How do you control yourself?

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!!