keeping diet under control when working from home

I've worked entirely from my home for several years now. I very strictly limit myself to three meals a day -- breakfast, lunch and dinner, with nothing in between, i.e., no snacks at all. For fitness, I go to a fitness gym a few times a week.

I'm a sahm and I'm normally home all day, every day. I had to learn that I control food-it doesn't control me. I learned to listen to my bodies cues-what real hunger is versus boredom eating, eating out of habit, or just because food is there. When I got to that point I was able to succeed at weight loss and now in maintenance.

I have scheduled my break times and those are the times that I eat. Morning break I eat breakfast. Afternoon break I walk my dogs. My third break I eat lunch. I also plan my meals ahead. I've been telecommuting for about two years now and actually telecommuting has helped me tremendously with becoming healthier, losing weight, etc.

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Get something set up in another room. Or put all your food away.

Also, every time you feel hungry, make a zero cal hot drink.

This is something I struggle with all the time. I'm a work-from-home/stay-at-home mother so this is something that I've had to cope with myself and it's been a bit of a struggle but it's a lot easier now.

First, just because the food's there, don't let that get you! I had to start with setting times when I would eat, so I would have breakfast at like 8:00 and say OK, I can have some sort of fruit as a snack at 10:00 if I'm hungry and then a small lunch at 12:00. That way, even if I felt hungry, despite the food being right there, I'll look at the clock instead of the food and say oh, well, I only have another 30 minutes, let me quickly finish this up and then I can have a snack. That did wonders for keeping temptation at bay and I just ate smaller portions and snacked throughout the day so I didn't find food being so readily available to be distracting. Once I got used to that, I haven't had a problem. It didn't take me long before I broke out of the timed snacking and now I just eat when I'm hungry.

I would also recommend finding something else to distract you. A lot of times when you're at home (or this has been my experience at least) when you run out of things that you want to do or you have a little down time then you're more likely to reach for food as something to do because munching is so easy and it kills time. Instead of reaching for food when I was bored (which is especially a temptation on movie night or if you play games at time like I do), I'll exercise while I'm watching a movie or playing a game, something to just keep me from eating out of boredom.

All in all, what it boils down to, I think, is training yourself to have restraint, which is sometimes easier said than done. I'm very proud that, despite being home over these holidays, I not only didn't gain weight for the holidays (despite there being lots of naughty goodies in the house) and still managed to lose. A couple things that worked for me that might work for you. One, don't deny yourself. If you really have a craving for something, work it into your food plan for the day in a smaller portion and try to make up for it with maybe an extra exercise or cutting back somewhere else, if possible. Two, ask your family to be supportive, as much as they can be. I live with my mother-in-law and husband and 3-year-old. All of them have no problem eating sugary goods and candy, which they know I can't have. As much as they can, they'll hide the stuff they bring into the house, like my mother-in-law will bring it to her room. Or I'll ask them to put it on higher shelves because I'm short and can't reach it that way. Three, make sure you track accurately! If you're anything like me, that first day you really go over without noticing you'll be like goodness me, what have I been doing today? It's much easier to stay accountable with the temptation if you can see how everything you put in your mouth affects your daily goals before you do it, so when you go to reach for a cookie make sure you add that cookie BEFORE you eat and then decide if it's worth it or not.

And as for the moving thing--that's definitely got to be something more intentional at home. You have to force yourself to do it, which can be hard sometimes. I do a lot of the household cleaning, which is good for getting me up and ready to exercise. I don't know what work you do or how flexible it is, but if you can I would recommend trying to schedule "movement" times while you're working. I have ADD so I do this naturally just so I don't go absolutely bonkers, but it works for other things, too. For example, every hour you work you might take 10 minutes to do a small exercise and then during what might normally be a "lunch" do a 60 minute cardio or something like that.

I hope this helps you, even a little! This is what works for me and it won't work for everyone but maybe one or two things will help you. ^^ Good luck!