I'm cramming hard for 3 finals in upper-division Italian courses (mamma mia!) and sitting on the couch. I can see the kitchen. I can think about 10,000 things I want to eat right now. But I'm resisting.

I LOVE TO SNACK WHEN I AM STUDYING!

Does anyone else out there feel me here?

(I'm hoping that posting this thread will help me ride out my snack craving so I can avoid going and eating 3/4 of my pantry's contents...)

PS. Good luck to anyone who is cramming for finals along with me/writing papers/etc.!

Hello, my name is Bronwyn and I'm a sweet aholic.

When I'm studying or stressed I like nothing more than something chocolaty or sugary or both. I crave sugar.

I hate december because exam stress makes it so hard to be healthy. And then Christmas comes and I can't indulge without guilt... which leads to some binging/guilt cycles. Or it did last year.

Does anybody have any coping strategies? I'm thinking about asking my roommate if, starting december 1st we can have a no junk food/sugar policy. Or get her to hold me accountable.

Or maybe someone here wants to start a thread for this sort of thing?

And good luck to you too, Caroline! how many exams do you have?

I'm reading this thread with a bunch of assignments to get done before finals, and dreaming of swimming in a large box of chocolate chip cookies... I cannot get them out of my head. Somehow the schoolwork is flaring up this avoidance tendency, but why did it have to be cookies? I can't have them!
But as for advice, I've found that hot drinks are the best things for studying (for me). It's nice to have a 16 oz mocha sitting next to me, knowing that I can can sip it whenever I want, and just keep reheating it. Even though it has calories (and bad ones), it's a lot better than fixating on munchies. It takes care of the need to pamper so I can focus better. And for some reason, I rarely even finish the mocha before bedtime.
That's just me... but I'm also not looking forward to the dreaded finals.

I totally understand what you are talking about. I had a lot of trouble getting ahold of snacking when I first started out. You just want to eat everything. It gets better. I still occassionally get the craving to snack but it is a lot less now then before.

I'm a law student, so I totally understand the finals problem. Here a couple of my stragities, first get all of the junk food out of your house. Replace them will healthy alteratives. (If you are a chip person then baked chips, if you are a cookie person then try sugar free they tend to be less in calorie or rice cakes if you get the minis then it is 8 of them for 60 calories.) Also 100 calorie packs are amazing because of the portion control. Lastly I try and keep healthy food around the apartment, carrots, celery, green pepper stips, ect. Ok really my last point, try and not skip meals or replace them with "fast food" because it just causes more snacking.

Best of luck on the exams

*raises hand*

count me in!! i love, love, love bread!! it is the hardest thing to stay away from pizza and sandwichs on white! i love bread!! i can eat a piece of white bread by itself.

i slip-up more than from time to time, but that's life!

Luckily, I *mostly* avoided the snackage last night, I did end up having a granola bar and a handful of tortilla chips. Not great, but not as horrifying as it could have been (Hellooo whole box of granola bars/full bag of tortilla chips!). I have found that drinking sparkling water helps me out a little bit because the fizziness makes me feel more full, and the flavored stuff is totally delish so that kind of satiates the sweet craving too. Oy vey! 1 final down, 2 to go! Good luck everyone who is doing this crazy school thing too

Good luck with your finals!!!

I enjoy a nice snack, too, but it's not a terribly huge issue for me. I do tend to get the munchies a bit more at night. But snacks, in themselves, aren't a BAD thing.. providing they're healthy, of course I usually have 1-2 snacks a day in between my meals (one in the afternoon and one after dinner).

Just make sure you have healthy stuff around!
I LOVE snacking on almonds.. Mmmm. SO good for you, and they fill me nicely. I also snack a lot on the 100 calorie bags of microwave popcorn- you get SO much popcorn for that amount. And when I have a sweet/chocolate craving.. I have a fudge stick (popsicle) for 60 calories

Final and studying is definitely the hardest time for me, some reason I can't resist creeping into the kitchen, so I just go to Costco, Wal-Mart, Sam’s club, etcetera and buy a bulk supply of sugar free gum, as long as there is something in my mouth I don't eat, also good is to get sugar free candies