I've always loved walking, and that's always what I've done as my main form of exercise. I don't drive, so if I want to get anywhere around town, I have to walk. (Or take cabs, but ugh, I don't want to do that. *L*)

But I think I may have to stop walking outside. And it's for the weirdest reason. The thing is, I usually take the same route. That's not the issue, really...there's nothing wrong with the route itself. But the problem is that it's pretty much littered with convenience stores and fast-food places. Now, the fast-food places don't bother me at all. In fact, I can't even remember the last time I ate fast food. Literally. But the convenience stores? Dear God. It seems like I can't pass by one of them without being called in by the siren song of junk food. :/

And to make matters worse, Easter's just over, which means that Easter candy is dirt cheap, and my absolute worst weakness is those Reese peanut butter Easter eggs. They're my kryptonite, and I know it, and yet I can't seem to control myself around them. At all. Ugh.

So -- I'm going to have to stop walking outside. Or pick a new route. Or stop taking money with me when I go. Or something. I need to do something to curb this ridiculous habit of mine. :/ I'm just so angry at myself, because when I originally lost the weight, I didn't have this issue. I was well able to avoid temptations on my walks. Maybe that was because I always knew, well, I would be having my "cheat night" on Saturday anyway, so I always told myself that I didn't need that stuff, because I'd be having my "indulgence night" in a few days.

I just don't know what my problem is this time around... :/ I only have 20 pounds to re-lose, you'd think this would be easy for me at this point.

I wouldn't bring money, I never use cash and I mean never. Cash means easy to spend and easy to do those little things like buy a cheap candy.

Or, change your route. Don't stop walking. That is such a wonderful exercise, especially when you are exercising with a purpose.

Well you've found your own best solution. Leave your money at home. And when passing the shops, look the other way.

Actually when i was a binger, i noticed how it would work. It was that the thought of something would pop into my mind e.g. lollies, ice-cream whatever, and nearly always i said yes, lets do it. Not very often i would even try to say no and distract myself. Nearly always I would give in without any mental resistance.

If you know anything about brain plasticity, you can explain to yourself how the undistracted 'yes' time after time, digs a deep groove, a deep stronger pathway to yes, making it hard to say no, and easy to say yes.

So we have to forge a new pathway, the 'no' pathway which at first is very weak and faint and needs strengthening with more practice. As you practice building the new pathway, the 'yes' pathway has a chance to get overgrown and faded and hopefully one day will be so wrecked by non use that you will never be tempted again by a convenience store.

I would say that building a new strong pathway and decaying the old pathway would take quite a long time and a lot of practice so you might as well start now.

Understanding this, you can also see how you can't afford to cheat once in these shops. So you might as well ban yourself from ever going into one of them again. I find if i have a really tough firm rule like that its easier. A lot easier. At first you will have to work a bit hard to resist the habitual urge but as time goes on and you get more practiced it becomes a lot easier. But you can never say yes - its like mowing down the grass and next thing you will be letting the bulldozers into bitumen the road, it makes it easier to revert back to old ways again.

You've got to build a strong 'no' pathway and let the 'yes' pathway fall into decay so it can't even be found again.

Do all your shopping at a shop where you are not confronted by temptation at every turn. Keep away from the sight and thought of junk. Leaving your money at home will help.

Another vote here to continue walking but without bringing any money. It would be a shame to stop doing something you love.

I love to walk outside as well and not bringing along any money has worked really well for me.

Good luck; you can do this!

I have to respectfully disagree with you on *never* saying yes to temptation. When I initially lost my weight (65 pounds) I did it by refusing to give up *anything*. I simply refused to completely eliminate any food from my diet, regardless of how "bad" it was. I just limited my intake of those foods.

Your "never say yes" plan might work perfectly for 99% of the population, but I know myself and I *know* that, for me personally, telling myself that I can *never* have my favourite "bad" foods ever again is a surefire way to pretty much guarantee I'll experience a phenomenal crash, and end up binging spectacularly.

I do agree that, on my walks at least, yes, I need to say no. Because the walks are a daily occurrence and I don't want my indulgence foods to become everyday foods. I'll stick to never bringing money with me when I go for my walks, because then, well, I can walk past whatever convenience store I like and I still won't be able to get anything. *L*

Snoofie, its good if you know you can do it in moderation. I have no qualms about people who know they can do it, continuing to do what they know they can do.

But just to clarify what you are saying no to is that you are allowing yourself to sometimes walk into a convenience store and buy the stuff we're talking about. I think that this makes it harder to avoid them and more painful more often because i have to force a no on myself more often.

I wasn't saying you can't ever eat those things, i was saying that telling yourself to never go into convenience stores would make it easier.

btw, i have a never rule. I am never eating sweets again but i break it from time to time because i have rules that allow me to so i'm not really breaking it. The key for me is to make rules that you can live by strictly.

My rules go like this. I've quit sweets. Forever.
But
I put a pinch of sugar on my cornflakes sometimes.
If someone offers me sweets and its not in my home, i can eat them.
If i go to a restaurant with other people, i can have sweets
I'm still working out my plans for xmas but i think i will have xmas pudd and xmas cake if they are around but forego fruit mince pies and everything else.
When i go travelling, i can eat sweets and i will have to make more rules around that so that i don't get carried away and lose the plot again. But i've no plans to go traveling for a while so i will worry about that later.

So these are my rules for me. I think you can make your own rules for you. I find having my rules makes me stronger and feel stronger. If you have no rules, you are always at the mercy of eating anything whenever the idea comes up.

I don't know if you've ever had to try to give up smoking. But i know from many attempts that i couldn't have the occasional cigarette and successfully quit. That's where my quit sweets rule comes from. I haven't had a cigarette for about 17 years and of course i don't miss it. If i felt deprived about sweets, i probably wouldn't have this rule. I think its key that whatever rules we make for ourselves we don't feel deprived.

Congrats for recognizing an overeating cue Snoofie!
I just finished reading Eating of Overeating by David Kessler. He cites credible studies that explain what you may be experiencing: our brains wire things to function efficiently. We learn to associate pleasurable experiences with cues, sometimes it'a an aroma, other times an associated location or visual like a store, and so on. The more we experience the cue and respond, the more entrenched it is in the brain.

Rather than white-knuckling it by walking past the tempting cue with no money, I think he would recommend rerouting your walk so that your past habit is not aroused. Sheer will power eventually fails for most of us. Make it as easy as possible to say no to junk food. Eventually you may feel more rooted in your healthy WOE so that walking past those stores won't be so difficult.

It used to work for you because you knew you had your treats planned. That way you did not feel deprived as you were delaying, not resisting the urge.

You can try the same thing again. Have your treat planned and available. You can focus on that to pass the stores by. A little allowed something, which may or may not be food. I gave up chocolate by putting the money into buying magazines, they are an expensive indulgence as far as I was concerned and not something I would normally buy. Now I don't buy chocolates or magazines but the substitution worked to break the habit St the start.

It will also work out cheaper for you as well as you can incorporate it into your normal shopping. Convenience store tend to be expensive.

I have registered today because of this post. I haven't posted an intro yet. Just wanted to say how much this post made sense to me. My no pathway is almost non existent right now.

I wish you success pink power. You can do it.

Thank you. Day 1 today. It's fine so far. My danger time is afternoon and evening though.