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Worst food habit & ideas of how to break it!

THISisTARRAN
THISisTARRAN Posts: 487 Member
edited November 2024 in Food and Nutrition
What is the one habit or main bad habit you wish you could break?

For me...the habit I am working on breaking (in relation to food) right now is eating when I'm not hungry. Literally it is SO difficult for me. I have made progress & I've stopped eating after a certain time at night (normally shooting for 7-7:30), which was good because late night eating/snacking was always hard for me too. I've also started eating healthier snacks when I really want a snack, I've been using sugar free gum & been munching on almonds throughout the day to kind of curb that desire.

I'm not quite satisfied yet though, I really want to change this habit. The one struggle I see is that because I have a family sometimes I'm not hungry during dinner time, for example, or when I wake up...sometimes I am not hungry then either & I feel like I need to eat at both of those times. For dinner I need to eat then because #1 I want to eat as a family and #2 because I don't want to wait and then get hungry later & it is already like 9 o'clock. In the morning, usually I am hungry, but once in awhile I'm not & I eat because I know breakfast is important & I won't have a chance to eat later.

I'm pretty happy with the success I've made so far, but I really want to see myself let go of the boredom/eating because something sounds good & overall eating when I'm not hungry.

Please share your ideas and thoughts & tell me what habits you have struggled to break!

-Tarran
America Getting Healthy

Replies

  • ana3067
    ana3067 Posts: 5,623 Member
    I don't have any habits to break, since I already broke them: binging on high calorie food (fixed this by practicing moderation and eating "bad" food whenever I desire it and can fit it into my cals) and having a bad relationship with food (fixed by discontinuing my "clean eating" lifestyle, which I gave up long before joining MFP, and then stopped labeling food as "good/bad" or "junk." It's all just food with different nutritional makeups).
  • THISisTARRAN
    THISisTARRAN Posts: 487 Member
    Thank you for your input!
  • chouflour
    chouflour Posts: 193 Member
    THISisTARRAN wrote: »
    The one struggle I see is that because I have a family sometimes I'm not hungry during dinner time, for example, or when I wake up...sometimes I am not hungry then either & I feel like I need to eat at both of those times. For dinner I need to eat then because #1 I want to eat as a family and #2 because I don't want to wait and then get hungry later & it is already like 9 o'clock. In the morning, usually I am hungry, but once in awhile I'm not & I eat because I know breakfast is important & I won't have a chance to eat later.
    I came across a study on "initial hunger" awhile ago. They were training people to recognize blood sugar cues for hunger. You only ate when you met the criteria for "initial hunger". Then you'd learn to eat the right amount to meet the criteria the next time you wanted to eat.

    Apparently it becomes second nature in just a few days. This is a bit of a summary of their research. http://www.dovepress.com/getfile.php?fileID=16416
  • AmazonMayan
    AmazonMayan Posts: 1,168 Member
    I also ate because of boredom.

    Logging food on this site was my magic cure. When I knew I should be full and satisfied already from dinner, etc., I would pre-log whatever extra food I was thinking about eating. I started asking myself, is this even worth the extra calories and how bad is it going to mess up the rest of my day? After thinking on those issues I usually realized I wasn't actually hungry and I would delete the entry and not eat the extra food. I have given myself something else to do besides hand to mouth movement.

  • lsprinkles
    lsprinkles Posts: 5 Member
    Not eating much during the day and then eating 700-1000 calories a few hours before bed. I prefer to eat at night, and u have to have something sweet, so u kind if plan for it. I still meet my calorie goals, but I know this is not the best for my body. It's working for now, but it is something I should probably work on.
  • martyqueen52
    martyqueen52 Posts: 1,120 Member
    My demon has always been, and still is, nut butters.

    I can easily finish off a whole jar of cookie or peanut butter without thinking twice. I had to stop buying them & go with the PB2 mixes instead.
  • THISisTARRAN
    THISisTARRAN Posts: 487 Member
    Interesting! Thanks everyone.
This discussion has been closed.

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