Eating in my car while driving. Because after all, no one can see you when you're in a glass bubble.

Buying treats "for my kids," hiding them, then eating them all before they even knew they were in the house.

Baking cookies, cakes etc. "for my kids," then eating 80% of it when no one was looking.

Buying fudge ice cream topping, hiding it in the back of the fridge, eating it out of the jar that day, then hiding the jar in the bottom of the trash so no one would see.

Another fast food problem person here. I use to order carry out ever Sunday because I lived in the dorms and they didn't order Sunday dinner. I stopped ordering with other people because I was embarassed of how much I would order. Basically I would get like enough for two or three people (Either a chinese dinner that comes with rice, a quart of fried rice, and soup or a large pizza with bread sticks, or like a dozen wings, french fries, rice pudding and bread sticks) and then eat the majority for it. I would leave just enough in each container so I would feel guilty because I had left overs. Then I would scafe the leftovers down the next day before going to dinner.

Solution: I stopped ordering delivery. If I'm getting food then I go to the place I wont over order. Plus there is no way I can stomach all of that anymore.

Wow I can relate to all of your posts. There's something about reading it here that turns on a light for me.

I, too, am a secret eater. On the way home (from work, the grocery store, anywhere) I'd buy something extra, eat it, and hide the evidence. I am trying to stop that by not carrying cash with me to spend. (If I don't have the $3 for a cone, I won't buy the cone.)

I've also thrown away a half a bag of something, claiming "this is it, never again", only to fish it out of the trash, hoping it was still in the bag and edible. Thankfully, I stopped that one years ago when I got disgusted with myself and realized I'm a grown up, so if I want it that bad I can buy more.

It's hard to explain my biggest shame these days. It's more like an absence of mindfulness than anything. It's like, no matter my plan, at times I just "find myself" eating something I know better than to eat. Mindfulness is something I have to find and soon.

Robyn

I know what you mean...even though it has only been a couple of weeks, I am already marveling at how out of control I have been...like and addict!!!

It is so incredibly easy for me to eat a family sized bag of twizzlers, box of wheat thins, or bag of any kind of gummy candy in one sitting. I am completely surprised when the bag is empty because I still want more!

Also, in high school my best friend and I (we were both really skinny at that point because we were cross country runners, but we were setting ourselves up for a future of carb and sugar addiction) used to split a can of icing almost every day. I think sometimes we'd eat it with our fingers, too. How gross is that?!? We'd also steal hot chocolate packets from the teacher's lounge and eat the powder...

For me it is free food. Potlucks are the worst. It's here! It's free! If you don't eat it it will go bad!

Almost too many to name. Secret eating is the biggest, I guess. I'd eat half the cookie dough, or eat almost a whole cake and then say that I'd dropped it so I'd have to bake another. I'd always eat in the car and go through fast food restaurants ordering two of everything so it would look like I was taking it home to someone else. I think one of my worst moments was when I was a kid (yup, this started young) and was staying for a few days with family friends. They had potato chips stored in their bathroom, and I ate a bag. They blamed it on one of their kids, and I didn't speak up, of course.

Now if I'm going to eat food that I know isn't good for me, I try to do it consciously and announce it to my DH. Every once in a while, I will bring some kind of food into the house, and be so embarassed about it that I'll eat it in secret, but those days are few.

Sneaking the leftovers from my kids' plates was a biggie for me. Even before getting serious, I stopped this by having THEM clean their own plates into the garbage. Four kids = lots of leftover!!!

Another one was buying two sodas at the fast food places so the people at the window would think I was ordering for two!!!

Oh I see myself in a lot of these posts! My worse one is eating in the car. No one can see that extra candy bar I just ate ( until it settles on my hips! ) or the ice cream, etc.!

Secret eating has been my vice of choice as well as the fast food hopping Howie mentioned. In fact, it's a wonder I didn't weigh more with as much as I used to eat.

Not only have I done this, but near the office where I worked at my last job, there was a McDonald's with NO drive-thru (unheard of, I know ). I would actually go in and order all the food I wanted, but I would hold a small piece of paper in my hand as if I were ordering food for others that I'd written down so they wouldn't think it was all for me

Disclaimer: these posts are NOT intended to give people ideas!

My top ten -- most of which unfortunately I still have a lot of work to get rid of!

1. Grocery shopping day I have a hard time not eating 1/2 of the stuff before it gets put away, like if I take one serving the rest will rot before I can get back to it!!
2. My poor 7 year old gets a good snack for school on Monday, maybe Tuesday before his mother has eaten the rest.
3. I had to stop and get food to eat in the car every night on the way to work, like I couldn't drive without it!!
4. When I was younger my mother would freeze food so I wouldn't eat it, so I would microwave a pie just enough so I could cut and eat the whole thing.
5. Finishing like 1/2 gallon of ice cream, going and buying another and eating it down to where it was before so my husband won't notice.
6. Eating "unconsciously" until I'm ill.
7. Eating dinner before my husband gets home because I'm hungry and too embarassed to tell so I eat again with the family.
8. Lots of hiding food, like no one notices I'm overweight.
9. Way too much emotional eating.
10. Making a tray of brownies, cookies, etc. after everyone goes to bed and eating all of them.

I love this website -- if I told my husband these he would think I had lost my mind and had no self control. Thank god we all understand!!!

"The second you allow you weight to determine your self worth, so will everyone else."

Off-topic, I know, but...

Jill - I SO LOVE this quotation! I remember noticing even when I was young how Richard Simmons would bring people on his infomercials for his latest diet scheme and they would still be overweight, but they had lost significant amounts of weight and felt great about themselves. That kind of self-confidence made them so attractive. I've always tried to keep this in mind. I KNOW people are judging me by my weight, but I've tried never to let this knowledge define my relationship with them. In some ways, it can be an advantage, because people often underestimate me so much!

Oh Shelby, except for numbers 2 and 4, I've done everything on your list. I've never fessed up to eating dinner before have dinner with others because I knew I'd still be hungry if I just ate once. And the ice cream thing! I used to do that to my roommate in college. She used to have these ENORMOUS vats of cookies (I still dream about how good they were) and I would eat them all when she went home for the weekend. We're talking pounds of cookies. Then I found out where she bought them so I could replace them (and eat them back to where they were when I started) before she got back.

My family and friends say often they don't know how I became heavy because "I eat like a bird". Yeah, right, a big vulture.

LaurieDawn -- I wish I was where you are at -- I'll get there. I am so paranoid about the fact others judge me because of my weight it's ridiculous -- and for the most part the people I worry about I'm sure don't even care!! I've become such an introvert it's ridiculous.

CC -- If we were to lay out everything we ate on a bad day on the table, our families would be shocked (I think I would be too)!! My husband thinks I just need exercise -- I've been going to the YMCA for 1 year now five days a week for a serious work out. If I didn't over eat behind everyones back, I'd probably be a size 0 by now!! But, on the plus side, under all my extra weight there are some awesome muscles waiting to come out! I feel like I need to do a fossil dig to get down to them!!