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Zombie Eating (aka Mindless Eating)

merelyakin
merelyakin Posts: 1 Member
edited November 2024 in Introduce Yourself
Hello all! I was wondering if anyone has advise on how to kick the habit of mindless eating. I have struggled with this for years now and I’m ready for a change. Any advise?

Replies

  • bootssowhite
    bootssowhite Posts: 93 Member
    When I started dieting, I made a rule that any food that leaves my kitchen has been portioned out into a separate container and logged in my food diary. No more big bag of chips while I'm watching TV or a bag of M&Ms at my desk. (To be clear, I can still have the chips while I'm watching TV or M&Ms at my desk, but they're a single serving in their own separate bowl.) That way, if I want to eat more, I have to consciously make the decision to walk to the kitchen and measure & log another portion. Sometimes I decide to get a second helping, but it means that I no longer realize I've accidentally eaten an entire bag of chips in one setting.
  • helizi
    helizi Posts: 30 Member
    As an experiment I tried cutting out snacking entirely, no eating at all between meals. It's worked out surprisingly well. It was an adjustment at first but now I find I often forget about food completely for hours at a time, where before I'd have frequent cravings.
  • SilverBack_200
    SilverBack_200 Posts: 12 Member
    Guilty myself. Logging definitely helps me - particularly if I make myself log it before eating it (see what the impact will be & then sometimes decide - “nah, I’ll just drink some more water)

    Going through that decision process at this very moment - kinda bored, feeling hungry -> tempted to snack. Nope, going to drink water
  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
    I like the term zombie eating, because I am fully aware I'm eating more than planned, more than I wanted to, something I don't need, but I still do it. So I plan my meals, and I still do it, not as much as I when I didn't plan, but more than I like. Not buying party foods (large packs of snacks) - or just sticking to shopping list, because I don't put party foods on my list - definitely helps. Five minutes of resisting temptation at the grocery store is manageable, 24/7 temptation at home is not.
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