how do I get the strength to stop eating the junk food! :0/

I'm in the same boat :sad:

get rid of the junk food, bring in healthier snack options, will only be doing your children a favor in the long run, and then it can be a treat to go out and get. thats what I have to do,,,,,its so hard but we can do it

You can't just stop, it take a long time to be able to controll it. It's okay to have a little if you don't it will drive you crazy. Remember it's a life style change not a diet. You will always rund into situations with food at gatherings and at home. I know because I have 4 children. Just take it one day at a time and one decision at a time.

Visualize how you want to look -- in a bathing suit, a pair of jeans... whatever your vision of your future self is LOL!

You can have snacks once in awhile, just make sure you work them into your calories and portion them out.

I have a major sweet tooth. I was having a really hard time and was craving sweets like crazy. So I make sure I leave enough calories that I can eat about 1/2 serving of M&Ms or jelly beans after dinner. This has helped me a lot because I am not completely cutting sweets out of my diet.

I am not really a junk food junkie, but I am a working mom who is trying to be full time at both my paying job and my mommie job, so I know what it's like. I just try to make sure I have a banana and some animal crackers for myself and the kiddo if I know I am going to be out of the house for a while, and that helps me to make better decisions about where we eat. By planning ahead, I give myself the fuel that my will power needs to support my good decisions :flowerforyou:

I always liked a little something sweet after I ate dinner. I haven't been tracking too long yet but have been staying in my calorie limit. After learning what calories are in each thing you put in your mouth, it was a sad thing when entering You will realize that you can have soooo much more of one thing compared to a couple of cookies, etc. You will start to look at things at the store differently like reading the back and seeing the calories. I'm sure I did a lot of mouth droppings the first few times I went shopping after reading the labels. The stuff that was always so great and wonderful, you almost think of it as "what creeps!" For the amount of calories it has they can keep their damn cookies! hahahaha Once you have that mindset it gets so much easier.

Some things I have tried and really like since mfp have been:
Yoplait Delights 100 Calorie- Lemon Torte
Yoplait Delights 100 Chocolate Raspberry
I've always eaten the regular yogurt, but these are more dessert like and 100 calories.
Kellog's Special K Fruit Crisps -Blueberry (100 calories for 2 crisps) They are reallly good. They remind me of blueberry pie or something. (By the granola bars)
Also tried some fudge bars in the frozen section. They were called Blue Bunny Fudge Lights- 35 calories.
The last thing that was new to me was something called Apple Straws. They are by the rice cakes. They are puffed and taste like apple with cinnamon. You can eat 14 of them for 65 calories.

Another thing, when you feel like something sweet an apple, banana, or orange hits the spot.
Sometimes after drinking sooo much more water it's almost like you don't want the sweets like it was before. Just my experience on the whole thing. A lot of it is tracking every little thing. When you see it right before your eyes it makes you think much harder and realize that you want to eat better.
Think of the calories as your money! Would you want to spend your money on something expensive and not have any left (as in high calories) or spend your money wisely and get a lot of things for the day!
Just a different way to look at it I guess.
Good luck with everything! I bet the junk will leave your thoughts sooner than you think!

Does it really matter if you let yourself have one thing every day (or every second day). As long as you are under calories, you are making a difference.

If I dont have a cookie once a day in the afternoons I will go into overdrive later and binge.

I work it into my calories and compared to the way I used to eat I figure 1 cookie is not going to kill me.

I agree. I eat junk food non-stop. I know it's not the healthiest option for me, but when it comes to losing weight, a calorie is a calorie no matter where it comes from. I don't want to limit myself to fruits, veggies, and lean meats because then it really feels like a "diet." Pretty sure that's why I've always only lasted a day or two on my weight loss journey in the past. I don't know why, but it never occurred to me to count calories until I found MFP. Always thought that I should just exercise and eat a lean cuisine for every meal. Lol. Anyways, when I finally realized that counting calories meant that I could eat pretty much anything I wanted as long as it fit into my calorie goals, I was able to stick with it. 124 pounds lost (and hopefully 125 tomorrow), and I had a poptart for lunch today. Haha. (Though that wasn't my fault; my school wasn't serving anything I could eat today, so I had to rely on what was in the vending machines. Ugh.)

Wow!! Congrats on losing 124 pounds! That is amazing!!!
And I agree...it is so awesome to be able to eat junk sometimes as long as you're staying in your calorie range....this way the body doesn't feel so deprived and you don't feel like you are on a "diet"! Doesn't my fitness pal just ROCK!!