Help with fighting cravings?!

The problem with saying "no" to the things that you want constantly is that you're eventually going to give in and say "yes" and often that leads to an overcompensation or the feeling that "Well, I failed and gave in so I might as well eat the whole bag of chocolate rather than one piece."

The thing to remember is... trying to lose weight is not a game. You can't "win" or "lose" or "cheat" or "fail".

There are many who believe that willpower is a limited resource. There are only so many times you can say "no" before you're going to give in. So don't force yourself to say "no" all of the time. Build small treats into your day, but be smart about it. A single square of really good (expensive) chocolate is much better than a whole bar of cheap chocolate especially if you take the time to pay attention to what you're eating and really enjoy it. I think that's actually true for almost everything we eat; slow down, taste it, enjoy it. Not only will you eat less as a result but you'll find you're actually satisfied with less. Pre-portion snacks into small bags or containers so you can easily log what you're eating and don't mindlessly eat several servings' worth. Make sure you take those containers into another room to eat and when it's gone, it's gone.

Along with that, avoid mindless snacking in front of the TV. If that's a time you normally find yourself craving something, have a stick of gum and do something with your hands to keep them busy or something which requires that your hands be clean. I play slot machine games on my tablet at the same time I watch TV. It doesn't really distract me from the show and my hands are busy the whole time.

frankiesgirlie wrote: »

I literally just posted this same question about a week or two ago. You have gotten some well thought out answers/suggestions from a lot of good people.
Some how my post got a lot of posters debating whether or not there is a such thing as food cravings!!! I kid you not!
I'm just, in the last week, starting to feel even a tiny bit in control when it comes to sugar and sweets...please keep in mind, I was NOT asking for a way to give up sweets, but how to get out of that vicious out if control binge eating of sweets that would happen at least one day a month.
The only thing that seems to be working for me this past week and half is prelogging. I decided what I'm going to have each day and prelog it the night before. It does two things,after having my watching tv sweet, logging my next day's treats help me realize that the Hershey's chocolate I just ate is not the last one I'll have...and then the next day it helps me because I have something to look forward too.
It's working for me because I went down another lb as if this morning.

This is what I do & it it helps immensely with my cravings since it lets me plan for satisfying them, look forward to satisfying them and even sometimes deciding that the craving just isn't worth the extra calories knowing (due to pre-logging) what it does to my daily total or if it might spike my blood sugars making me hungrier later on.

Dark chocolate of 70% or more cacao. It has healthful benefits. They come individually wrapped (Ghiardelli) or as a larger bar that is marked into squares. One square satisfies me. When I first started, I knew I had to get the wrapped squares so I could limit myself to one. Then my store stopped carrying them, so I had to buy the large bars. By then I was more used to everything so I was able to keep it to one square.