since you came to a conclusion to the 1st part of your post, lets look at the 2nd part re: "...hindering me".

Put a note on your bathroom mirror so that you can see it in the morning to remind yourself that....
1. You have done such a great job losing your weight!
2. You're only 12lbs away from your goal!
3. Try to remember what you did to get there & stay focused & stay strong!
4. You CAN do this!! :cheer3:

I bought a box of granola cereal mixed in a ton of peanut butter and added dried fruit and ate the whole thing last weekend. The calorie count had to be obscene.

I have a big problem with binge-ing on cereal. I love the comforting aspect of it, as I used to eat a lot of cereal as a kid.

Right now I have cereal in my apartment, but I have the healthy kind. I haven't had any strong cravings for it, surprisingly.

If your family isn't able to not have cereal in the house, since you are binge-ing on it and it is a problem for you, have you thought about making a request of either keeping on healthy, high fiber cereals in the house, or locking the cabinet the cereal is in? At a certain point you will be strong enough to avoid it, but right now, it may be a bit too strong an urge (for me, I still avoid bread in my house cause it is too tempting for me at this stage in my quest for healthier eating) to avoid.

And yes, I can binge on all types of cereal, there is just something comforting about it

Cereal is probably worse than ice cream in terms of a binge for me. Cereal is mostly carbs & when mixed with milk (which is high in lactose sugar), it makes me crazy. Healthy cereal is worse in a way- higher in calories and fiber, which makes me sick the next day.

I switched to oatmeal and that works pretty well. I have binged on it, but not remotely to the degree I have on cereal. Plus I have to cook oatmeal, which means it takes longer to prepare and eat.

Cereal is expensive and never lasted long in the cupboard. I never buy it and rarely miss it.

I don't eat cereal at all anymore and I don't keep it in my apartment. Nor do I buy milk, though I do have powdered nonfat milk stored away, in case I need it for recipes. I eat oatmeal instead.

For me, cereal is dangerous because it's instantly a trip back to childhood, to Saturday mornings with cartoons on & me sitting on the carpet, in a square of sunlight, eating whatever sugary cartoon character-affiliated cereal was currently being pitched in the commercials in between. (I even remember a lot of the jingles for the cereal ads.) I feel relaxed, safe, entertained.

This is, of course, an illusion, and not wholly due to the cereal, itself, since you do not get all that just from eating something -- it's the circumstances that I'm craving, of course, the rest of what happened while I was eating, the whole experience of the sunlight, the TV, it being Saturday, relaxed & happy parents reading the morning newspaper in the background, and fun exercursions planned for the rest of the day. But it's why the food is so potent, because it's so nostalgic, a trigger for memory, particularly to bodily memories of pleasurable emotional states, and it's a way of projecting oneself back in time, at least briefly.

So true. I have many memories of snacks and treats growing up. I remember a filet o fish from MC D I had in Freshman high. Scary. As children we would attack a box of Capt Crunch and eat peanut butter and butter sandwiches.

Omg....you are so right! Cereal for me is really weird. I used to eat a lot of it as a kid (often for dinner---long story there). It is totally comforting, and very rarely does it feel me up. Usually, the tons of milk I use is what makes me full.