Stopping Junk Food From Coming in my House
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Faithful_Chosen wrote: »Probably mentioned before, but you can't expect him to give up his munchies. Dedicate a drawer/cupboard to them and train yourself not to look/eat. There will always be munchies around--a party, some lonely night in the house, going to the movies, etc. You will have to train yourself to withstand temptation. Lock up the cupboard if you have to until you feel you have a handle on your cravings, but they are YOUR cravings and YOU, unfortunately, are the one who has to manage them. Good luck!
Exactly this.
OP, as long as your husband is being supportive and not shoving the food down your throat or insisting you eat the foods you are looking to avoid, what is the problem?
There will always be situations where you need to choose between going along with your plan, or indulging and eating foods you would consider to be more unhealthy. Are you going to avoid restaurants all together? Potlucks? Cookouts? Are you going to live like a hermit with only your healthy, pre-purchased groceries surrounding you, content in a little bubble with the foods you deem to be worthy? Probably not.
It sounds like you just need to continue to practice and teach yourself restraint. And if you happen to snag a chip or a cookie in the process, enjoy it, log it, and move on.
Just because you have cookies and chips or whatever he enjoys around, doesn't mean you need to indulge.
Good luck!0 -
Could you clean out a cupboard for your husband and ask him to put ALL of his indulgent, calorie-laden food in there? That way, you don't have to see it, and if you open that door it's on you. As opposed to having bags of chips and cookies and things strewn all over the kitchen.
This is a great idea. Out of sight out of mind generally.
Good compromise I think.
^^ This ^^0 -
Several good ideas mentioned, but you also said you were trying to eat "more clean". I definitely understand cutting out stuff if you have no self control, but another thing to consider is that you don't have to eat clean to lose weight. You can weigh out a single portion of the food you're craving and work it into your daily calorie goal. I've found it is easier for me to stick to my diet when I don't cut out the things I really love to eat. I no longer have some "wagon" to repeatedly fall off of.
Granted, it took me a while to get here, and for a time, I couldn't have the foods I craved in the house (I was single at the time). If you are having problems with self control, one thing I did was not have it around and then I'd have a single serving out of something high quality. I had no control for ice cream, but I found a local place that weighed out a single portion of gelato for product control. I got really intense (and some rather strange) flavor combinations, and I learned to appreciate a single, 3oz serving. Now I can have it in the house again and still only eat a single weighed out portion.
And I agree with others, you can't prohibit your husband from eating what he enjoys (which, you've acknowledged you have no intention of doing). But, having him hide it, it almost sounds a little disordered. I agree that he should have a cabinet that is his that you never open. But, if you find that you can't prevent yourself from going into that cabinet, maybe it would help to speak to someone professionally about your relationship with food.0 -
Op, I like the idea of asking your husband to switch to buying single serving packages of his stuff. I'm much more likely to grab "just a couple" chips from a big open bag than I am to open a new single serving package.WinoGelato wrote: »This discussion seems to come up quite a bit on these discussion boards (I'm new so I've been doing a lot of reading of the old posts). The responses seem to fall into two camps: 1) He should do everything he can to support you, including keeping junk food out of sight and even eating the same food as you, and 2) He should not have to give up the things he loves just because you are on a diet.
I think I fall somewhere in between. I don't mind that my husband has food that I have to avoid, but there are things he can do to help me resist. For instance, I need to have enough room in the fridge and freezer for all my lean meats and veggies. No problem there. Where we don't quite have agreement is when he suggests eating out way more than I can afford to (in terms of calories). I hate to have to always be in the position of saying no, but there it is. We are trying to compromise by eating out together once a week.
Could you clean out a cupboard for your husband and ask him to put ALL of his indulgent, calorie-laden food in there? That way, you don't have to see it, and if you open that door it's on you. As opposed to having bags of chips and cookies and things strewn all over the kitchen.
I just wanted to say how refreshing it is that someone new to the forums would spend time using the search feature and reading up on the topics/questions that are posted ad nauseum! If more people took time to do this we would probably have far fewer posts/arguments about inane topics!
+1This discussion seems to come up quite a bit on these discussion boards (I'm new so I've been doing a lot of reading of the old posts). The responses seem to fall into two camps: 1) He should do everything he can to support you, including keeping junk food out of sight and even eating the same food as you, and 2) He should not have to give up the things he loves just because you are on a diet.
I think I fall somewhere in between. I don't mind that my husband has food that I have to avoid, but there are things he can do to help me resist. For instance, I need to have enough room in the fridge and freezer for all my lean meats and veggies. No problem there. Where we don't quite have agreement is when he suggests eating out way more than I can afford to (in terms of calories). I hate to have to always be in the position of saying no, but there it is. We are trying to compromise by eating out together once a week.
Could you clean out a cupboard for your husband and ask him to put ALL of his indulgent, calorie-laden food in there? That way, you don't have to see it, and if you open that door it's on you. As opposed to having bags of chips and cookies and things strewn all over the kitchen.
My husband loves to eat out too. What has worked for me is to find meals at several places we like that don't break the calorie bank. A smaller sandwich (or just the pulled pork, no bread) at the BBQ place with green beans as a side, grilled chicken with a side salad, grilled salmon, a plain baked sweet potato and steamed veggies at the steak house are some personal examples. If he wants to eat out when we haven't planned to I tell him which places will fit the calories I have.
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I deal with the same thing at my house. Just work it into your daily caloric intake and/or macros. I always leave room for things like ice cream, cereal, peanuts, chips, etc. at the end of the day.0
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I hate to say this, but your husband is right. It's not fair to him to ban certain foods from the house. You have to learn the tools to deal with temptation and not devour things you don't want to eat. Try working some of your favorites into your calorie budget so you don't feel deprived.
I like peanut butter in it's original form, but I don't like peanut butter flavored snacks. I get my husband peanut butter cookies as often as I can. He loves them and I know I'll never eat them. As long as he has cookies, he doesn't care what flavor they are.0 -
This discussion seems to come up quite a bit on these discussion boards (I'm new so I've been doing a lot of reading of the old posts). The responses seem to fall into two camps: 1) He should do everything he can to support you, including keeping junk food out of sight and even eating the same food as you, and 2) He should not have to give up the things he loves just because you are on a diet.
I think I fall somewhere in between. I don't mind that my husband has food that I have to avoid, but there are things he can do to help me resist. For instance, I need to have enough room in the fridge and freezer for all my lean meats and veggies. No problem there. Where we don't quite have agreement is when he suggests eating out way more than I can afford to (in terms of calories). I hate to have to always be in the position of saying no, but there it is. We are trying to compromise by eating out together once a week.
Could you clean out a cupboard for your husband and ask him to put ALL of his indulgent, calorie-laden food in there? That way, you don't have to see it, and if you open that door it's on you. As opposed to having bags of chips and cookies and things strewn all over the kitchen.
Or you could do the "reasonable" thing and get a divorce.
That escalated quickly.
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I'm going to be a little contrary here.
Of course it is the husband's house too, and he has the right to have whatever foodstuffs he wants in the house. And certainly OP is going to have to learn with temptation. No question on either of these.
That said, I would jump on a grenade for Mrs Jruzer. So if she asked me to stop bringing certain foods into the house, I would do that out of love for her. I would certainly work with her to come up with a long-term plan that we could both live with, but there's no way I would just ignore her request. Marriage should be about loving compromise in cases like this.0 -
I gave up trying to change the behaviors of my family members. Now they bring in whatever they want. Yes, it makes it much more difficult for me to stay on track. They could make it easier for me. It is not important to them.
I used to resent their actions. Now I consider it just one more thing to overcome. Other people here have other obstacles.Please give me strong suggestions to have the willpower not to eat junkfood if it is in my face.
Sorry, no great answers here. I also cave occasionally and am trying to make it less frequent. Hm - here is one- I find I do not eat junk food if I am busy. Fixing the house, cleaning, walking - I don't have hands free for the bag of chips.0 -
Hubby is right. Also - that's his food he bought for himself - so hands off. If your coworker bought themselves a treat they kept at their desk you wouldn't go over and take it and eat it yourself. Or if someone at the table next to you at a restaurant ordered dessert you wouldn't go over and grab it from them. Same with your hubby's treats - those aren't for you so leave them for their proper owner. Change your mindset a bit and you've got this!
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Faithful_Chosen wrote: »Probably mentioned before, but you can't expect him to give up his munchies. Dedicate a drawer/cupboard to them and train yourself not to look/eat. There will always be munchies around--a party, some lonely night in the house, going to the movies, etc. You will have to train yourself to withstand temptation. Lock up the cupboard if you have to until you feel you have a handle on your cravings, but they are YOUR cravings and YOU, unfortunately, are the one who has to manage them. Good luck!
Thank you0 -
This discussion seems to come up quite a bit on these discussion boards (I'm new so I've been doing a lot of reading of the old posts). The responses seem to fall into two camps: 1) He should do everything he can to support you, including keeping junk food out of sight and even eating the same food as you, and 2) He should not have to give up the things he loves just because you are on a diet.
I think I fall somewhere in between. I don't mind that my husband has food that I have to avoid, but there are things he can do to help me resist. For instance, I need to have enough room in the fridge and freezer for all my lean meats and veggies. No problem there. Where we don't quite have agreement is when he suggests eating out way more than I can afford to (in terms of calories). I hate to have to always be in the position of saying no, but there it is. We are trying to compromise by eating out together once a week.
Could you clean out a cupboard for your husband and ask him to put ALL of his indulgent, calorie-laden food in there? That way, you don't have to see it, and if you open that door it's on you. As opposed to having bags of chips and cookies and things strewn all over the kitchen.
Or you could do the "reasonable" thing and get a divorce.
That escalated quickly.
No kidding. It's not just on the OP to be an adult in a two person relationship, because you'd think a reasonable compromise of putting his stuff in his own special cabinet, but still having it accessible for himself would be just fine but judging by some of the reactions here to a legit question god FORBID the other person in the house try not to *kitten* all over the other's attempts to reach personal health goals.
I'm NOT saying OP's husband is like that at all, but you'd think that by all the reactions that he was just requested to freaking cut off a limb or something.
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He should be supportive and not buy so much junk. In fact, he should stop eating it himself.0
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It would certainly be nice of him to stop bringing that stuff into the house (my experience- after our first discussion about me trying to eat better because of a health issue (high cholesterol) the husband cut WAY back on the junk he has in the house).
However, it's a negotiation not an ultimatum situation in my eyes unless you have quite a serious medical issue from your weight and the junk is contributing.
It sounds like there aren't magic words that are going to get your husband to stop bringing junk food in. However, you can make it easier for yourself to make better choices. We as humans are usually pretty lazy. We pick up what's right in front of our nose most of the time- so maybe put your healthy snack options at your eye level and in the front of the cabinets, and give him a shelf that's higher than you naturally reach for (clearly this works much better if there's a height difference).
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There is no reason for your house to be junk food free for you not to eat it. The two teenagers and wife are still into carbs and the house is full of them but I do not eat them after I went off of sugar and grains 10 months ago. I had to go cold turkey off carbs because I was not able to taper off. The first two weeks was hellish. I was not doing it to lose weight as much as I was to cut my pain level. After two weeks the physical cravings started to fade and so did the mental cravings after a few months. My pain level dropped down from a 7-8 to a 2-3 on a 1-10 scale after being off carbs for 30 days and has not returned. The average loss of 3 pounds a month has been a nice bonus. Being down to 199 pounds for the first time in 22 years is a good feeling too.0
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If you are a food addict and can't stay away from your trigger foods, my opinion is that the household HAS to help you through this.
I am a food addict. My hubby loves junk food and lots of it, so I gave him my list of my 5 trigger foods that simply can't be in my house. If they are, he has to lock them in a briefcase that I don't know the combination. On the occasion he leaves them out, I told him that I must throw them away. It's just too difficult for me to be tempted. I gotta make ONE place in my life that's my safety zone. At work, I'm tortured with goodies and junk all day, every day.
If you had a drug addict or an alcoholic for a spouse or child, would you torture them with putting their drug in the house? I would think not.
Addicts need all the support we can get. We have to eat 3 times a day, every day and it's a challenge just to get through that some days. It's NOT just the addict's issue alone.
Your friendly dietitian
Jenn0 -
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If you are a food addict and can't stay away from your trigger foods, my opinion is that the household HAS to help you through this.
I am a food addict. My hubby loves junk food and lots of it, so I gave him my list of my 5 trigger foods that simply can't be in my house. If they are, he has to lock them in a briefcase that I don't know the combination. On the occasion he leaves them out, I told him that I must throw them away. It's just too difficult for me to be tempted. I gotta make ONE place in my life that's my safety zone. At work, I'm tortured with goodies and junk all day, every day.
If you had a drug addict or an alcoholic for a spouse or child, would you torture them with putting their drug in the house? I would think not.
Addicts need all the support we can get. We have to eat 3 times a day, every day and it's a challenge just to get through that some days. It's NOT just the addict's issue alone.
Your friendly dietitian
Jenn
Are you a registered dietician?
That seems like a pretty extreme perspective for someone who works with people on their nutritional choices in order to improve their health, for either weight loss or to address a particular medical diagnosis.
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I've always been on the opposite side of things. For the past ten years my husband has been on/off low carb eating. He would get so upset if there were things in the house he didn't want to eat. I try hiding them but he still finds them and eats the entire package (usually in the middle of the night) then blames me for his weight gain. I hate being blamed for his lack of willpower and I'm the one who has to shop and feed the family. There have been times where I will not buy any of those foods and then I'm cleaning out candy wrappers from his pockets when I go to do laundry. So I say screw it and go back to shopping like normal. I take responsibility for my eating and wish he would for his. I would happily lock the things up in a separate cabinet. Maybe you could buy something for him to put those foods in. I love the idea given above about treating it like a roommate's food. Good luck.0
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My husband and I go grocery shopping together. He buys his food ... and I buy mine.
There's a yogurt he likes ... so he gets that one.
There's a yogurt I like ... so I get that one.
He likes full-fat cheese ... I like the light cheese.
He likes cheese and certain type of cracker I'm not that fond of as an after work snack.
I like cottage cheese and cucumber slices, and occasionally a different type of cracker that he doesn't particularly like.
He buys certain food for his lunches ... I buy different food for my lunches.
He's got bags of peanuts in the cupboard, but I can't eat those because I will painfully bloat up to the size of the Goodyear balloon. So that's one of his go-to snacks when he is hungry.
Even with fruit ... he buys a collection of fruit he likes, and I buy a collection of fruit I like.
Fortunately we are both trying to keep our weight down and trying to eat a reasonably healthy diet. But he works a physically active job so he needs to eat more than I do, therefore I don't mind that there's fruit cake and Anzac Biscuits in the cupboard. I can usually resist both, but have, on occasion included a biscuit or a small slice of cake into my daily intake.
The rather funny thing was ...
I was buying low-cal dinners for myself, and he was eating his own thing. But he saw what I was having and thought they looked really good ... so now we eat the same thing for dinner most of time ... "my" food.
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I'm going to be a little contrary here.
Of course it is the husband's house too, and he has the right to have whatever foodstuffs he wants in the house. And certainly OP is going to have to learn with temptation. No question on either of these.
That said, I would jump on a grenade for Mrs Jruzer. So if she asked me to stop bringing certain foods into the house, I would do that out of love for her. I would certainly work with her to come up with a long-term plan that we could both live with, but there's no way I would just ignore her request. Marriage should be about loving compromise in cases like this.
Yep.0 -
I don't know what eating clean means. There's nothing wrong with even junk food in moderation. In my house we have a shelf in the pantry for sweets. I know it's there and I treat it like any other food- I have to log it in my diary before I can eat it. That means that, if I have 0 calories left for the day, I am knowingly going over.Please give me strong suggestions to have the willpower not to eat junkfood if it is in my face. Some days I'm great but a few days a week I crave junk food and I want to eat more clean
As a result, I try to leave 100-200 calories over at the end of the day for an ice cream sandwich or a nice chocolate biscuit. If you make a point of making a small treat a part of your day, the "junk" food is no longer special or bingeworthy.0 -
Lourdesong wrote: »I agree with your husband. It's your eating plan and your problem, therefore it's you who has to adapt in the world around you, not the other way around.
I have had this discussion with my wife.... the whole house is not on her eating plan so she like you needs to accept what temptation is in the house and rise above it
good luck
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I took over the shopping and cooking...that helps for me. Maybe you could ask him to hide the treats he wants somewhere so you don't have to see them. Or try buying alternatives he might like just as well...fiber one bars instead of poptarts or something.0
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My house looks like an Entenmann's shop, as my husband eats A LOT of junk food. He will sit on the couch next to me with not one but the whole box of donuts on his lap. I, on the other hand, have not eaten grains or sugar in years and it doesn't bother me at all. In fact, watching it turns my stomach. I know how good I look and feel and the energy that I have so the temptation just isn't there. Unless you live in a bubble, there will always be occasions where you are surrounded by junk food you just have to change your mindset. Nothing tastes as good as you will feel!0
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hearthwood wrote: »You're never going to completely get away from junk food, especially if your husband likes to eat it. Why should he suffer because you're losing weight? This is about YOU, not your husband. You're going to have to put it away, (out of site out of mind) and learn to deal with it being in the house, and frankly, all over the world.
^^Word. I've sat at the table and watched my husband and kids eat donuts on a Saturday morning. They know I love them but work them in when I want. You have to start resisting temptations to get the ball rolling. No different than learning to get up at 5am to exercise if that's all you got. When you walk in panera to just grab a coffee you can't ask the cashier to hide the pastries you have to make the decision to skip it. It becomes a lifestyle change and pretty soon it won't bother you as much.
One day at a time.
ETA: I've been victim the other way around too and my husband just made it apparent. I was buying wheat bread only and adding egg whites to his breakfast as one example. He finally confronted me and said "could we please just have some cheap ol white bread in the house?!" Haha. I had to laugh because I didn't even realize I was pushing all my food choices on him (I do all the shopping). So he gets white and I get wheat. He gets brand cereal and I get trader joes. He gets whole milk and I have almond...0 -
My husband and I go grocery shopping together. He buys his food ... and I buy mine.
There's a yogurt he likes ... so he gets that one.
There's a yogurt I like ... so I get that one.
He likes full-fat cheese ... I like the light cheese.
He likes cheese and certain type of cracker I'm not that fond of as an after work snack.
I like cottage cheese and cucumber slices, and occasionally a different type of cracker that he doesn't particularly like.
He buys certain food for his lunches ... I buy different food for my lunches.
He's got bags of peanuts in the cupboard, but I can't eat those because I will painfully bloat up to the size of the Goodyear balloon. So that's one of his go-to snacks when he is hungry.
Even with fruit ... he buys a collection of fruit he likes, and I buy a collection of fruit I like.
this is what we do. he has a part of the counter and cupboards and fridge that is his and I have mine. we share the ice cream.0 -
Carnivor0us wrote: »This discussion seems to come up quite a bit on these discussion boards (I'm new so I've been doing a lot of reading of the old posts). The responses seem to fall into two camps: 1) He should do everything he can to support you, including keeping junk food out of sight and even eating the same food as you, and 2) He should not have to give up the things he loves just because you are on a diet.
I think I fall somewhere in between. I don't mind that my husband has food that I have to avoid, but there are things he can do to help me resist. For instance, I need to have enough room in the fridge and freezer for all my lean meats and veggies. No problem there. Where we don't quite have agreement is when he suggests eating out way more than I can afford to (in terms of calories). I hate to have to always be in the position of saying no, but there it is. We are trying to compromise by eating out together once a week.
Could you clean out a cupboard for your husband and ask him to put ALL of his indulgent, calorie-laden food in there? That way, you don't have to see it, and if you open that door it's on you. As opposed to having bags of chips and cookies and things strewn all over the kitchen.
Or you could do the "reasonable" thing and get a divorce.
That escalated quickly.
No kidding. It's not just on the OP to be an adult in a two person relationship, because you'd think a reasonable compromise of putting his stuff in his own special cabinet, but still having it accessible for himself would be just fine but judging by some of the reactions here to a legit question god FORBID the other person in the house try not to *kitten* all over the other's attempts to reach personal health goals.
I'm NOT saying OP's husband is like that at all, but you'd think that by all the reactions that he was just requested to freaking cut off a limb or something.
Oh yes, the "Special cabinet", or the "secret cupboard" in my house. There will be carnage when I find out where it is.0 -
Maybe you and your husband can meet somewhere in the middle and make a compromise.
While I do agree that you have to be able to adapt to the world around you and deal with the possibility of there always being foods that you would be better off not eating, I also feel that your husband needs to up his support for you. Maybe he can only pick one or two snacks to have in the house. Have you ever asked him to hide them from you?
Out of curiosity, what happens with dinner. Do you cook the food that you want to eat or do you cater it to him and what he wants to eat? Are either of you making a change or a sacrifice for the other?0
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