[irishcanary]

This is a weird question but if it wasn't for counting calories and keeping a food diary i would never stop eating. Its like i start eating and find it hard to stop.

There are other things beside food in the world i know. Right now i am home alone a lot with free access to a lot of food. Its all tasty and good.

Like i would have good will power. Once i hit my calorie limit for the day i will shake out my food vision and do something else e.g tidying my room.

Its just hard at times xD. Anyone else find this?

What do you do to not eat when home alone with a lot of food?

[crazygurl61]

Paint my nails, do the laundry, clean my house, chew gum...

I usually drink a bottle of water then another glass of Crystal Light and if I am STILL hungry then I will have some fruit or a bit of protein...its hard to retrain your body away from the food vision.

[HappyHoliday]

I haven't been hungry lately but I have been trying to make sure I eat an apple sometime between 3:00pm and 6:30pm and this keeps me from getting hungry before dinner.

[kelseyvc]

I usually cure my midday cravings by going to work out. (It's not like I ONLY work out if I feel munchy, but I'll do it earlier in the day than usual) Once I've worked out, I have invested a lot more in to staying on plan for the day so I'm more likely to stick to it.
It's kind of easier to tell myself to not pig out when I remind myself how hard I worked at the gym. I don't want to throw that workout away!

Plus, it'll give you something to do for an hour of course. There's an hour that you don't have to face the temptation of food!

[pixelllate]

I have to remind myself that I once felt joy from the brief time that I was thin from things non food related, like buying jeans. So when I gained weight, eating filled the times that I would spend shopping and going out - thats a lot of hours.
I have to have something to do. If I am working the 9-5 (eating at public places makes me uncomfortable), I don't eat during the day and then I pig out at night and on the weekends, I go outside for hours at a time, do laundry, run errands etc, so my lifestyle works with intermittent fasting.
I do feel cravings. I look at food pr0n or I sit through them. It can be so miserable, but then I feel great afterwards, and much happier overall than if I ate the treat (although I know people who eat all foods in moderation and that makes them happier). I whine about it too, because I know that at least I am not actually overeating even if I am complaining!

[ValRock]

I keep busy!!!

[LockItUp]

A lot of times when I'm really tempted I just keep putting it off. I'll say to myself, okay if you really want <insert whatever junk I want here> I can have it in an hour. Most of the time I forget about it, or by the time an hour goes by I figure well it's been an hour, I might as well wait another hour, at that point I almost always forget about it. If I'm super fixated on it I may just have a bit of it.

[Bobbles]

I love food. I LOVE food. Prior to becoming a calorie counter, I used to scoff at the "record every bite, lick and taste" concept, until I realized that I was grazing an entire additional meal. So now when I've met my calories for the day, I do things to keep my hands busy - needlework, a board game with DH, or even just brushing my teeth. NOTHING tastes good with Colgate!

[JohnP]

On thing intermittent fasting has done for me is to help me understand what actual hunger is.

Also, if I eat a small amount of food, I just become more hungry. So eating fewer larger meals is what works for me.

Finally, keeping oneself busy is the best way to keep your mind off food in my opinion.

[OhThePlaces]

I don't keep super tempting food in the house because I have terrible self control. Hitting the gym early in the day also helps me resist over-eating.

[Natasha22]

I try to keep myself busy with other stuff, physical activity helps a lot.

Also, I try to balance my meals so that I don't go too much without eating anything. I'd rather have 6 smaller meals than have three large ones. This doesn't necessarily work for everyone, but it works for me, I like to save up some calories each day for "insurance" and use them up at the end of the day.

I realized that when I'm home alone I don't eat because I'm hungry, I eat because I'm bored. One day, I was really craving ice cream, so I got up, got to the fridge and rather than just have some, I decided to make my own. I searched for recipes, gathered the ingredients, proceeded to make it. By the time I was finished my craving was gone, because I had kept myself busy for long enough. I just had a small tea spoon of it and my boyfriend ate the rest.

[Kayriel]

Trying on old clothes and marvelling how much looser they are. Trying on clothes I bought last month which were tight and then seeing that they're no longer as tight. I go through my wardrobe and by the time I've done that I stop feeling as hungry!

Other than that, doing anything that distracts me. It might be tv, housework, calling my family and chatting or even going for a walk in the park.

[sontaikle]

If there is no room in the calorie count, it doesn't get eaten.

I find that I needed that cutoff.

[runningfromfat]

I think of it like this:

How do people not smoke? How do people not gamble? How do people not drink alcohol? How do people not take drugs?

Point is everyone has something they struggle with, some people more than others. If we're here on 3FC food is at least one of our struggles. But we can steal tactics from others. Obviously, we can't go cold turkey like an alcoholic does but we CAN do that for foods that we struggle with the most. I also CAN make sure that the food in the house either has to be cooked to be tasty or is a snack that I'm ok with eating (like an apple) that I know I won't binge on.

However, I found once I cut out sugar and stopped buying most of the foods that I just can't be trusted around then the temptation ended. There are a few foods that I could easily binge on in our apt but they're all things that need to be cooked/prepared and I'm normally way too lazy to do that.

[philana]

Not think about it so much! Haha. When I started this weightloss, I was constantly focussing on what I could and couldn't eat and when my next tiem to eat was aagin. Like I was afraid I was going to die of hunger if I did not get my food. This fear of not having food really had to stop, and somehow it gradually did. I got a bit more busy with other stuff and would forget to eat every now and then. Then I decided I wanted bigger meals so started fosaking the snacks. So I eat less often.

I have now reached the point where food is just something that needs doing but not the central focus of my day. It has really been a BIG relief. So if you can, try and work towards that, it's so nice. Haha. Goodluck.