Hey guys, really need some help. Every night I promise tomorrow will be the day I start for real and I always mess it up. Junk food is my weakness. I'll be going good all day then I'll eat something sweet. Then as soon as I have one thing I can't stop! My mentality is always 'well I've already ruined today so why not'. So can anyone help me get out of this rut??

Why give it up? For a lot of my clients (and myself!) I have them plan a treat into their daily diets so that they don't feel deprived.

You might consider that your issue isn't that you can't "give up junk" but rather that you see certain foods as good or bad.

You can still lose fat, gain muscle or get healthier while including a variety of foods, even "junk", into your diet.

You need to remove the STIGMA you have attached to the food, not the food itself.

Different approaches work for different people. There is no one size fits all solution.

Things that have worked for me:

1. There are a few foods that if I have them in the house then I will end up overeating them. Cookies are an example. I do end up overeating them if I have to pass by the pantry and know they are there. For the longest time, I would overeat them and beat myself up about it. I would buy new cookies and say I wouldn't do it...but I did.

The solution for me was amazingly simple. I don't buy cookies and bring them into my home. (I did have some at Christmas when we had guests and they would all be consumed that day). This took so much stress away. In my case, I do still have cookies sometimes...just not at home. I maybe have a cookie a few times a year.

2. For other foods, I've learned how to control my portions. I used to love candy. There was a time that I had a full-size candy bar every afternoon. For a long time, I didn't buy them, but would occasionally get a fun size bar (note I would get a bar, not a bag of fun size bars).

But, over time, I've really lessened in my desire to eat food that I see as totally junky (I do still eat some of it), so I learned to like dark chocolate and I have a small piece (60 to 100 calories) several times a week. But, I am able to just have the small piece. If I couldn't, then I wouldn't eat chocolate at home either.

3. Some people prefer to just abstain from certain foods altogether. Personally, I generally don't. If I eat at Panera I will have a 150 calorie bag of potato chips. But, I don't buy bags for the house.

4. I learned to like different foods. When I started to work on losing weight, I mostly liked junk food or high calorie food that wasn't the best nutritionally. I still like most of those foods. But, I don't often eat them because I've learned to like other foods more. I like my dark chocolate square more than I like a Snickers bar. I like my salad with grilled chicken and homemade vinaigrette dressing a lot. It isn't worth it to me to very often have pizza. I still love pizza, but looking at all the factors - calories and nutrition - it usually isn't worth it to me when I can have something else that is really good that is better for me and less calories.

5. I learned to avoid all or nothing thinking. One Weight Watchers leader made a comment at a meeting once that went like this:

If you were walking across the room and dropped an egg on the floor, would you immediately say, "I've blown it now and just throw all the eggs on the floor?" The answer of course is no. Rather you would simply clean up the dropped egg and would continue to take care with the ones you haven't dropped.

I think about that often. If I eat something I didn't plan on and that wasn't a great choice, I've learned to not beat myself up. I don't expect perfection in any other part of my life. Why should I require it with weight loss?

You haven't ruined the day when you eat something that wasn't a good choice. There is no reason you can't make good choices for the rest of the day.

Great tips!

You need to play around with different strategies and see what works for you. I find that I do a combination of a lot of these things.

- I don't keep certain foods in the house; out of sight out of mind.

- When I really want something, I'll buy a single-serving size (if available) or give the rest of whatever it is away.

- I will plan that food into my diet and make it fit, or at least make it close.

- I make healthier recipes if there is something that I can't seem to make fit (New York Cheesecake in any respectable amount is NOT going to fit into my diet, but there are a million recipes out there for low-calorie low-carb cheesecake desserts.

I post a lot of recipes on my FB page; https://www.facebook.com/pages/JS-Fi...homepage_panel

I would also recommend a couple of other sites to check out for ideas;

www.chocolatecoveredkatie.com
www.skinnytaste.com
www.proteinpow.com

I used to have a similar problem. Every night, I would get a huge craving for sweets after dinner, then the next morning, I would be aghast that it had happened AGAIN - I'd "gone for the gusto" and eaten a ton of sweets!

I would suggest - and check with your doctor about everything - that you make sure you're getting all the proper nutrients you need, in appropriate amounts. One thing that particularly helps with cutting cravings for sweets is protein. That would include meats, nuts, dairy, eggs, beans, tofu, etc. Maybe you can see how much protein you need for your height, weight, etc., and make sure you get it.

Also, I take vitamins, fish oil, and a probiotic. I do think sometimes we eat more because our bodies are missing some vital nutrient, and it urges us to eat so maybe it can get it. Just an idea.

Best wishes on your quest, and welcome to the Featherweight Forum!



Edit: I like what Koshka said about not giving up, due to one slipup. I saw a diet expert speak at my college, and he said that that was the number one reason for diets not working - people having one thing go wrong and then throwing in the towel. Somebody else on here compared it to running all the red lights because of missing one stop sign. One extra bit of food here or there does not a disaster make!

A couple of things have been helpful for me. As everyone says before me though, we're all different!

Planning - I plan a variety of snacks into my day. If I'm craving cookies or something like that, my "rule" for myself is that I have to eat something moderately healthy first then wait a bit and see how I'm really feeling about eating "junk".

Moderately healthy - I won't suffer thru food I don't like. I'm not planning on being miserable during this journey. If I do I won't stick with it. Snacks I DO like are greek yogurt w/ berries, edamame, a piece of fresh juicy fruit, sweet crisp veggies with lowcal dressing to dip.

Serving size - when I do decide to have a treat, my other rule for myself is to dish out a single serving, seal the package and put it away. NO eating out of the package or keep going back for more. Once I've had my serving, my whole "must eat something healthy" clock has to restart.

For me, there is NO tomorrow - Sometimes I slip up. We ALL do. But waiting until tomorrow or next week got me to my highest weight ever because there was never a good place to start. My good place to start now is right this second. If I eat more of a treat than I've planned I stop and try to get back on my plan immediately. I don't wait for the next meal or next day.

Wishing you best of luck in getting the ball rolling in whatever way works for you.

eta: whoopsie! Just saw the forum I posted to. I am SO not a featherweight! Hope it's OK that I've posted here.

I love these suggestions so much, I just had to repost them! And I wanted to add another little suggestion of my own:

I have a rule that, on my "up" days, when I eat whatever and however much I want, I can't go out and buy junk. I have to be able to cobble something together from the ingredients I have at home. If I'm out and about, I can buy what I want, but otherwise, no.

This last Sunday, for example, I was seriously craving some cookies, which I very rarely have. We don't have any sugar or flour, though, so I came up with Coconut Oatmeal Raisin cookies, which have coconut flour and stevia, instead of the usual suspects.

They were pretty good, kind of cookie-like, enough for me, anyway. But I wouldn't share the recipe just yet, as they could still use a little tweaking.

Well THAT escalated quickly...

I like to try to find healthier alternatives to whatever I'm craving. I have a sweet tooth, and yesterday it was raging. I really wanted candy, but instead I went to the grocery store and bought a few dates, and that took care of it for awhile. But later in the afternoon my friends wanted to go get ice cream, so I had sorbet (still not a healthy choice as I know there's a lot of sugar, but it doesn't make me feel as heavy or gross as ice cream). Both of those tasted amazing and satisfied my sweet tooth.

In general I try not to eat sweets unless it's some kind of single-serving like going to an ice cream stand. If I have extra in my kitchen, I will eat it. So I try not to buy it most of the time. Once in a while as a treat I think is fine.