Bwaaaahah!!!! LOL! That'll do it!

I agree with everything so far.

I do think I had rituals when I ate junk/binge food and I have (mostly)substituted those rituals with far healthier ones.

If I have the urge to eat when I'm not hungry I usually try to ask myself why I want to eat so bad.

If I still can't kick the craving then I'll grab a glass of water and usually by the time I finish half I don't want to eat anymore.

Some of the things that have helped me along the way are...

1. Eliminating alcoholic beverages. I gave up drinking entirely because I think I was beginning to have a serious drinking problem. Not only are the massive calories in booze "empty", drinking also made it more difficult to stick to my "diet". After a few drinks I was much more likely to say "WTF".

2. Keeping bad stuff away and good stuff on hand...(and by bad I mean crap)

3. Planning. Especially planning ahead in the events of vacations, parties, holidays and special occasions.

4. Deciding that one slip could never become avalanche. One bad decision cannot last more than the time it took to make it. Stop and move on....not tomorrow, not on Monday, but NOW.

5. Deciding that I don't need to analyze every single aspect of my life before I could lose weight. I had spent too much time trying to figure out why I fat. I decided that it wasn't important anymore. I was fat because I ate more calories than I burned and my body did what it was designed to do...store the fat for the future. It was time to stop analyzing and remember the future is NOW. Think with your heart and feel with your brain.

I could go on and on, but those would have to be my top 5 tips.

Yeah Lori... Something I also love to do is learn HOW the body uses the food that you eat. When you get down to even the smallest systems in you, you realize that even the tiniest aspect of your body needs you to eat better. I am constantly looking at youtube videos of how an organism functions on a cellular level. This makes it SO hard to look at food without thinking about how it alters your life curve.

My favorite tips are brushing my teeth and chewing gum (but not one right after the other!). When I'm at work I will chomp on some gum if I am still hungry after eating, and at home I will brush my teeth or rinse with some mouthwash really fast. Nothing like a minty flavor in my mouth to kick a craving!

:rofl: Lyn, that one got me!

I am another drinker of coffee/tea/water to help with satiation. So does exercise - it suppresses my appetite for a while.

Another thing - making sure that I have proteins and healthy fats involved in my meals/snacks is important too - I much prefer low/moderate glycemic index foods because I don't get a blood sugar spike, drop, and subsequent hunger surge.

These days I am so busy that I don't have a lot of time to feel snacky...

I love tea, too! I like apple cinnamon with a dash of Splenda. It's soothing and sweet and hits the spot.

I would echo calluna tips. I have found that the more balanced of a food plan that I eat every day the less I feel like snacking, eating high carb sweets or wanting additional foods but again the key is doing just that. Last summer I began keeping a detailed food log including writing down the nutritional breakdown of each food. For the first time in several years my hair is a lot thicker and it is growing quickly. My complexion is also very good as well. Neither too dry nor too oily. It is all about balance.

Eating healthy is really not gimmicky at all. It is really about covering the four-five food groups day in and day out.