Impulse control?
MaddixPryce
Posts: 2 Member
I would love everyone's opinion about how I can learn to not be so impulsive when it comes to eating. I'd rather get take out of fast food than cooking at home. It's like I cant tell myself no even when I know I should.
What are somethings you all have done to help with this?
What are somethings you all have done to help with this?
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Replies
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Commit to logging the food into your food diary before it goes in your mouth. Don't tell yourself you can't have it, just tell yourself you have to log it first. Once you log it, it's possible the "sticker shock" will help you pass it up.17
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You have to decide you really want this, and commit to it. Everything else is just working out the procedures to make it happen.
You can eat fast food instead of cooking. Many thousands of people have had successful diets eating fast food, including the now disgraced Jared. It can be done. I did a Chick Fil A diet for 15 pounds some years ago LOL Very doable, actually. And enjoyable, because I love Chick Fil A.
You don't need to avoid fast food. You need to decide that you ARE going to stick to a strict calorie limit every day and then do so. Only you can decide when you are ready for that and make the personal commitment to it; there is no system that someone else can give you until that personal commitment is in place.5 -
Committing to cook at home can be a bit of an uphill battle, simply given the time commitment involved. To jump from regularly buying food out to preparing your own meals is a challenge all on its own. If you find it to be a little overwhelming, the easiest thing place to start, I would suggest, is to make healthier swaps at places you eat (less dressing, more veggies, grilled instead of fried, the easy stuff like that). When I was in school and it was really challenging to find time to cook(and even now), I would make bags and bags of freezer meals that I could take out the night before and dump in the slow cooker in the morning so dinner would be ready when I got home. Now I tend to plan meals around what I can adapt for the pressure cooker. Most meals when I don't want to cook take maximum 10 minutes of hands-on time, and then I turn it on and walk away. I just made a big batch of shrimp, spinach and tomato fettuccine in my pressure cooker, and my hands-on time was probably 5 minutes to cut the tomatoes. I plan out my meals for the week using Yummly, buy what I need, and if anything is going to take more than a few minutes to throw together during the week, I set aside time on the weekend to pre-prepare things.1
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I fill out the food diary a few days in advance. That keeps me from being lazy or impulsive with food purchases.
Plus, I'd rather eat my own cooking than fast food any day of the week.
I only keep enough cash on hand for the farmer's market. That helps, too.4 -
A couple things that you can do if you really want to change.
Come up with a list of 10-15 easy to make meals that you like. I'm saying super quick and easy, like eggs & avocado toast, pasta with jarred sauce & premade meatballs, tuna melt & fruit, etc. Commit to making those meals Mon-Thurs. Plan the meals on the weekend and buy the ingredients. Even pre-log them in MFP.
If you usually use a credit or debit card to eat out, figure out what you spend a month. Doing the above method will save you about 1/3 of that amount. Knowing the cost of food prepared away from home can be an eye-opener.5 -
Hey MaddixPryce 🐯
I struggle w impulse eating too. Through this app I followed stories with clicks and ended up 🏄🏽♀️ the web and read this: https://zenhabits.net/self-discipline/
It’s not all amazing/applicable and junk, but there’s one part I thought I’d try (pictured).
I feel like it’s the discipline and habits I need to work on, so I’m researching how to form discipline lol
Ps mindfulness is actually an amazingly helpful tool and practice. Highly recommend if you haven’t tried/heard of it. I haven’t been able to get back into it in years, but when I was, I understood myself more and had more room to appreciate mys
elf and thus make better, more overall healthful choices.
🐯0 -
Ima try to set a timer for 10 mins when I’m tempted to chose impulsive eating, and sit down and use the time to reflect on myself and eating... ????
Haven’t done it yet. Through all the clicks and reading that happened Tuesday, I’ve been okay and not impulse-ish. This will just be a backup plan.
Idk0 -
This week, I started putting everything I'm going to eat that day in the tracker until I'm max calories with my morning coffee. Then I go walk. I make as much as I can on Sunday (poached chicken, bags of cheese and nuts, salads that won't go all wilty.) Then it's just a matter of eating what I have.
I was raised on cooking 5-6 nights a week with 1-2 leftover nights and I was helping in the kitchen before I could read, so that probably has a lot to do with it.0 -
Impulsive food choices are a challenge for me too. I find that having something ready to eat at home will (usually) convince me to keep driving. I don't cook, so for me that means making sure that I've either got Freshly meals ready to go in the fridge or something in the freezer I can dump in a bowl and zap. Otherwise, it's a losing battle!0
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Cook once a week and then freeze. That way you just have to reheat.2
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When I fail to plan, I am much more likely to give in to temptation and impulses.
When I worked in an office, I did a bunch of cooking on Sunday that gave me lunches, snacks, and dinners through Thursday. Friday I got take out for lunch, ate half of it, and had the other half for dinner.0 -
MaddixPryce wrote: »I would love everyone's opinion about how I can learn to not be so impulsive when it comes to eating. I'd rather get take out of fast food than cooking at home. It's like I cant tell myself no even when I know I should.
What are somethings you all have done to help with this?
I don't (or can't, or won't, take your pick) cook so I pretty much exist on take out or pre-made (store bought) microwave meals that I can quickly heat up when I get home and it hasn't stopped me dropping over 100lbs with no sign of stopping.
Just because food isn't made by your hand doesn't automatically make it 'bad' and as long as you're tracking your food as best you can and meeting your calorie target for the most part, eating out won't stop you losing weight.
Eating out can make things a little trickier as you can never be 100% sure of the actual calories you're eating but if you're careful you can get close enough and with a bit of time you'll quickly identify the take away options that you can be pretty sure of.
Consider going with your natural tendencies rather than trying to fight against them. I find it much easier to make a few small adjustments to what I do normally to make it work for me. At least I've found this approach much easier than trying to make big changes and force myself to adopt an approach that doesn't fit me.6 -
This might sound crazy, but to start cooking at home more, I started with microwavable meals and frozen foods. I know some might think it's trading one bad habit for another, but it got me out of the habit of hitting the drive-thrus and take-out places.
I started out my diet eating a lot of Frozen Trader Joe's meals and snacks, frozen Amy's meals, EVOL meals.
Then I started wanting more nutrition, so would chop some cilantro, avocados, black olives, green onions, and tomatoes to top a frozen burrito (after it was cooked). Or add mango chutney and extra tumeric to a frozen Indian dish (after heated). Started adding fresh veggies sometimes turkey pepperoni to an Amy's frozen cheese pizza.
Before I knew it, I considered myself a foodie, even took some culinary classes at a college, started cooking everything homemade and from scratch.
Haven't eaten out in years, unless on the road. I now think my food tastes better than anything I can order out. And just as quick (when you add in drive and wait times).
Plus fill home with delicious foods you can't wait to get home and devour. I love Trader Joe's Feta and grilled onion pastry puffs, Amy's frozen cheese enchiladas, Amy's green curry (also comes in a bag with 2 servings for stove top-10 minutes). Trader Joe's frozen Chinese food...as good as takeout when thrown in the oven or chicken fried rice bag... Add a little soy sauce and a drop of sesame oil, so good!
And even though it's frozen foods, they are not only cheaper than eating out, and they're less calories!5 -
I have experimented with a 2 hour food requirement. If I want to eat *anything* I need to write it down on a piece of paper, at least 2 hours before eating. It does require commitment but it's helped me1
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I used to subscribe to a service called eMeals. Back then it was here are a bunch of recipes that use ingredients on your chosen store's weekly ad. Saving money always nice. But the best thing about them is that they were easy to make. Recipes were usually 5-10 ingredients and only a few steps. Of course, there were lots of canned things and higher fat things in it so not necessarily the healthiest option.
Now, they have all sorts of meal plans for different diets, Heart Healthy, Clean Eating, Paleo, Vegan etc etc. You can buy add ons for breakfast and lunch too.2 -
quiksylver296 wrote: »Commit to logging the food into your food diary before it goes in your mouth. Don't tell yourself you can't have it, just tell yourself you have to log it first. Once you log it, it's possible the "sticker shock" will help you pass it up.
This for sure. This has saved me many times. "I'll just see what that does to my food diary" has more than once lead to "Are you bleeping kidding me! I'm not eating that!". Great tool!3 -
Instead of junk food, you can stock your freezer with healthier/lower calorie frozen packaged meals. Not necessarily Lean Cuisine or other “diet” dinners, but the bags of chicken stir-fry with rice type meals that take only 10 minutes or so to prepare. Could be a happy medium between junk food and cooking at home. (Just read labels carefully, some of those packaged meals are calorie bombs: looking at you, orange chicken). Another option os to buy a whole, cooked chicken at the deli counter of the supermarket and keep that in your fridge so you can nuke a portion for dinner each night. Pair with some canned veggies, and voila.3
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Totally agree with quite a few comments above. What I do:
1). Log a rough plan of tomorrow’s food not necessarily to stick to exactly but just a guide
2) log BEFORE eats rule
3). A really really powerful one is the 10 min rule but it takes a lot of willpower to do it. If I want a snack I force myself to wait 10 minutes - 99 times out of 100 I realise it’s not the be all and end all and I won’t have it. It’s hard but do it enough and it gets easier.
Also think of alternatives with more volume. Eg rice cake instead of a biscuit,
Hope that helps
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It has to become a habit. For me, it has been a concentrated effort over time and it's now STARTING to become habitual.
"Bad"/not mindful/unstructured eating is a habit I had to break.0 -
A few things that have helped:
1. On the weekend I prep everything for the week to make home food WAY easier than driving to get something - lower the effort/barrier of entry for during the week and after work when you are already tired and it is easier to be tempted. That could be cutting up everything for salads/snacks, it could be cutting up and measuring ingredients so that later I only have to do the "fun" part of cooking - the actual cooking. Makes cooking feel way faster, and it's similar to what chef's do with "mise en place". Has made me a better cook.
2. Make sure the food I make and keep in the house is stuff I will really WANT to eat (while still being fairly nutritious). This could be done through getting some interesting cookbooks or recipe sites (I like to cook lots of diverse things like Indian, Chinese, Italian, BBQ, to keep things interesting) or through having some easy pre-prepared meals from frozen or from a service, but importantly they have to be tasty so you will want to eat them.
3. I plan ahead to go out to eat for a nice, relaxing, social meal on Fridays. This can help you by remembering - we're already going out Friday, and it will be better than what I'll get grabbing something right now. Can help you not impulsively go out today instead. This is similar as planning treats in moderation rather than going cold turkey, so you aren't miserable.
4. I pre-log my meals. If it's already logged, I don't want to have to go back in and change it because I ate something else for dinner - again making there a higher effort for me to eat out vs just eating what's at home.
5. I make huge batches of stuff and then freeze it so I can be truly lazy and just reheat some nights - basically making up your own version of the frozen dinners
6. Learn cooking methods where you can make a large batch of stuff in one go without much effort - sheet pan meals, slow cookers, grilling if you have a big grill. That way you can have a whole week's worth with little effort, or can freeze some for later. Cookbooks can help keep this interesting but still easy - I love this one!2 -
i work a LOT right now, so i have tons of foods that require virtually no prep in the house. quest bars - around 200 calories per bar, 20 grams of protein. potato chips and tortilla chips - i eat half an ounce, all i have to do is weigh and eat. and a piece of cheese adds some protein. tasty fruit or vanilla yogurts. trader joe's cauliflower bowls are great for my calorie and nutrition goals. a blaze pizza with cheese and sauce is under 700 calories, and if you eat half, you'll have half for later. or you can eat a third and have each of the other two thirds when wanted.1
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I lost impulse control today and despite thinking I was cheating I ended up eating 300 cal under my daily intake because I’m naturally just making smaller portions and choosing better options without realising it.1
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Lots of good options here already! I bet you will find your best way is a combination of bits of everyone's ideas. Sift through and think about the ones that seem doable and implement small changes slowly. Personally I'm a big planner, so I have a sheet with a couple of days worth of meals planned out and I use it to shop from so I am prepared to execute what I have written down. It's become a very ingrained habit to the extent that I think twice before switching one meal for another if I am in the mood for something else because my mindless default is just to follow the plan. Taking the choice/decision out of the equation when you're most vulnerable, ie. hungry, is a big part of sticking to my desired plans.0
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I have experimented with a 2 hour food requirement. If I want to eat *anything* I need to write it down on a piece of paper, at least 2 hours before eating. It does require commitment but it's helped me
I'm confused. Do you do this for regularly scheduled meals or just when you have the urge to snack?
Because you said *anything* it sounds like you mean for regular meals, which seems...odd.0
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