How do you Avoid junk food cravings?

My weight loss started when a friend recommended a book called "The Body Fat Solution" by Tom Venuto. The first 100 pages or so aren't even about nutrition nor exercise, but psychology and motivation instead. For me, the most important 2-3 pages in the book were about "Psychological Hunger vs Physical Hunger", and I think what he has to say on this subject is the answer to your question. I couldn't possibly give you a reply here nearly as adequate as he could, but very briefly:

Physical hunger comes on gradually, usually a few hours after you've had a meal, and indicates it's almost time for another meal. Psychological hunger comes on instantly.

Physical hunger can be put off an hour or two if now is not a convenient time to eat. Psychological hunger demands attention RIGHT NOW.

Physical hunger can be sated by whatever food you happen to have around. Psychological hunger is usually focused on one specific item--anyone who couldn't resist the Snickers bar calling to them while at the grocery checkout knows what I mean here. Once you recognize that sudden craving as a psychological tick, that's it's not really hunger at all, it becomes much easier to say No to the candy bar.

Eating when you feel physically hungry makes you feel good, feel satisfied. Eating in response to psychological hunger doesn't, it only makes you feel guilty.

There's more, but I don't have my copy of the book handy. Everyone wants to borrow it when they see me rocking my new body and crediting that book as the lynchpin of the turn my life has recently taken--yes, I'm boasting, sorry about that. I don't usually read these forums, but this thread's title popped up on my home page, and I thought I could help with this one.

Oh, btw, besides Venuto's book, the second thing I ascribe my success to is MyFitnessPal!

EDIT TO ADD: I don't want to sound like I disagree with those who say, "Go ahead and have it, if you can figure out a way to work it into your calorie budget." I also agree that it's a bad idea to try to swear off candy or ice cream or pizza or anything else for life. It's not a tragedy if go slightly over your daily calorie goal every now and then, as long as those days are few and far between--just go back to crushing and you can erase those teeny, tiny setbacks (again, as long as you're not piling them up!).

i got rid of all the junk food in my house (i live with my parents, my dad just recently discovered hes diabetic and we're all on a diet basically), the most unhealthy food i have is probably breakfast cereal or those 100 calorie thinsation packs.. i don't know i find it weird i don't crave junk that often, and if i do i don't have access to so i just eat whatever i have that is sweet like berries or sugary cereal etc. good luck though!

I agree with the Poster who makes her own treats and freezes them. To me that is a great idea. If frozen they have to defrost so it is not so easy to keep going back for seconds or a third , planning is involved with this idea.

Secondly I like the odd treat and homebaked allows me to control the quality and quantity of what is going into my product, eg homemade cookies using oatmeal and whole wheat flour with some honey or a very very much reduced amount of sugar. Substituting unsweetened apple sauce into the recipe. Cutting the amount of sugar called for in a recipe to 1/3 of what is called for works well for me.

I make it healthier if I can (like someone mentioned burgers, I'll make a low fat turkey burger with whole grains bread and low fat cheese).

Otherwise, I just have some of what I crave (but again... I'll go for a 'healthier' ice cream for example instead of the 300 calories per serving stuff, or a 100 calorie bar of chocolate etc). The key for me is to log it before I eat it, to make sure it's really worth it.

I don't know why it works, but it does (I actually lost 35 lbs doing this and then I allowed myself to gain it all back) -- you can google articles on it if you want. If you are craving sugar and you drink a small 4 oz. glass of Welch's grape juice instead, your cravings are gone. If I drink just a 1/2 cup of Welch's grape juice per day, I don't get any sugar cravings at all.

Here is one article that talks about it but there are many others. I don't find that eating turkey, broccoli or grapes helps me with my sugar cravings but Welch's grape juice does the trick every time:

http://www.becomegorgeous.com/fitness-diet/healthy_diets/healthy_substitutes_for_food_cravings-9793.html

I am wondering what you mean by pretty healthy? My cravings for sugary things have almost completely disappeared since eating healthier. I think it's good to know exactly what it is you crave from the junk food and see if you can find it in healthier foods. For example I eat dates instead of chocolates/candy/cakes. That helps me a lot.

I do not think of 'junk food' but I think of food that I can eat lots and often (e.g. salads, fruit, etc) and other food which I can eat in small portions and infrequently (e.g. french fries, alcohol, etc). Therefore in my diet there are no foods off limits, but there are portions and frequencies.

I have also got fussier about some foods. For example, I'll prepare (from scratch) a gourmet pizza or drink a craft beer rather than, say, Pizza Hut or a cheap beer. That is, I have to thoroughly enjoy high calorie foods; calories have to be worth it.

Another approach I use is that some times I exercise for longer if I want to go for high(er) calorie foods, so I'm creating a calorie deficit and I still end up—most of my time—within my calorie allowance.

" If you are craving sugar and you drink a small 4 oz. glass of Welch's grape juice instead, your cravings are gone."
If you drink this , your sugar craving hasn't gone you're still drinking sugar only it's a bit healthier coming from a fruit.

I don't know I might be wrong but after reading the comments I couldn't stop myself replying. A lot of people stated that they deal with cravings allowing themselves to eat, smaller portions/exercising more/ healthier versions.
This seems like soothing the symptoms not curing the illness.
I mean for me it's more important to dig deeper and find out the cause of my cravings and work on solving my issues which makes me think of food when I'm stressed/tired/fed up/feeling unloved etc and trying to create new habits instead of eating.
If you don't change the foundation you will eventually give in. I saw it a lot of times, I made this mistake too. Women lost incredible amount of weight, maintained it for a year or 2-3, then something major happened or they just thought they could eat that one slice of cake and the flood gate broke. All the hard work had gone down the drain.

I think you have made a valuable point. Stopping and taking stock of what is driving the eating. I remember having a difficult encounter by phone with another individual and found myself in the kitchen eating a peanut butter sandwich. I had an ah ha moment and could see I was soothing myself by eating. Not a good habit to get into. I didn't have other tools to work with back then , but along the way in life I learned a few meditative techniques.

One is called surfing the urge. You can do a google online and look for it on you tube. For me I call it surfing the anxiety, or feeling mad or bad, it is recognizing it is a feeling, taking the time to deal with it , breath it in and breath it out, then letting it go. I no longer have to act on the feeling. The feeling passes . It is a technique not only for dealing with food but difficult people
It is a short meditative technique originally developed for people to give up habits such as smoking and drinking.

I watched that HBO documentary on the Weight of a Nation this last Friday and saw they are using meditative tools in dealing with eating. People are taking time to smell and breath their food before taking the first bite then taking time to chew on it.
It allows them to tune into their body and read the bodies signals.

Now that I am typing this I realize I had my breakfast with my mind elsewhere and woofed it down. I think it is time for me to slow and take the time to notice what I am eating.

P.S.
I recently discovered they are using this technique to deal with stress and the reduction of a stress hormone that causes the body to store belly fat.
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1099086-stress-cortisol-belly-fat-mindfulness

Same for me! Skinny Cow Caramel Candy Bar. I tried the ice cream sandwiches, but I cant seem to stop after just 1. So I stick with the candy bar nightly!