[Ramra]

I gained a bit of weight over the holidays, but fortunately I'm back on plan! I just got from the gym as a matter of fact, and while I was there I reflected on why and how I gained those extra 5 pounds.

I know part of it was from 'sneaking food'. I live with my boyfriend, and we mutually respect each other as equals in our relationship. But for some reason, when he was outside for a smoke I would sneak food. I've eaten almost a WHOLE box of Christmas cakes within 10 minutes, and hid the evidence by stuffing the wrappers in my purse (for fear of him seeing them in the trash). I'd feel sick, and a bit ridulous for hiding something like that from my boyfriend, as if I'd get in trouble.

I think that habbit definitely stemmed from living with my parents, since they'd shame me for things like that. My sisters and I would be called "^%&*ing pigs!", and as awful as it was, I know they meant well and just didn't understand why not only I, but at least 1 of my sisters, would do that. I don't even really understand it.

Another reason was from stuffing myself during Christmas and New Years. I guess it was almost inevtiable that I'd have some kind of treat, such as a cookie, or even a piece of pie. But once I start, I DON'T STOP. I felt like I might as well have kept eating and enjoyed myself, because I already blew it! So I completely chomped down on everything in sight.

These are two habbits I'm saying goodbye to in 2012!

I'm kind of curious if anyone else does these things? I'm sure the latter habbit it quite common, but does anyone else sneak food? What measures do you take to prevent it from happening?

[Riestrella]

It's amazing you've come out and admitted it. The important thing to remember is that no ones around to tell you off any more, you should be telling yourself off. If you sneak food then it's rebelling against someone, and I think you subconsciously were rebelling against your boyfriend but really it was you all along! So it's great you've recognised it and you can take control of it. Because there will be areas in your life where you will be alone and you need to be able to control yourself.

I think my worse habit is just nibbling on treats if they're in my room. I got a lot of chocolate and sweets for Christmas, and I find myself eating them little by little at night time. I need to just get rid of them, put them in the kitchen so people can help me eat them! That's what I've done with my chocolate, it's now in the fridge and no doubt someone will eat it!

[candice1022]

your not alone I used to do that all the time when I was in my teens and living at my mums house... because i was always overweight and shed help me limit my food intake i would sneak food while she was sleeping or if she went to the store id rush to the kitchen and find everything and anything i could eat all at once... usually feeling like crap afterwords but the initial feeling was a high.... or if we just had dinner... i was always in charge of cleanup so everyone left the room and went to their rooms or out and i sat in the kitchen watching the door to make sure no one was coming and id eat out of the pot or pan and sneak some more.... i cant tell u how manyy times in a rush ive grabbed a slice of bread and threw some mashed potatoes on it and scarfed it down....

i dont do it anymore i guess i just got serious and stopped? i dont remember an exact moment or anything..... i just stopped doing it.

[Gabe]

Oh, you are so not alone on that first part.

I've been on a diet since I was about five or so years old. My dad would monitor what I ate, and yell at me (or my mom) if I'd had sweets or cheese or anything else fattening. Alone or in public. I was once told that I couldn't go to Disney World with my family unless I lost weight.

The thing is, the healthy eating wasn't presented as a good thing in and of itself; the rest of my family still ate more or less like crap. I just wasn't allowed to--and, the thing is, I only really got punished when I got caught doing it.

Psychologically, I think that for a long time I acted according to the following axiom: "Calories that no one sees don't count." When I was a kid, I used to sneak cheese slices or bits of chocolate. As I got older, no one was seriously watching what I ate, so I ate whatever I want.

Turns out, the calories still counted. Whoops.

I still have to fight that urge to sneak. That's why calorie counting's worked for me; if I'm counting then I'm watching, and so it always counts. I'm aware that it makes me a bit messed up, but whatever.

[ClaireBear92]

I still do it!

when i want a piece of chocolate or something i know i shouldnt have...i sneak it...even though NOBODY would care. I think i'm trying to sneak it from myself...but that's impossible lol. i've gotten a lot better tough. Just letting myself indulge once in awhile, keeps me from trying to sneak binge.

[lvlisanthropist]

I do that too, sometimes. Not as much anymore, but a couple years back I could not wait for my husband to go to bed so I could run to the kitchen and raid the fridge... Id sneak buy and sneak store everything just to sneak eat it when he couldnt see it. Not sure why I did that, he never cared how much I weighed, he met me at more than I am at now....
Since Ive been on Weight Watchers I dont really do it anymore, only very rarely, but I think thats mainly because I dont wanna fool myself, which is all it would be in the end. But I still catch myself going to the kitchen right after he goes to bed sometimes just to tell myself that I dont need to be eating anything... lol

[Daki]

I use to do it baaaad when I lived with my ex. He was on me to lose weight even though he claimed he didn't care how much I weighed, he clearly did he just knew that he wasn't supposed to care. I'd eat as much of whatever I could in the 30 minutes between when I got home and when he got home. I'd even leave empty Stouffers French bread pizza boxes in the freezer and throw them out a few weeks later so he'd think there was still food in it for awhile.

That use to be liberating to me.

Now I'm dating a guy who is 100% supportive of me and thinks ladies of all shapes and sizes are sexy, so I truly believe he's being honest when he says that I could be thin, fat, long hair, short hair, make up, no make up, he doesn't care. So what's liberating to me now is TELLING him when I've snuck food. "Dude, hun, there was this AWESOME looking cookie at work today. I totally stuffed it in a paper towel and ate it at my desk when my cube-mate was on break" or "Babe, tooootally stole that last piece of -insert food-. I really wanted it" and he just laughs or sometimes is impressed and asks when I had time to do that. It's nice =)

If it turns out I'm really embarrassed about what I want to sneak, I think about what I would say to him when I told him what I ate. Sometimes knowing I'll fess up to it is enough to make me not do it.

So you are not alone!

[danzingurl77]

I do it-- and no one I am close to cares whether or not I have a treat now and then. If Im going to freak out and binge, or even just want a treat, I'll wait until I'm home alone and then take the garbage to the dumpster-- even if it's just one peice of candy or something... I have to wait until my DH leaves or I'll sneak it while he's in the shower and then hide the wrapper until I get the chance to toss it. It's so stupid, but I still do it. He's always telling me that I'm beautiful and thin, but I still feel that I can't eat treats in front of anyone.

[jens985]

Wow - this post has been SO insightful to me! Just realizing I'm not the only "strange" one who has a problem sneaking food has been a huge help to me! I've been sneaking food since I could remember, and I COMPLETELY agree it has to do with someone looking down on me because of what I ate. I know my parents meant well, and I don't blame them for my weight, but I do think that their attitude towards my weight had something to do with my sneaking habits. Now it's up to me to break that! Thanks again everyone for sharing!

[berryblondeboys]

Really I think parents are damned if they do and damned if they don't. (Yes I know the censor bots will block the words, but you get the point.).

My mom blamed her mom for never saying anything to her about her weight, so she felt she got fat because no one cared. With me, she started harping on me when I was still thin and fit. It made me feel fat. I felt as fat then at 140 as I did at 275 in my head. I think her getting after me was harmful. So what is the answer?

On a side note. My mother in law lives with us. She sneaks food alllllll the time. She buys here own secret stash... She's 76 and feels the needs to hide it even though when she moved in with us I weighed 100 pounds more than her!

Huh... Bots didn't censor damn!

[teamcoco]

I did the same when I lived at home...constantly would sneak into the kitchen and bring food up to my room. Not only was I hiding it from family, but I figured that if I hid all the "evidence", it was as if it had never happened. I was in complete denial. The problem got worse when I moved out because my roommate was gone for the first 3 months and I didn't even have to hid my bad habits then. It was AWFUL and I had no idea how to even begin to tackle the issue. I've accepted that this battle I have with food probably won't ever go away completely, sad but true.

It's funny because when my ex-boyfriend moved in with me, we were spending so much time in close quarters that it was impossible for me to continue sneaking food/bingeing and in the first few months of us living together I dropped 30lbs without making any other changes to my diet.

[jessica2231]

I used to do that to. I dont find myself doing it much anymore. I now take it as liberating to have my treat and Ive realized for me its healthier to eat with people. because then i feel bad unless im at work. I always eat alone at work because we have staggered lunch schedules but if im not at work eat with or around someone else.

I dont know if this will help anyone else but if it does then its worth saying. I am in control of myself today and I still have slip ups but for me it doesnt help me when someone else reminds me "you shouldnt eat that cookie" so i have made it clear to my family and close friends that if you see me having a "treat" let me enjoy it if you see me "binging" feel free to say a comment. but dont pester me because it makes me feel really low and if im binging im already low. I havent binged in a long time. But many of my binges would start out with a look from someone that said "do YOU really need that?" wich would then make me feel entitled so id have alot of it and anything else that i needed.

My sister has found a great way of being supportive as well as my darling fiance--- This situation goes like this-

I have a cookie or treat I am eating
My fiance/sis says ooh yum a treat!
If I start to go over board they say a comment like, "Ooh you really saved for this one"
and if im cheating calorie wise I may lie and say I planned it in my calories and didnt but it really snaps me back to where i need to be. And these are things I have ok'd them to say like Ive told them it helped me when you did this....

hope this helps. : )

[Gabe]

Originally Posted by berryblondeboys

Really I think parents are damned if they do and damned if they don't. (Yes I know the censor bots will block the words, but you get the point.).

My mom blamed her mom for never saying anything to her about her weight, so she felt she got fat because no one cared. With me, she started harping on me when I was still thin and fit. It made me feel fat. I felt as fat then at 140 as I did at 275 in my head. I think her getting after me was harmful. So what is the answer?!

This is a bit of a hijack, but I don't claim to know. I don't like playing the blame game--after all, I put all that food in my mouth, you know? It's not like someone forced me to do it. That being said. . .my father took a very berating and belittling attitude towards my weight. I was expected to manage my own appetite and my own cravings. That's fine for me as an adult, but not so fine as a kid.

Basically, I think the correct approach would've been to adjust the entire family's eating habits, and not just mine. I mean, at six years old, it's not as though I was going to steal the car and drive to McDonalds. Presenting healthy options consistently as the norm, and not just as some sort of virtuous plan, might've made a difference. So maybe it's just best for parents to lead by example. But again, parents are humans, and humans are flawed individuals, so, you know, they do what they can, and we get through it.

Anyway. Hijack done!

[sontaikle]

Wow! so many of you sneak food. I used to do that all the time! Whenever my mom would leave I would start eating whatever was around the house, cheese, chips, etc. whatever I could find really.

I don't even know how much I was eating back then...but it was enough to maintain my weight of 200lbs apparently. Some calorie calculators put maintenance for a very active (I went to the gym 5-6 days a week as I do now) 200lb person at 2500+ calories a day, so I guess I was eating that much?

I've eliminated the boredom eating and I eat according to a schedule. Three meals a day and now that I'm maintaining I've scheduled in snacks (I didn't eat snacks during weight loss) because I can't eat enough at meals to maintain.

I drink water, diet coke or tea when I'm bored now. I figure that's where the majority of my calories came from so I might as well "indulge" on things that are zero cals.

I still sometimes get that little voice in my head when I'm left alone though, wanting to sneak some food .....

[namaste984]

Yeah, I sneaked for a long time meself. My mom used to yell at me and tell me that I was going to get fat. She also took me to weight watchers at I think 18 or 19, told me I looked like I was 250 lbs (at that time I weighed about what I do now, 213-214ish) and that I was going to go to weight watchers to take care of it. It was utterly humilating, I was the youngest one there and now they were practically yelling my weight out for everyone to know. And Mum said this would be a great way to spend QT together. (Not knocking you WW users out there, I like the program much better these days and this was almost 10 years ago. I have used some of their resources in the past, and they are great.)

Now that I live with my mum-in-law and boyfriend, they generally don't say anything, just get rid of the boxes when things are empty, and generally that's enough motivation for me. My boyfriend has never insulted my weight, he has always told me that I am beautiful as I am and I feel the same about him. However, sometimes he does say things, "You eating all of those? At least save me one for later." Intonation is everything on that, there isn't a touch of malice in his voice and it helps me to get centered and walk away.