How do you control yourself?

You mean that little voice inside your head that tells you what not to do? After a while, I have expectations of what it's likely to say, and I just get into various habits. I extremely rarely suffer from overeating guilt (maybe once every year or two) so I have to rely on other strategies.

Sometimes I drink a cup of water and contemplate. Also, I make myself do some kind of exercise at the end of the day to compensate if I am over. Yoga, a brisk walk etc.

It took me 20 years to stop allowing food to control me. I look at everything I eat as fuel now. No longer is it a reward, a way to relax or something I convince myself that I deserve. Because I’ve joined a bunch of classes and am now a “regular” at the gym, I am too afraid of eating something crappy, because it’ll make me feel like crap & I won’t want to work out. Fitness has become an absolute passion (and it’s fun because I’ve met so many other “regulars”) and that’s what drives me to fuel properly. This has been working about 8 months now, but man it took a LOOONG time to change my mindset!

I try to eat foods that give me a satisfied feeling - for me, it's usually higher protein foods. This isn't to say that once in a while I don't get into a carb craving mode. But overall this strategy has helped me stay on track.

For me it took time.

In the beginning of my time of weight loss I had trouble with this but in time I decided I really wanted to be at a healthy weight more than I wanted _______.

Once I got to that weight, it was even more awesome than I had ever imagined - so it's been relatively easy to reprogram my thoughts toward all the great things people have already mentioned in your thread here.

Keep going. Do what it takes. It's worth it.

I've been logging my entire day ahead of time, sometimes the night before. Dinner is usually my weak point because I don't do the cooking. We have a discussion the night before and I put it in ahead of time so I know what I can eat the rest of the day. I also don't give up anything so I don't have any crazy cravings. If I want ice cream I find a way to make it fit in for the day. My boyfriend thinks I'm silly but I'm perfectly happy to pass on vegetables at dinner in favor of ice cream for desert.

makkimakki2018 wrote: »

1. Fill the fridge with food that needs to be prepared in order to eat (no instant stuff).

This is basically my fridge! And one of the biggest reasons i've lost 103lbs.

If I go over, I go over. My life is an ocean of opportunity that is not torpedoed by a single swell caused by poor decisions.

It's just food. I try to make sure I only go over 1-2 days a week (if I go over at all), but there are some weeks that's not true, though my habits are such that it's rarer than it once was. I have built strong, healthy habits around how and when I eat and recognizing what's hunger and what's boredom or what's dehydration (I'm terrible about drinking liquids). So if I'm tempted by something, I stop and ask myself, "Are you REALLY hungry? Or are you thirsty? Or are you bored?" 9 times out of 10, I'm thirsty or bored. And if I'm really hungry? Well, I've surrounded myself with tasty treats that fit within my day's calories, but every single time I open a package, I tell myself.

"Okay, self. You feel hungry so we're going to eat this, but this means less dinner. And the husband is going to make THE THING. THE DELICIOUS THING. ARE YOU GOING TO BE OKAY WITH LESS OF THE DELICIOUSNESS?"

I like bigger dinners, so this usually derails me and suddenly, I'm not so hungry! Sometimes not, lol. Sometimes, if I've gone over and had more dinner than I should have, I'll tell the husband.

"We're going for a walk." He'll look at me like I'm a crazy person, and I'll add, "YOU OVER FED ME WITH YOUR TEMPTATION OF DELICIOUSNESS. QUICK! WE GOTTA WALK OR THE WIFE-BEAST WILL BE LIKE GIZMO AND TURN INTO SOMETHING GROUCHY!" That gets him going. XD (And me too, with a laugh!) Which means mitigation with exercise.

But... the next day, I have an opportunity to make better choices, and 95% of the time, I do.

The other 5% I chalk up to enjoying life!

There’s also a difference between Motivation and Discipline. Motivation relies on the state of emotions and often hormones whilst discipline will see you through those moments of weakness.

Create a routine and do not see the options of doing something or not. Treat it like getting dressed or brushing your teeth, it’s just routine so get on with it.

The mind will naturally talk itself out of doing even the things it wants to do. So remove the thought process and get on.

TotalFoodEase wrote: »

During any moment of weakness or doubt ask yourself:

‘How will I feel if?’

And consider both options. E.g.

‘How will I feel if I eat this pizza’ vs ‘how will I feel if I have a healthy dinner’

Your options are so I want to feel sluggish and disappointed in myself or light, healthy and proud of my choices?

The ‘feeling’ relates to both physical feelings about something. I do it when I’m talking myself out of an early night or when I was struggling for motivation to go to the gym.

I do that too, but my conclusions are a bit different. I don't feel sluggish when I eat pizza, but I do feel like it could hog up calories for something else. Sometimes I decide that pizza isn't worth it because I will feel bad later if today is a hungry day (if 3 slices won't cut it), other times I decide that it's worth it because I would feel deprived if I don't have it. The key is to plan the food and be 100% aware that you are choosing to eat it, regardless of what it is. Impulse eating was the hardest and most rewarding thing to overcome.

Great advice has been given! My biggest help is to track everything I plan to eat that day first thing in the morning. I can always go back and tweak later on but I at least have a true game plan. I also make sure that my calorie deficit is realistic and I exercise to be able to eat more. If I don't exercise then I don't eat more.

I don't Was going great for the last few weeks then had a massive day-long binge today. It wasn't even a one-off as I went out at lunchtime, bought more food and then carried on eating! Have easily eaten an extra 3000 calories in the last few hours (on top of maintenance calories). What a PITA!!