How do you keep busy and not snack/graze?

For me, what works to curb boredom snacking is:

- going for walks and listening to a podcast about health and fitness (to get my mind back in the right headspace) or about a topic in interested in (to get my mind off food)
- committing to 30 minutes of exercise or movement with an exercise video (usually I feel less hungry/bored/snacky after and more thirsty, or I find that I drink a lot of water during exercise which fills up my stomach with liquids thus I feel less hungry/snacky after)
- doing something that focuses my hands on an activity (coloring, a puzzle, journaling)

Things I definitely don't do: watch TV/movies because these are activities that put me on the couch. It's not that it's just being sedentary that's the problem for me, but when I sit on the couch, muscle memory kicks in - "this is where I sit and when I sit here, I snack" - so the space/the couch actually triggers my urge to snack even more.

A few things helped me curb snacking:

- pre-logging the snacks I wanted for the next day in MFP the night before. I'm someone who always wants dessert after dinner, so every night, I log the next day's dessert, even if I don't know what's for dinner yet. I do the same with my snacks. That way, I know they're already accounted for and all I have to do the next day is decide when to eat them. Sometimes, I forget to eat my snacks (because I'm doing one of the above activities) and at the end of the day I realize they're still in my diary. It's like finding money in the couch cushions when I realize I can either have that snack now, or I can remove it from my diary and have a bigger portion of dinner or dessert or save the calories for the next day and have a bonus snack then! Like a little gift to myself.

- Another thing I do is make a big deal about my three main meals and I have them in regularity. I always eat at the table - meals and snacks. I don't use my phone while eating so my brain can "register" and appreciate that I am eating. I don't go a long time without eating. Breakfast is always at the same time, lunch is always at the same time, dinner is a little more flexible. Only 4-5 hours between meals. I make sure I'm getting enough protein and fats so that I stay full longer and I drink water with every meal (and I have water with me all the time so I am drinking all day which helps keep snacking urges at bay). If I eat dinner at 6:30, dessert is at 8.

My partner is not on a diet, so our house is full of cookies, chips, popcorn, cakes, you name it. All sitting there on the counter in the kitchen. I haven't reached for a snack that wasn't pre-logged the night before in 2 years. When I've eaten my snack and I still feel unsatisfied/bored, or I feel myself getting bored in between pre-logged snacks and meals, I lean into my activties above. Even if I don't want to do it, I force myself to go for a walk, I say "just go for 15 minutes see if it helps." It usually does and I walk for more than 15 minutes. If those first 15 don't help, I check in with myself...am I really hungry? Thirsty? Am I stressed? What's actually going on? And I try to address that thing directly without food first.

For context: I lost 40 pounds slowly over 2 years, hit my goal in March at the start of the pandemic and, despite all the stress and quarantine blues, I have been maintaining since. The reason? Building the above habits during my weight loss days and reminding myself, "I always do X first when I'm bored" or "I am a person who eats at the table. I am a person who has lunch between noon and 2pm."

I replaced my after dinner snacking with walks/working out.

I learned my trigger foods and keep them out of the house.

Also I eat filling, balanced meals that carry me over until the next meal time. Eating small meals and snacks kept me hungry and ravenous, so this way of eating is a much better fit for me.

Someone once told me if I'm hungry eat an apple if I don't want an apple I'm not hungry. So everytime i want a snack I say that to myself. Works about 75% of the time!