It was 5:00pm today. Just got home from work. I remember eating a filling, yet low calorie lunch a few hours before, and was still not the least bit hungry. I'm thinking "yay! I'm not hungry! This is my chance to lose some weight! I'll make it a habit and do this all the time. Eat when I'm hungry! Like the experts say! Makes sense!" Yet I ate anyways! Luckily it was a Healthy Choice meal, but still! I didn't WANT to eat at all! So why in the heck did I go into that kitchen?

So there I was, still full 1/2 hour later at 5:30pm, and I choose to ate a snack! Do I have something wrong with my brain or what?! One piece of white toast with butter enough? Nooooo. Of course not. Must have second piece of toast, this time smothered with peanut butter! AHHHh!!!! I swear I looked like a cross between Frankenstein and a robot marching into that kitchen for more to shove in my mouth. I feel like I'm stuck in a horror flick in the 1950's!

Move along to 8:00pm (bad time for eating, I know), still no hint of hunger, and I make microwave popcorn, just for the heck of it! I was actually craving a Diet Pepsi, and, you know, popcorn and soda DO go together.....

I do this all the time! Does anyone else? I really, really, really, don't WANT to eat all this, I want to lose weight more than anything in the world. I will sit there and have conversations with myself (well, they're more like nagging little fights back and forth. Quite annoying), telling myself wouldn't it be cool to eat only when I'm hungry and to stop when I'm the slightest bit full? Ya! That's the way to do it! No problem. Easy as pie! Hmmmm...pie. That sounds good. But I can't have my dessert until I eat my dinner. Yes, I'm not hungry, but it IS dinner time! Just like I ate breakfast when it was "breakfast time", and lunch when it was "lunch time". It's the rules. It's part of life. Why fight nature. I wonder what's in the fridge for dinner......

Makes no logical sense at all. Believe me. I know! I better get to bed soon before I either a) get hungry or b) my evil side decides it IS snack time, again!

Man, food addiction sure does suck.

LOL.. I like your post.. it's the perfect description for "attack of the munchies"! For me, I need to pre-plan all of my meals each day and break up my meals into mini-meals. I eat 6-7 times a day. I find if I *know* I can have a healthy snack/meal every two hours, I tend to avoid the munchies. Otherwise, I'd be grabbing that bag of popcorn right now!

Yep, that's me. If something is set in front of me, I tend to eat it whether I'm hungry or not. I'm a boredom eater. What I try to do is drink some water or tea to fend those demonic cravings off. But it is a lot harder when you're NOT EVEN CRAVING! Maybe we do it out of habit? We're living healthier lives, yet we're used to eating more. It's like my subconscious is going, "Hey you! Amber's Legs! Her mouth is bored up here, go to the kitchen. Hey Arms, grab some cookies. ****, while you're in there you might as well get some chips. What are chips without dip? Get some dip, arms. Theeeere you go. now ease it into the mouth...yesssss!" *sigh* It's awful when I'm in the middle of eating thinking either "I'm not hungry anymore, I should stop." Or "Why am I eating this? I don't need it. It doesn't taste that great." But I keep on eating.

Thats me too. I just get so bored during the day, and all i can think of to do is eat. Sometimes i wish school would get here already (10 days til we start) so ill have something to do and wont be eating all the time when i dont need it. (And after we start school and I begin complaining about how much i hate being there, i will SO pretend i never said that) hehe

Wow, i am just so glad to hear it is not just me that eats simply because it is "lunch time", "dinnertime". I hate that, it is my MAIN downfall. I can be perfectly content, not even thinking about food, but someone else asks "what is for lunch"...then it is like a darn alarm goes off...time to eat, time to eat. I can ignore it for about 10 minutes, then it is all i think about until i eat. I just dont get it. I get home from work...may not be hungry at all but i am home from work, so that means it is time to cook dinner. Just rediculous. I wonder if it is something with the way we were raised...or just a control freak gene gone nuts. I am a control freak in other aspects of my life...everything has to be done "in a timely fashion"...so maybe i view food the same way. I have worked on this "habit" FOREVER. Glad i am not alone, although that doesnt solve your problem, ha ha.

The story if my life in one post LOL. Its so hard to put a finger on, isn't it? So many times I've wished that I was addicted to drugs, alcohol ....something ANYTHING other than food, something that I could cut out of my life completely and not have a physical need for survival. Therapy has helped me immensely, and although I still haven't quite identified all of the "why's", I can say that I haven't been doing the "do's" - if that makes sense

Here's what I did - when I want something and I know I'm not really hungry, I set the kitchen timer for 20 minutes then go and do something upstairs - clean, have a bubble bath, get on the phone or computer. When the timer goes off, if I even hear it, I can chose to have it after I drink an 8 ounce glass of water. Sometimes we confuse hunger and thirst. You have also trained yourself to associate pepsi with popcorn - break the association by having one or the other, not both together. I also only eat when sitting at the kitchen or dining room table, with proper utensils and plates or bowls. No eating in front of the tv or while doing something else.

Thank God it isn't just me! I have to gain that upper hand and get past this. 28 days till it becomes habit, right? I was going to try again today, to only eat when my body tells me to (intuitive eating, right?), but it's my Anniversary (11 years) and hubs takes me and the kids out to Mexican. Of course I order a huge meal because it looks so goooooood! Temptation gets me everytime. *sigh*

I have this problem at night after the kids go to bed. : / I do pretty good with my calories but I have to really babysit myself at night.

That is basically what happened to me after I got out of work today too. It's like I eat my dinner but then I need something else. I think I eat it so quickly I don't even give my brain some time to register that I'm full and to stop. Yes and I have to break the habit of watching tv too. Its great that I know what I should do..too bad I have very little self control, but I am working on it.