Remove treats from home or just try to improve my willpower?
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These foods aren't something that you can stay away from forever. I currently have Oreo's, Dove's chocolate, Rice crispy treats, and an assortment of potato chips and other stuff at my house because my husband likes to eat them. I, however, don't touch them. I make sure that I keep my "low cal" snacks around that I can have instead.
To me it's a decision about eating more for less calories. I could have those 3 Oreo cookies for something like 130-140 calories, or I could have a strawberry smoothie pop (pretty decent sized) that is only 60 cals...or I could have 2 and still be under what those 3 Oreo's would have "cost" me in daily calories.
Just because it's there doesn't mean you have to eat it...0 -
i can't keep junk in the house! if i really want something i will go out and get it. and since i have small children, and they have candy/cake/cookie radar and zero self control, i try not to keep that stuff in the house. i guess it depends on what your eating philosophy is. personally, i would rather not eat candy/cake/cookies (even if i were thin as a string bean) because i know that type of food is not really good for me, so i don't really want it around to tempt me.0
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yeah , much like a lot of folks. Sweets outside the home or at restaurants are easy to avoid, but at home.. forget it. We do not keep it in the house. I can justify eating an entire sleeve of oreos if they are in the cupboard.
This is how I am (well was, I'm much better now) with saltine crackers. "If I leave this partial sleeve of crackers in the pantry, it will just go stale and I'll have to throw it away. I may as well eat them all right now. With butter on them."
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Appreciate all the positive responses. It's still early days and I do find myself looking in the cupboard and being disappointed at the lack of options available. However, I do make sure I have apples and other fruit at hand as a replacement when this happens. Am definitely finding that being busy is my friend and boredom most definitely the enemy.0
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Get that stuff out of your house. I don't know what your workplace is like, but here at mine, the solution would be to put the items in the break room with a sign saying "help yourself."0
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TavistockToad wrote: »at some point you're going to come across cake and stuff again... learning moderation is a much better idea than pretending it doesnt exist!
^ This.0 -
There are a number of replies suggesting/implying that the OP is "forever" trying to ignore moderation or "forever" eliminating these snacks from her home.
I don't agree with that.
If you lack the willpower to moderate your consumption of certain food items then I think temporarily removing them from your immediate environment is not a bad idea at all.
However, when you find that you're missing these foods from your life, you should consider gradually reintroducing them into your living space in smaller quantities and in a less prevalent manner than you currently have. So for example, less visibility and less overall variety of "junk".
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I think it depends on you and your self-control. If you can ignore the 'bad' foods in your pantry, then keep them so that your family and friends will have snacks when they visit. If you have no control - give them away. If they aren't there, you won't reach for them...
Talking about when you see them at friend's homes - well, then it would be a treat to have it on that occasion... and less of an every day occurance.
good luck.0 -
Sorry but why on earth do you have all that junk in your house?! It's not going to just sit there forever, it's going to get consumed. Don't want to consume it? Don't buy it in the first place. Seriously, just DO NOT BUY any of that stuff and you won't be able to eat it. Simple as that.0
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I didn't realize how much I snack until the kids started complaining that I eat things before they get a chance to have any. So, now I am ignoring the cheesecake in the refrigerator because eventually my daughter will want some. It would be easier for me if there were no temptations but I don't know how realistic that is. I have a sweet tooth, so I do have fruit in the morning and a fiberone bar at night which helps.
I am not sure I understood your first post. You ate all the food at once so it wouldn't be there later? I probably would have given it away if I didn't want it in the house.
I dread Halloween because we always have some candy left over. My husband brings some into work and the kids dentist will buy back candy so we have a few options to get it out of the house.0 -
I didn't realize how much I snack until the kids started complaining that I eat things before they get a chance to have any. So, now I am ignoring the cheesecake in the refrigerator because eventually my daughter will want some. It would be easier for me if there were no temptations but I don't know how realistic that is. I have a sweet tooth, so I do have fruit in the morning and a fiberone bar at night which helps.
I am not sure I understood your first post. You ate all the food at once so it wouldn't be there later? I probably would have given it away if I didn't want it in the house.
I dread Halloween because we always have some candy left over. My husband brings some into work and the kids dentist will buy back candy so we have a few options to get it out of the house.
The treats built up over a period of time and some were made/bought for when I had visitors but never consumed for whatever reason. They weren't always just for me to eat.
I'm also big into baking and some of the items in my freezer were due to my trying out new recipes. I have not thrown any of the treats away and have just eaten them slowly over many weeks. What I haven't been doing is replacing any of them. Not all of it is junk and I have attempted at least to bake lower calorie stuff e.g. black bean chocolate brownies.0 -
I had to keep those things out of the house for a long while. It would drive me crazy knowing they were there and I couldn't eat all of them! Now, I can ignore whatever it is and make it last longer and fit into my calories. It took about a year for me to learn how to say no. Now I can be trusted to buy ice cream and truly have one serving at a time.
Once you can control yourself at home, you can better control yourself "out in the wild."0 -
Willpower for noob phase 1: No snack available.
Willpower inter phase 2: Introduce portion sized, weighed, kcal calculated snacks. Maybe a type you don't REALLY love.
Willpower advanced phase 3 and maintenance: Practice portion control with your crack-snack.
Note: Different types of snack may have different trajectories. I can have a dark chocolate in fridge for a year...but gimme my fav bag of korean onion flavor rings and it's gone in 15 mins. It's still a work in progress for me. I agree with above posters that willpower is like muscle.
Hoarding a big stash of stuff is likely not making it easier for you. But it's YOUR choice. Good luck:)0 -
Buy the sugar free gummy bears instead
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There are a number of replies suggesting/implying that the OP is "forever" trying to ignore moderation or "forever" eliminating these snacks from her home.
I don't agree with that.
If you lack the willpower to moderate your consumption of certain food items then I think temporarily removing them from your immediate environment is not a bad idea at all.
However, when you find that you're missing these foods from your life, you should consider gradually reintroducing them into your living space in smaller quantities and in a less prevalent manner than you currently have. So for example, less visibility and less overall variety of "junk".
This is solid advice. If you feel you need to temporarily make a cut, then do it and focus on your larger goals.
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I'm all about making room for treats. I live and eat now, how I will for life and my life includes chocolate!0
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I am much better than I used to be at keeping treats in the house. If my fave treats are in the house I will eat about two servings each day until gone. I haven't quite gotten to the point where I can leave them alone for a couple of days without indulging.
I have a friend that only purchases her fave diet coke when running her errands. Now she only drinks maybe 1 or 2 per day. She said she used to drink about 6 per day when she would stock them in the house.0 -
I didn't realize how much I snack until the kids started complaining that I eat things before they get a chance to have any. So, now I am ignoring the cheesecake in the refrigerator because eventually my daughter will want some. It would be easier for me if there were no temptations but I don't know how realistic that is. I have a sweet tooth, so I do have fruit in the morning and a fiberone bar at night which helps.
I am not sure I understood your first post. You ate all the food at once so it wouldn't be there later? I probably would have given it away if I didn't want it in the house.
I dread Halloween because we always have some candy left over. My husband brings some into work and the kids dentist will buy back candy so we have a few options to get it out of the house.
The treats built up over a period of time and some were made/bought for when I had visitors but never consumed for whatever reason. They weren't always just for me to eat.
I'm also big into baking and some of the items in my freezer were due to my trying out new recipes. I have not thrown any of the treats away and have just eaten them slowly over many weeks. What I haven't been doing is replacing any of them. Not all of it is junk and I have attempted at least to bake lower calorie stuff e.g. black bean chocolate brownies.
Thank you. I was pretty sure you didn't mean all at once but that was how I read it.
I try to keep some things out of the house. Like ice cream. I love ice cream. Maybe when I have more willpower we can have small containers. I like foamroller's post about stages0 -
when i quit smoking I kept an almost full cartoon of cigarettes for nearly a year, thinking, if I need one, they are there. Some sort of weird safety net. With foods, hell no. I do have my treats that I manage to indulge on in moderation, but my trigger foods, nope, they are banished from the kingdom.0
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What works for me is just not having these sorts of foods in the house. It's rare that I would go out to specifically buy myself any sort of treat. If it's not easily accessible then I usually won't even think about it.
But sometimes there are treats in the house, for whatever reason, and sometimes I want to enjoy them. So I'm trying to teach myself moderation. That way I get the odd taste of something I enjoy and am less likely to suddenly explode one day and eat everything in sight.
You have to find the way that works best for you.0 -
I love pastries and salty snacks more than food! For that reason I did a 21 day detox before I started my new lifestyle journey. It helped me to cleanse my body of the junk - it's been 9 months now of not snacking. There are times when I still miss having them, but if the urge gets too strong then I just figure in the calories for a small amount and eat them ONLY with a meal After that small amount then I'm completely satisfied for several weeks. The longer I go without eating them, the less I want them.
Many times, after dinner if I have a craving (which after dinner was always when I snacked and consumed the most calories) I go brush my teeth to keep the craving down and if that doesn't work then I chew my favorite sugarless gum. I keep a stash of several flavors of sugarless gum to satisfy my sweet tooth.
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AmigaMaria001 wrote: »I love pastries and salty snacks more than food! For that reason I did a 21 day detox before I started my new lifestyle journey. It helped me to cleanse my body of the junk - it's been 9 months now of not snacking. There are times when I still miss having them, but if the urge gets too strong then I just figure in the calories for a small amount and eat them ONLY with a meal After that small amount then I'm completely satisfied for several weeks. The longer I go without eating them, the less I want them.
Many times, after dinner if I have a craving (which after dinner was always when I snacked and consumed the most calories) I go brush my teeth to keep the craving down and if that doesn't work then I chew my favorite sugarless gum. I keep a stash of several flavors of sugarless gum to satisfy my sweet tooth.
No... whyyyyyy....
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I only have 2 snacks that I would overeat if they were in the house: Potato chips and Pepperidge Farms goldfish. I made a rule for myself early on that if I truly wanted potato chips, then I would have to walk about 10 blocks to the store to buy an individual-sized package (and then it does generally form part of my calorie budget for the day.)
I'm not lazy at all, and enjoy walking, but it helps me question how much I really want them. And they can't be bought just because I'm out walking. It needs to be a walk for that specific purpose. I don't have a rule about the goldfish. They're a treat, and I've bought maybe 3 bags in the year that I've doing this. (And I've been successfully maintaining my goal for the past six months, and it helps that I have not introduced these back into the house "just in case."
I disagree with the simple statement of "just learn moderation" and its equivalents. Part of making this a lifestyle is to develop habits that you can use for the rest of your life. Sometimes taking a timeout from "treats" helps you rethink your body's food requirements, and you may break the habit for good, since you've learned how to incorporate it as an infrequent snack, or you've found something that's an overall better alternative. If you go back to eating "all the treats" after you reach goal weight, that is not going to turn out well. And if you just keep tempting yourself by keeping everything in the house, getting to goal weight is likely less possible, unless you already have extreme discipline.
My favorite treat these days (which I never would have predicted) is apple slices that I dip in nonfat yogurt. I read a phrase about "are you hungry enough to eat an apple?" and if so, the likelihood is that you are really hungry, and go eat an apple. That taught me a lot about hunger (which needs to be addressed) vs cravings.
Last night I stood in front of the cupboard, wishing that there were goldfish or chips inside. But the feeling passed when I wasn't interested in going out for a walk at 11 pm.
So that's the strategy that works for me.0 -
i would say if it is not in the house, you wont eat it! if you really want it you will have to go outside to get it!0
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Foamroller wrote: »Willpower for noob phase 1: No snack available.
Willpower inter phase 2: Introduce portion sized, weighed, kcal calculated snacks. Maybe a type you don't REALLY love.
Willpower advanced phase 3 and maintenance: Practice portion control with your crack-snack.
Note: Different types of snack may have different trajectories. I can have a dark chocolate in fridge for a year...but gimme my fav bag of korean onion flavor rings and it's gone in 15 mins. It's still a work in progress for me. I agree with above posters that willpower is like muscle.
Hoarding a big stash of stuff is likely not making it easier for you. But it's YOUR choice. Good luck:)
This, so much this.0 -
I'm the same way, I'm a sucker for gummies... I actually just finished a bag of Starburst that I took on vacation with me last night... I'm planning on not giving into buying anymore sweets/gummies..0
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I have chips in my house that I never eat. they've been there for 2 months - and, I keep them in case I go visit friends, and will bring a bag with me. A month ago, I went 'grain-free' and even more reason not to touch them. When I go to my neighbor's house to watch our sunday show (this month - "house of cards") - I'll give her a bag of chips to snack on, and I'll bring myself something healthier. (nuts, trailmix, or something similar).
I have 2 pound cakes I'd bought, pre- grain-free, that are still in my pantry. I told myself that after the 30 day cleanse, I'd have a slice - and, it didn't happen last weekend. So, now that I'm doing a treat, once a week - I may have one slice next weekend... but funny thing is that after a month without these types of desserts - Im not craving it - and thus if it goes much longer - I may give the cakes away, unopened, too.
it is possible to learn control. And, also, for those times when you crave sweets - there are great substitutes (especially if you can cook) - just look for recipes that don't use refined sugar, or bad fats... I found a recipe recently for pumpkin pie (with a walnut crust) - I don't remember all the ingrediants, but I'd focused on ones that had maple syrup or honey instead of sugar.
There are ways to bring healthier treats into your diet.
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My love of ice cream and my ability to eat it all in one sitting is why I would only keep small amounts of it in the house. At least now with it all gone if I really really want some I have to make an effort to go to the local supermarket and get it (a 15min drive away).I try to keep some things out of the house. Like ice cream. I love ice cream. Maybe when I have more willpower we can have small containers. I like foamroller's post about stages
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Have you read the Amazon review for those? LMAOhelenarriaza wrote: »Buy the sugar free gummy bears instead
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I should have said small amounts of ice cream but probably with a few too many different flavours (with pistachio being the clear winner).
My love of ice cream and my ability to eat it all in one sitting is why I would only keep small amounts of it in the house. At least now with it all gone if I really really want some I have to make an effort to go to the local supermarket and get it (a 15min drive away).I try to keep some things out of the house. Like ice cream. I love ice cream. Maybe when I have more willpower we can have small containers. I like foamroller's post about stages
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