I don't keep the "bad stuff" at home anymore. It helps a lot- I do have snacks like skinny cow mini fudge bars, 100 calorie popcorn, tons of fruits, vegetables, and so on.
I also learned to identify if I wanted to eat just CUZ I was stressed or because I was really hungry. I've definitely cut down snacking a lot
Yep, all the time. This just feels like how I eat. Every once in a while, I'll have an odd craving and be reminded that I can't eat "whatever", but it's not too bad.
I don't know that I forget, as much as I occasionally deliberately choose denial. When I'm eating something I know really isn't in my best interest to eat, I know it before I take the first bite. Now, I have been known to think "just one bite," and am on bite 7 or 8, before I realize "what happened to just one bite?" As a result, I've learned there are foods I can't take "one bite" of, so had better plan for the entire piece or better yet, avoid the food altoghether.
I'm successful enough with planned high-carb indulgences, that I fool myself into thinking I "can handle" them, but I'm learning more and more, it would probably be safest and easiest in the the long run, just to avoid certain foods altogether. It's been sort of a slap-in-the-face feeling, because I felt very confident in my ability to skirt the high-carb issue with loopholes I'd given myself. For example, I use an exchange plan, and if I use refined carb foods as my "bread" exchanges, I end up so hungry I go off plan. I was able to stay on plan (and when I'm on plan, I do lose weight, slowly but steadily) by eating a high carb food right before bed (that is, if I stayed up so late that I was barely able to keep my eyes open). So, I thought I had found a loophole - problem is if I eat a very high carb snack even a half hour before I fall asleep, I'm likely to find myself ravenously hungry and end up almost doubling my calorie count for the day in less than an hour.
Sometimes it feels as if I have several personalities and, in order to lose weight, the rational me has to learn to outsmart the self-indulgent me. The problem is that as the rational me gets smarter, the self-indulgent me learns a few tricks herself. It's like having a chimp for a pet, unpredictable, deviously clever, even aggressive at times.
I'm manageing to stay one step ahead of myself, but it's a weird psychotic world I've created for myself (although I keep telling myself it's a "good kind of crazy").
You've got to set yourself up for success. You've got to do whatever it takes to get yourself to transition into and become the person you want to be. The planning, the food journaling, the mantra's - are good ways to do so.
I always do this! I'll just be eating away, then suddenly i'll snap out of it and realise i'm halfway through a big cream doughnut! It's like i'm hypnotised or something!
I do try to keep my weaknesses out of the house like shinynewme said, but sometimes it can't be helped. I think that giving in every now and then is healthy in a way though. Nobody can resist forever and it's better to have a chocolate bar every now and then, than to binge and ruin all your hard work!
So my advice is, don't beat yourself up if you cave once in a while, just keep it on a small scale
Actually FORGETTING doesn't happen to me often.. and I usually don't get to the point of actually eating whatever it is. I've thought about every bite that goes in my mouth for something like 6 years now, so it's just a habit!
Yesterday at work was the once-a-month party in my department to celebrate all of this month's birthdays, with cake and ice cream. I needed to do some studying so I was going to head out at 3:30pm... but then I remembered the party was at 4 and I almost decided to leave later so I could get my cake and ice cream. I was in the middle of e-mailing my husband to tell him I'd be home a little later when I thought, what the heck am I doing?? I don't even LIKE their cake and I don't need any ice cream.. if I go home I'll have time to work out, cook a good dinner, AND get the studying done. Luckily I made the right choice.
