[shockingpurple]

Gah! Someone help me. My cheat day is on Sunday but I am currently thinking of food. Bad food. I am thinking of white chocolate cookies. The nice warm kind that melts in your mouth. I am thinking of chocolate and ice cream. I am thinking of apple danishes. I am thinking of FRENCH FRIES from Burger King!

It all started with me wanting a nice big juicy steak on Sunday and now it has escalated to this. To think I am currently nice and full after dinner and STILL thinking about food.

My only consolation is that I don't have any of the abovementioned food in my house.

shockingp

[cajungal328]

LOL... I know exactly what you mean.. I get to spend the morning at our local IHOP serving all kinds of yummy stuff that I cannot have.... bummer

With me, it's the Cinnamon French Toast stackers that tempt me.... those things are fire!!! And I cannot have one. 25 cals per bite.... Maybe just a bite... LOL

PS... Why tempt the rest of us????

[JayEll]

Wow, sounds like some bad cravings going on.

I would suggest you focus on the foods you can have instead of spending so much energy (and agony) thinking about the foods you can't have. That list of "bad" foods can be endless. It's self-torture... and if you give in because you "can't" stand it, the result will be the same. Remember why it is you want to lose weight. Remember that overeating is how we gain weight. Excuses don't count!

Jay

[Perspective]

I had the same temptation last night. I went to the store and walked down that aisle (YOU KNOW THE ONE I'M TALKING ABOUT) ... My eyes kept running over all the deliciousness of the empty calories. I'm still not sure what caused me to so this ... but my hand drifted to my belly and lo and behold it is starting to feel muscular and toned and I'm losing the roundness. My thoughts were about how hard I had worked so far and what I didn't want to give up. I was able to walk away.

Pick something ... anything ... that you are proud of yourself for doing duing this process. Focus on it and know that you have not gone unrewarded. It does not have to be physical. It can be having the strength not to reach for the candy/soda/etc. when an emotional wave hits you.

It sounds weird but I have foods on my diet that I absolutely love to eat but that are healthy for me. I concentrate on eating those foods so I don't feel deprived. When my body feels rewarded, I don't crave the other stuff (unless I put myself in the line of fire like I did last night).

Good luck .. and remember this will pass ... Sometimes it helps to write every good decision you make about food down in your journal ... When you see yourself slowly but surely turning the corner and making consistently good choices (with the occassional treat), it will give you confidence that you can control yourself.

[Cheryl14]

Hi shocking!

I think everyone here can definitely relate to your plight with all the food! I used to watch the food channel and just drool! TV commercials for food used to send me right to my kitchen in search of some reasonable facsimile of what I was seeing on the TV screen!

Like Perspective said in her post, I now touch my almost flat tummy or my still-flabby upper arms, and I KNOW that NONE of what I am seeing on the screen will help me get to my goal!

I read somewhere that a craving lasts for about twenty minutes. If you can ride out that twenty minutes you are HOME FREE! I also read that the "out of sight, out of mind" thing works. Yesterday I took my teenage son's bag of fun-size Snickers up to his room because I was afraid that just seeing the bag would cause me to steal a bunch and eat with abandon! It worked! I completely forgot about them even being in the house!

Each day, each moment is a challenge. I think it DOES get easier over time, though, as you develop more strategies and you come up with a plan that works for you. I have found that when I am in the presence of my "triggers" (foods that are hardest for me to resist), I really have to be ON GUARD the most.

I had a small victory the other day with cheese and another with pie crust dough. I would have sampled and nibbled before, but this time I just made the food and told myself that I had planned a portion of the COOKED FOOD into my eating plan for the day and I was NOT to eat any of it NOW. It worked! I felt probably like an alcoholic does that resisted taking "just one drink." It's tough, but, with practice and your eye on the prize (health, loss of weight etc,) it WILL work!

Cheryl

[ellabella]

G'morning Shocking (and everyone!) -

Cheryl mentioned the similarity of cheating on your diet to an alcoholic taking that first drink, and in a way, that's very true, except that an alcoholic doesn't NEED alcohol to live, while food is kind of necessary, although not nearly as much as we tend to eat when we're not dieting. So, I really think the food issue - at least for us - can be harder to deal with. I've never had much of a taste for alcohol, so I'm certainly no expert in that field, but I've been on thousands of diets (have probably gained and lost a thousand pounds over the past 40 years) and I AM definitely a binge eater, so those sweets cravings I can definitely identify with. Chocolate is a major downfall for me, and it really peeves me when I read these stupid articles about how it's GOOD for you - in my case, eating a chocolate bar triggers a two or three week binge. I don't KNOW what will work for you, Shocking, only that you kind of have to experiment until you find what does. For a while - and I know this is a little gross - I would chew on the inside of my mouth when I felt like I wanted to eat something I shouldn't. It worked pretty well, but I got a sore inside my mouth that I had to deal with then. Tsk. So, I wouldn't recommend anything THAT radical...LOL...but figure out something that makes perfect sense to you...even if it's a particular THOUGHT...and then stick with it. Use it EVERY TIME you feel any kind of craving. Make it a habit. You can use a visualization - picture yourself as slim and beautiful, and how you'll feel when you are, or if you have a different sort of personality (some of us do) picture yourself as grossly overweight, so big that you can barely move, and feel the feelings you would have if that were the case. Really SEE these images in your mind, and make them the instant response when cravings arise. I think it might help? Might be worth a try, anyway. After all, what have you got to lose?

Have a beautiful day, everyone! I'm off to chisel the freaking ice off my car so I can slip and slide to work. New England in winter is the pits!

Ella