I was thinking about this when I just responded to the NSV thread. When my dh and I started our weight-loss journey on January 2, we made the decision to remove ANY junk food from our house. (Well, technically, there IS a little ice cream in the freezer.) This has worked so well for me, because I don't have the temptation right here at home. I can't grab a brownie or a Little Debbies snack cake just because I'm walking through the kitchen (or just because I've had a bad day, or just because I'm bored. . .).
I don't really want junk food here for a while, at least. It's much easier to fight the temptation when the temptation is still sitting on a store shelf!
For those of you who do have junk food at home, how do you deal with that temptation? I am asking, because I'm sure someday those items will be back in the house, and I want to know how to handle eating them occasionally, in moderation.
Yep, there's junk food in the house. And even just things I shouldn't eat (or at least not much of). At the moment I get around it by planning everything I eat and making sure there's enough of things I like to eat.
(and then I do my best to keep myself from touching them)
Hi, no real "junk food" here, but there's enough ingredients to make something if I was really desperate. There's always popcorn too and because I can't NOT buy butter for hubby and kids, there's always a way to make it fattening if I want it to be. I just CHOOSE not to.
It's hard. I make my kids chocolate chip cookies and other stuff that I personally should not eat and it's around. I know, I know...should my kids eat that stuff too??
Well here's my rationale: I went to a BMI website recently (gosh I wish I had the address) and not only did it calculate at 43.7 -ridiculously obese but I found out for my sex, age and height, I was in the 99th percentile of women in my age category. YIKES!
For those of you who understand kid percentiles: my kids are in the 5th percentile for weight/height and sex. Which means they are little, little guys. So I figure they can handle the extra butter, cheese, milk, chocolate, pasta, etc....don't get me wrong, I try to feed them organic veggies and fruit, meat, and real cheese and butter...not plastic cheese (that's what I call cheese slices or cheez whiz).
Anyhow, I use my willpower. My drive to succeed over the temptation of the goodies. Since I make the cookies or desserts and also the food my kids eat (like the creamy tuna casserole the other night) I DON'T eat it. Period. I'm not saying I'm perfect...and I'm sure one day making goodies like that might just tempt me to the Dark Side (star wars reference)....but in all seriousness, goodies are everywhere. Temptations are everywhere. If I could, I would rid the house of all junk, but that's not the reality I choose to live.
We have very little if any junk food in the house, what there is are things like potato chips and icecream which I can easily walk away from.. Now chocolate chip cookies, little debbie snacks or half of my favorite pizza leftovers sitting in the fridge would be a different story.. so they are banned!
A little, but we've completely changed the way we buy processed foods, and foods that are easy to overdo. We have a liquidator store in town, that we usually visit once a month for non-perishable items. This isn't necessarily junk. Canned soups, canned chicken and tuna, canned vegetables, nutrition bars, teas, pastas, pasta sauces, cereal, nuts, beans.... are all a fraction of the cost of grocery store stuff. Often 1/4 to 1/10 the retail price. We're lucky that they often get gourmet and health food store stock in, so we can buy a lot of staples very cheaply. However "junk food" is very cheap also, but they sell it all in individual servings from 10 to 25 cents, so we shop carefully and buy just a few servings of the less than healthy stuff. For example, we shopped for the month today, and I bought four packages of shortbread cookies for me (individual serving bags), and hubby bought 4 individual serving packages of corn nuts for himself. That means if we ration them, we'll have one serving a week, and if we don't we'll have 4 packages in a short time and have to go the rest of the month without.
My husband used to stock a plastic tub with "junk" and when we'd have friends over, we'd pass the "snack bucket" filled with individual packets of all sorts of stuff. Lately one of our friends, who visits at least weekly has been complaining about the quality of the snacks in the snack basket. To us it's still full of "junk" that we rarely eat, but to him it's now "all healthy stuff" - mini-muffins, cereal and energy bars, sunflower seeds, dried fruit, "baby crackers" (we don't have a child, but the Gerber cheddar and vegetable cracker packs are only 60 calories, and come 6 for $1 at the dollar store)
We have no sugar added, low fat ice cream in the freezer once in a while, but generally keep sugar free popsicles instead. My husband is more likely than me to eat lower calorie versions of his favorite "bad" treats. I'm more likely to go for whole foods, and once a month ("that week") want "junk" food. I have to be careful not to have too much of any easy to eat food around the house, even healthy stuff.
It's kind of hard to learn what kind of mental and physical games you have to play with yourself to get this to work, but what are you going to di, except trial and error, and repeat what works.
There is very limited "junk" food BUT none of it is stuff that tempts me or that is just a set up for a binge. There are never tortilla chips, potato chips, M&M's... Just some store bought (blech!) cookies and some vanilla ice cream (not my thing). These are mostly for DH and he can keep a half gallon of ice cream in the freezer for a month. I keep some Skinny Cow ice cream sandwiches for myself. And some good quality (NOT Hershey!) dark chocolate.
No junk, but it's just me living there. If I wanted to do damage, I could, because all the raw ingredients for cookies/cakes/bread are there. If i'm determined, whipping up a batch of cookies is no trouble at all. It hasn't happened since the holiday baking season, though.
None of my favorite snacks are allowed in the house, but there are some treats for the children. Not a lot. Some hard candy, popcorn for popping, and some cookies that I actually made with them and didn't devour.
I keep there treats far out of sight and if they pop corn, they have to do it in the back room where I won't smell it. Usually they eat it when I'm not around.
They've always liked fruit and we keep even more on hand now for all of us. They also eat my cheese sticks, so I guess they are our cheese sticks So, yes some junk but not alot and what is here is really far out of my line of vision.
No junk.. I don't have the willpower for it. The worst things in my house are sugar-free jello and pudding cups. I miss the junk food... I really do. I have days when I will wander aimlessly around the kitchen, open every cupboard, dig through the freezer, "just in case" there's a random piece of candy or some long lost ice cream bar there.
Yep, and plenty of it. We buy stuff, stick it in the pantry and I forget about it. It's like we're packing away for when the aliens come and we will be barricaded in the house. I eat mostly all natural stuff, but I do indulge in some good old American junk food every once in awhile and feel no guilt about it.
Yes, we have junk food here. Popcorn,snacks and such. My boyfriend is on the skinny side.Today he was upset because he lots 2lbs!!I was like how can you lose, when all you eat is junk! Well, he stoppped eating so much junk. A box of cupcakes used to last them a day, now we have 2 boxes left over from last weeks grocey shoppin. Plus there is ONE chocolate doughnut in the fridge..that tempts me everytime i am probably going to throw it out tonight. Anyway, Sometimes I ignore it, others i indulge its bad...but i do.
Do you have junk food in the house?
I keep some Skinny Cow ice cream sandwiches for myself. And some good quality (NOT Hershey!) dark chocolate.
So, yes some junk but not alot and what is here is really far out of my line of vision.
I eat mostly all natural stuff, but I do indulge in some good old American junk food every once in awhile and feel no guilt about it.
