I have made peace with *most* of my trigger foods but I still treat them very cautiously in general.
I used to binge on nuts, seeds, crackers (or anything like a cracker, such as pretzels or croutons), nut butters, and cereals. I now regularly eat natural nut butters and raw nuts & seeds (removing the added sugars and the added salts seems to have helped). I weigh them religiously and usually limit myself to one serving at a time.
However, I still stay away from anything like crackers and cereal. It just seems to be better for me to pretend they don't exist. I can have them in the house, though -- my husband eats them all the time. So I've come far enough to be able to let them live in my cabinet (at the beginning I couldn't have them in my house at all). But I don't eat them. Fortunately, the longer I go without eating them the less I want them, which makes it so much easier.
Now, many months later, some of them have been allowed to come back, but like Tyler Durden, I control them strictly. I divide things like corn chips, for example, into single-serving zipper bags the minute they come into the house. If it looks like I'm not being successful with control, then out they go again.
In my opinion, it takes months of not eating trigger foods before one can even dare let them back in again. So just think in those terms.
I don't have ice cream in the house for this reason, even now. If I decide I want to have some, I go out for it and get a small dish or cone. If I get more and put it in the freezer, I can't stop thinking about it. It's not worth it.
I'm with Jay. I had to get rid of all those "trigger" foods from the get go and it was honestly for me the best way not to be tempted by them. I also worked on healthy alternatives to them. For example, I LOVE Pizza. Well I started eating my own version made with low carb tortilla, moderate sauce, and low fat cheese with "free" toppings like mushrooms, etc. I'd bake in the oven for 10 min then top with shredded lettuce and other veges. LOL, I called it my "Salad Pizza". Sounds weird but seriously good! I also stopped by snack cakes etc. and switch to fiber and protein bars if I needed to satisfy a sweet craving.
Here I am 1.5 years later and I still follow these rules. For the sake of my family I've bought the bad foods once and awhile and they called out my name each time. Then I realized I wasn't doing my family any favors by keeping bad foods in the house and no one complains!!!
I don't buy or make the foods that I used to binge on very often. Maybe a few times a year for "special" occasions, ie holidays, birthdays, whenever such a food would be traditional. When I am exposed to those foods, I keep it to one serving one time and throw away what is left or avoid it altogether. Now, I am not perfect and I have had a run in recently with birthday cake frosting, but I gathered my wits and threw the rest of the cake away before there was too much damage.
I avoid keeping in the house foods I know I'm likely to eat too much of. That doesn't mean I don't eat them -- I do, I just don't do it at home. Like Jay said, if I want ice cream I'll go to an ice cream shop and have a scoop, but I can't keep a half gallon of ice cream in my freezer or it will be a disaster.
I'm not perfect though. Muffins are one of my trigger foods. I don't usually buy them because the ones at stores aren't usually that good. I occasionally make muffins, and I will admit that whenever I do it I eat at least half a dozen in one sitting. So, I just don't make muffins more than once or twice a year, and I figure it's okay.
I use a combination of all of these things. When I started, I cut a LOT of things out for a long time. Now I have moved them back, in different categories.
Ice cream is back in, in non-portion-controlled containers (cartons), because I've had good luck lately measuring out my portion and that's it. Before, I had to get it out or purchase portion-controlled packages.
Cake/cupcakes/baked goods are in, but only when I'm not at home...you'll never find a tray of cupcakes sitting around, but I may go out for one sometimes and enjoy it. I don't buy loaves of crusty french bread, I buy the ONE roll I need for the ONE meal.
So I do let them back in, with limits, and that works for me.
I'm definitely more comfortable around some foods that I used to eat too much of (and some of them, any is too much). They're not non-issues, but they're not big issues.
Some I still avoid except in controlled circumstances.
I think it would be great to entirely move beyond any issues. But I don't worry about that. I just handle today, using whatever strategy today needs.
Some things might never change, who knows. On the other hand, now and then I'm surprised to realize that I've quit liking something. Not that I can resist it now, but that it doesn't even appeal anymore, on any level. But that happens as a side effect, because I deal with "today," day in and day out, not because I tried to make it happen.
I consider myself a weight loss success and am at ease with greatly reducing/eliminating those foods forever (allowed in rare, controlled occasions - like a single scoop of ice cream from a parlor, or splitting a desert in a restaurant).
Like Tyler posted above, the less I eat them, the less I want them. Eating one, triggers me to want more and more (because they are my trigger foods, I really haven't changed, I just have better strategies, techniques for managing myself).
There is no such thing as a "single serving" of chocolate, ice cream, cookies, crackers, nut butter, or chips in our house. DH is as bad as I am at having one portion of anything.
I occasionally try to bring home something. No success so far. Except for whole wheat pretzels. They are so filling I just eat my pre-measured portion and am done. I think natural things without MSG, a lot of salt, etc. might make a small comeback eventually but not for now.
If they're not there I don't have to worry about or eat them!
I have made peace with some of my trigger foods. I can now keep raw nuts in the house and eat single portions without wanting to go back for more. I am ok with raisins and peanut butter, too.
Some things I just can't have in the house though. Other dried fruits are included in that category, but mostly it's full of things that are unhealthy for me anyway. Ice cream, cookies, cake (really any baked sweet thing), chips, crackers - all refined carbohydrates that my body doesn't really need anyway. It's not to say I never eat them at all, but I try to limit myself to having things like that once in a while at a party or social occasion, or if I'm really craving them, buy a single serving for myself to eat. I've found as I get older I eat more and more of these things at a single time - in short, binging - so having a full box of cheese-its or a carton of ice cream means I'll eat the whole thing within a day. I can't lie to myself and tell myself otherwise.
I guess to me I know I can't "make peace" with them (eating an entire carton of ice cream in a day isn't "peaceful" to me, and I know that's what will happen if I buy one). So instead I fully enjoy the food I do eat, and those trigger foods and I have a ceasefire as long as we keep away from each other. I don't think of it as deprivation, b/c the physical misery and emotional guilt I feel after eating a huge amount of a trigger is worse than living without it, or only having it a very once in a while.
I think I sound like a lot of the people who've already replied!
I have a very active, 140 lb DH who struggles to maintain his weight. While he'll eat what I eat for meals (often with more of the carbs), he wants, and has, ice cream and full-fat yogurt in the house. Though he likes cookies, cakes, all baked goods , he has agreed to eat them away from home for the most part. The ice cream and yogurt I can handle and don't get into them except maybe to stir a spoonful of the yogurt into my cottage cheese. If I want something that's a trigger for me I really try to avoid it, or as others mentioned, go and have one serving - don't bring home the whole box! Parties are the worse, since one of my triggers is wheat thins. I just need to stay away from that part of the table.
Have you made peace with your trigger food(s)?
