Losing Weight

You have to control you, we can not do that for you. Don't purchase it, keep it away from you. Force yourself to grab something better. It is really up to you.

I've been a junk food junkie. I think I re-started MFP at an ideal time; it's peak fresh fruit & veggie season. For the past few weeks I've made them my primary food sources for lunch and supper. The day I decided to rejoin MFP, I purged my house of all sweets, white bread, snacks, etc. I literally tossed it all in the garbage, dumped coffee grounds and broken eggs over the top, bagged it, and tossed it in the rubbish bin. Now, I buy enough food for 3 days and 80% of it is fresh fruit and veggies.

I realized today that I haven't had any major cravings for the past week ... not for chocolate, not for ice cream, not for candy.

What I've done in the past and will probably do in the future, when I crave chocolate or crunchy, is to walk to a nearby gas station and buy 1-2 Ghiradelli dark chocolate square - or - 1 small package chips / pretzels. And, I will log them.

Good Luck.

To start I would not call it junk food. I would call it food you need to eat in moderation or if you have a real problem food you need to avoid. I do have 2 things on my avoidance list.

As suggested above the calorie deficit comes first. Going over specific macros will not keep you from losing weight. All you need is to eat less than you burn. I am not sure how sustainable that is long term eating chips and cookie and other foods that probably need to be moderated but you can lose weight on nothing but twinkies. Focus on achieving the calorie deficit first then make small changes to make your new life more sustainable and nutritious.

As you can you may want to work on developing strategies or rules for yourself.

My first rule of moderation is that I don't have more of the food near me than I can afford to eat. I am fully capable eating a fair amount of salty snacks on auto-pilot. I am even more capable of eating an entire bag of peanut butter cups which is a food on my avoidance list. I portion out what I can have and leave the rest in the kitchen.

My second rule of moderation is that I don't eat distracted. I mentioned the auto-pilot thing. If I am going to have a treat I want to make sure it registers. I want to enjoy the experience. Oddly enough as time has gone on really focusing on what I am eating has made me disappointed with several snacks. I had not had fritos in a long time so I bought a small bag. They aren't bad but I really don't think they are worth the calories to me anymore.

Lastly when it comes to craving I try my best when I am craving something I really do not want at that time to focus on what I crave even more which is being in better shape/health. I replace one craving with another.

This is what has helped me. Some or none may help you. I do think it is important to have strategies and they may take some trial and error to figure out. Try not to look at the "error" side of things as failures but learning experiences.

I indulge my cravings smartly and planned ahead.

for me it is chocolate. I have a small dessert twice a twice i day. I pick them smartly, pick things i like, make them work into my day and enjoy the heck out of them.