolled oats or instant oatmeal, it tends to be less filling. Along the same lines, although I'm not a huge perponent of clean eating, I find that "diet" foods, which tend to be more processed foods, can leave me more hungry than if I eat the originals. Go with regular bread, stay away from snack bars and frozen meals. It takes a bit more work but try it for a week or so and see how you feel.
  • sriley7682
    sriley7682 Posts: 48 Member
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    Eating plenty of protein and healthy fats has helped me. Also eliminating sugar helped me stop craving things. I think sugar is key in causing food cravings.
  • annaowen67
    annaowen67 Posts: 23
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    I'm in the same boat as far as work goes, but I find that planning and tracking my food ahead of time helps. It makes me plan things out and then it's easier to stick to. I usually eat oatmeal in the morning. At my first break I have a piece of fruit and a no fat blended Greek yogurt. Today for lunch I have a Safeway Farms salad bowl. It is filling and less then 300 cal. For my afternoon break I have pretzel crisps. For one serving of 11 crisps it's only 110 calories. It works for me. I do think about food but I have a plan so that keeps me on track. I find the weekends to be my cryptonite - it's harder to plan when my time is not structured. Also drinking that water helps too!
  • cjohn2278
    cjohn2278 Posts: 65 Member
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    The first couple days are the hardest...for me if I can get to day 5 by sticking to three meals and two healthy snacks with LOTS of water, then after that the food obsession starts to wear off as my body is accostomed to eating normal again and not pigging out.

    Good luck!!
  • retirehappy
    retirehappy Posts: 4,754 Member
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    So far every time I have thought about opening this bag of deliciously wonderful BBQ potato chips sitting a few mere feet from me on my desk, taunting and tempting me to eat him, I read another success story on the message boards. It has been here unopened for 5 days now. It's working for me...and drinking water, cold cold water

    Way to go!!
  • neandermagnon
    neandermagnon Posts: 7,436 Member
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    So today I have started yet another diet. In the past I was able to loose 110 lbs and kept it off for over a year. Today I cannot stop thinking about food. I started my diet today and by 11:00 I already ate breakfast , snack and lunch. This is going to be a long day! I work in a very boring atmosphere. I was wondering if anyone has any ideas that may help me??

    obsessing about food is a survival response to eating too little. If you're already finding your diet hard going, then maybe you are being too restrictive. Think long term... if you can't keep the diet up long term, then you'll regain the weight when you go back to eating the foods you want to eat. Aim to lose the weight more slowly, so you get to eat more calories each day. Slower, yes, but if you're going to have a better chance of sustaining this way of eating for life, then the fat will stay off for life. Include all your favourite foods; you'll have to adjust the portion sizes to stay within your calorie goals.... but still eat them. Also, exercise and eat back exercise calories... that's another way to enjoy eating all the foods you love while still being able to lose weight slowly and steadily. And with exercise, do exercise that you really enjoy and will find it easy to stick to. Think long term and sustainability. For your calorie goal, aim to eat the highest amount of calories you can while still losing weight slowly and steadily. Depending on how much you have to lose, set your goal to lose 1lb or 0.5lb a week.
  • KathleenMurry
    KathleenMurry Posts: 448 Member
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    Get a hobby.

    OK, maybe your work isn't boring enough you can get away with doing a hobby at the same time. I have the same problem at my work place. I pack a lunch and graze on it all day. I tell myself I can't open the lunch bag until 10:00 AM and I can only have one thing. Then I can have another thing at 11:00 Am and so on. In between, I drink coffee, water, diet pop etc s it always feels like I'm consuming something.
  • Kadoober
    Kadoober Posts: 289 Member
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    It helps me to not think of what I am doing as dieting. To me, that word implies a) punishment, and b) an endgame once I've met my goal.

    When I think of it as a diet, rather than a lifestyle change, I've found that I will spend time fantasizing... about what I currently cannot eat, and what I WILL eat once I've lost the weight I want to lose. It's not a healthy mindset, for me at least, it always always leads to spending way more time than I should, thinking about the 'bad' foods.
  • retirehappy
    retirehappy Posts: 4,754 Member
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    So today I have started yet another diet. In the past I was able to loose 110 lbs and kept it off for over a year. Today I cannot stop thinking about food. I started my diet today and by 11:00 I already ate breakfast , snack and lunch. This is going to be a long day! I work in a very boring atmosphere. I was wondering if anyone has any ideas that may help me??

    Get out of your work chair and walk instead of stuffing food in your mouth. If you still can't stop thinking about food, then jot down some ideas of what you should be eating, come up with a new meal idea. Use the thoughts constructively.

    I work night shift, 12.5 hrs. while it can get so busy I can't think there are some long stretches where it is plenty boring. I used to snack then but now I get up and move, even hit the stairwell for some step climbing or put on my headset and listen to hard rock, even if I can't dance, listening to the the music takes my mind off of food.

    It is pretty tough the first few days. And if you lost 100 before, YES YOU CAN DO IT. :flowerforyou:

    So this time practice some habits to keep it off for longer than a year.
  • keflexxxx
    keflexxxx Posts: 25 Member
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    Get a hobby.

    probably the best advice you could get. the main reason people become overweight isn't overeating; that's just a symptom as far as i'm concerned. people become overweight because they have so little happiness in their lives that food BECOMES their happiness, and they associate eating with feeling a certain way. eventually you just eat to stave off boredom. getting a hobby solves this problem, although perhaps not in a work setting.
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