Help! How do I break junk food addiction?

When I decided to really buckle down I went into my kitchen and threw everything out that was a vice. It helped a lot. I have been able to avoid buying those things since. It will get better!

In the mean time I love sugar free pudding, sugar free jello and similar snacks. They satisfy my sweet tooth and they are low in calories.

I have this exact same problem, but with chips. I get horrible cravings for them sometimes when something crunchy and salty and void of nutritional value just sounds SO good.
Just don't buy them. Do you live with anyone? Make them hold you accountable. I find it helps to go to the grocery store with a friend, and they know I don't want to buy chips, so they don't let me. I keep my pantry chip-free (except tortilla chips, because they aren't fun to eat throughout a tv show, and you need them for quesadilla nights), and that helps so much.

I'm much the same way. Sweets are my nemesis lots of the time. I tend to go cold turkey, go through a 2 week withdrawl and do quite well for several months. Then those cravings sneak back in, I treat myself here and there and the ball starts rolling downhill towards a nasty binging cycle. I would love to "eat clean" consistently but what has worked better for me recently is eating what's reasonable and sustainable for me. So now I plan reasonable dessert (i.e. plain pumpkin puree, low-fat cool whip, and butterscotch pudding or popcorn with cinnamon and sugar topping). I'm also starting....just starting to accept that this is likely going to be something I'll need to manage to some degree for my lifetime.

Having someone you can be honest with and truly hold yourself accountable is a huge help as well.

A few suggestions:

#1 eat more protein! The snacks you listed ARE healthy, but I never saw ANY proteins in there. Low fat cottage cheese, high protein yogurt, protein shakes, etc will all help you feel more full for longer and help break the "I NEED FOOD" binges that lead to eating a dozen + cookies. And protein bars (with over 15g of protein, and less than 30 g of carbs) while not IDEAL can sometimes tame the chocolate cravings with their taste.

#2 Never go more than 3 hours between meals/snacks. My body lets me know about every 2 1/2 to 3 hours that it's ready for more food. If I get to 3 hours and my stomach's not starting to rumble I know that I ate well the previous meal, but I make sure I eat that next meal anyhow. Its important to keep yourself fueled and ready to go. If you focus on lean proteins, healthy/clean carbs and healthy fats (not necessarily amount of fat, just that it's healthy) you'll find that you feel fuller with less and will stay fuller longer. I personally have to pause after a meal to make sure that it settles before I throw more food in my face (I'm a fast eater). Otherwise I'd just keep eating and eating and eating even though I'm technically full!

#3 - EAT HEALTHY FATS! If you're only eating protein and veggies, eat a few almonds to help offset your healthy fat needs. Drop some fresh guacamole onto the chicken you're eating, or put a serving of avocado into the salad you're eating. Fat is not your enemy, it will actually help with satiety and make you less desperate to fulfill those caloric needs. In fact, so long as I'm meeting protein and carb needs, I rarely look at fat intake because it should be the healthy type that supports body function (unless it's equivalent to my protein/carb intakes).

#4 Consider ways you can treat yourself. Some people do a cheat day. Some people do one or two cookies per day. Everyone has a different way of meeting their "sweet cravings". I read somewhere that sugar is about 1000 times more addictive than heroin, so its no wonder we all crave it so much. I have a horrible time resisting pretty much anything sweet that people put in front of me. So I try to go with the cheat day concept, but sometimes I fail too. When I do, I forgive myself and do better the next day!

You sound like me - a sugar addiction. I had to quit cold turkey. It wasn't easy, but once I got that sugar out of my system, I no longer felt the need to by cookies or candy for my drive home from the grocery store. You might want to try a 14-17 day clense of some sort. I've done both the South Beach Diet and the 17-Day Diet. Both work very well and provide you with good menu items to help you get through. Once the cravings subside, it's still like any addiction, you're going to be tempted and may really want the junk. But you'll have a better chance of sticking to your goals. I just tell myself, "If I don't have the first bite, I won't have any!"

There are two usual modes of thought on this. I subscribe to the second, but it comes down to what works for you personally.

1) Some say any attempt at denying yourself foods you crave will inevitably end with you eating more of them. So it's better to eat small amounts and portion them into your calorie allowance.

2) Others, myself included, think that for certain people, completely refraining from junk food is the best way. I find that if I eat a small amount of pastry, cookie, ice cream, chocolate etc. then it just primes me to want to eat more and I can't get it out of my head until I do. But the good news is that if you can hold off for a couple of weeks then the cravings for them really do start to drop off. For me there came a point about four weeks in where I realized I was reaching for a carrot stick instead of a cookie at a party - it blew my mind.

If you do decide to try replacing junk foods with better versions of those choices (instead of cutting them out cold turkey) you could try replacing regular cookies with ones by Go Go Quinoa. There's not much sugar in them, there's a bit of protein. They have an orange one and a chocolate chip one too.