I've been doing SO badly with snacking recently!!! I've had this horrible sweet tooth. I made it go away for a while, but now it's back full force!!! My husband and his brother had back to back birthdays last week, and the cake that was forced upon me made this happen, I think. Then I come to work and find peppermints, cheese, fun size Milky Way bars...eeeeeek!!!!!!

I've also slipped when preparing dinner, as well. I've started "tasting" everything a little too much...some cheese here, extra sauce there.

Luckily I've gained no weight yet, but I've got to stop this slippery slide before it's too late!!!

Help!!! I need motivation!!!

Mindi - step one, get thee to the "No Excuses" thread and start honestly reporting how you're doing. It has been REALLY valuable for me to do so.

Step two, figure out what caused the slippage, and try to deal with underlying issues (I had a slip when I started baking desserts rather than having pre-portioned ones...soon I was making them just a little bigger, just a spoon more ice cream on top, etc. I had to go back, for a time, to the more restrictive pre-portioned desserts).

Forgive and move on.

I've kinda been following into the same patterns. Although I am trying to come up with new stradegies ex: I had birthday cake Saturday night so planning in advance I ate a small amount of dinner (very small) and a normal piece of cake, cause thats what I really wanted for dinner. Last week when I was PMSing I had some dark chocolates and dried cherries. Well I made that my dinner and had a piece of fruit later on instead. I try not to make a habit out of doing this, but I find that if I am always designating certain foods 'off limits' I want them even more.
As far as the tasting while cooking. I used to do the same thing, i'm getting better with it though. Thats great that you have'nt gained any weight back.
Amy

My worst time is right after I come home from work and before dinner-and my workplace is also a veritable landmine for extra food! I used to chew gum while making dinner or eat popcorn (fat free of course & the kettle corn variety helped with my major sweet tooth!) while making dinner.
Hope this gives you new ideas!
*A*

Okay Mindi. Glad you've caught this (recognized this) before it's gotten out of hand. Clearly the time to nip this in the bud is NOW. Good job.

When I have back to back parties/social events/whatever it may be, I decide AHEAD of time which "party", if any I will splurge at. Usually I pick the later one. If I start at the first, well then it's all too easy to do the same at the second.

As I'm preparing dinner I do a few different things to help me stop nibbling. I keep a glass of water right there. I sip on that. I sometimes keep a sugar free/fat free ices with me. Very often I'll chew gum. I also have a mantra that I use, thanks to Meg. No BLT's. Bites, licks or tastes that is. I repeat it over and over again if need be.

As far as the snacking at work, how about a rule - simply NO snacks, other then those that you've brought in yourself, at work. NONE. Make it a rule, a non-negotiable rule. This way there's no decision making process involved. You simply don't do that anymore. Be real strict.

There are always going to be times when these things happen. We have to step back and re-examine what's going on and add in some new strategies. You can do this Mindi. What is it Meg says? "I've come too far to take orders from a cookie!"

I too find there are times of day when I'm just starving or bored . Specifically the time after work and before dinner - usually 5-7 p.m. - and after everything is done and before bed - 9-10 p.m.

I can't have dinner any earlier 'cause DH whines if we do. And the dreaded "TV hour" later is when I'm too tired to do anything else.

I've found that having a cup of soup (45 calories) around 5 p.m. helps and so does a cup of decaf tea while making dinner .

Haven't sorted out the TV one yet .

"I've come too far to take orders from a cookie" Love it Meg! That one goes on my fridge.

Dagmar

Thanks, y'all!! Some excellent advice here.

I think my slipping has come from an attitude of "I ate that before and haven't gained weight yet." And I guess I'm subconsciously pushing it to see how far I can go. Well, no more!!!

I'd been chewing gum while cooking, but I stopped when I ran out of gum. Duh...buy more gum!!!! Adding that to my grocery list now. I also generally drink tea while cooking (with no-cal sweetener)...and I find that by the time dinner comes around, I'm not as hungry as I was while cooking, anyway.

Also, the husband has been kind of down lately, and when he's down, he wants sweets. I like making him feel better, so I've been baking some. I made banana pudding the other day (in my defense, a banana is a fruit dangit...and I used 2% milk and fat free, sugar free pudding...he didn't even know the difference!). I'll have to cut back on that, as well.

Thanks again!!!!

Oh Mindi, you left yourself wide open with this one. And yup, I'm gonna take the ball and run with it. Ummmm, there are plenty of other ways of making hubby "feel better". Requires no calories consumed, in fact you might even burn a few.

I know, that was tacky.

And I too have had that attitude. Wanted to see just how far I could push it. I quickly found out - not very far. Not very far at all.

Not tacky, Robin...creative! Great alternative option...