I have been eating healthy whole foods the last few days and have felt great. Smaller portions, more wholesome nutritious food...but then I visited my parents and tore through everything they had! A bowl of homemade stew, a plate of Tamales/Beans/Rice, a few cookies, an ice cream bar... It's like once I start, I can't stop. I don't know what my problem is. Anybody else have this problem? When they are presented with something "yummy" they just keep going? It's like I have no "full" sensor sometimes.
Anyway, just had to vent! grrrrrrrrrr!

Susan - well, first of all, if I'm reading your profile correctly, you're PREGNANT. Sometimes that'll give you weird random eating binge moments...totally normal. So I wouldn't worry too much!

But you might have also hit on a "trigger food"...a food that once you eat it, a binge is triggered. I don't keep my own trigger foods in my house, but sometimes I go to my mother's house, and she has them on hand...a problem!

All you can do now is learn from it and move on, and get immediately back on track.

suddenly susan, maybe what you mean is that when you get to 120 your goal is to become pregnant?

As Amanda says, some foods are trigger foods, which means they are like an addictive substance to some people. Foods that contain sugar and refined carbohydrates often are culprits. Once one starts on them, it's hard to stop. One strategy is to avoid those foods altogether, at least for the initial period of weight loss. It may mean weeks or months. For example, I can't have ice cream in the house! It has to be a treat I get elsewhere.

It's maddening to go off plan like that, but just get right back on again.

Jay

I do it, and it's not always triggered. That's why I don't keep junk in my house. I'd eat it, I'd crave it, just by seeing it. When I go out, I cover the desert menu. And when I visit the folks, I just try to stay out of the kitchen.

I think this is a common problem. I have foods that do that to me. I had 1/2 donut one day. Having stared at it for hours, I really thought I wanted it. The second I finished it, I could almost hear the roar in my brain. I WANTED MORE. Like a cookie monster. Scary feeling and I had to flee the room they were in.

It's hard to find the right balance. 1/2 donut isn't going to ruin my day. But if that 1/2 fuels a desire for a lot more... that's a problem.

I think all of us have to figure out through trial and error what foods and/or situations cause us problems. And then we need strategies to deal with them. It's not something that just "happens"...

Good luck!

I just found out MY trigger food, or one of many I'm sure to come across, is mashed potatoes. I can eat a mountain of them. Unfortunately, my kids LOVE mashed potatoes, so once a week we have roast with gravy and mashed potatoes. I don't even make them, the kids are in charge of the potatoes and gravy ( I just put the roast in the crock and leave)

So last night was mashed potato night. Ugh. I tried just having one cup. But that's all it took for me to start wanting to graze the rest of the night. Thankfully I'd also put out salad and carrot sticks with dinner, so I tried to eat those instead of more potatoes. I know I wasn't HUNGRY, so it had to be something else.

Good to know, next roast and potato night I'll fill up on slimfast and water and whatever else BEFORE dinner. See if that helps a little.

Any advise on what to do when you KNOW you'll have these trigger foods around? I have to feed the kids, so I'll have to find ways around these foods and control this urge. Maybe move the scale in the kitchen?

Hey! I don't know whether this is realistic or not, but you could have the kids make "a" reasonable batch of mashed potatoes, such that everyone gets "a serving" and doesn't just keep eating until all of it is gone... It's best for everyone not to get into the habit of filling up on simple carbohydrates like mashed potatoes.

A cup of mashed potatoes has about 225 calories, so it's a food that someone watching their intake needs to plan for. I try to eat only 1/2 cup with a meal.

Jay

I grew up in Idaho...so potatoes are my weakness. Thankfully we only cook then once a week, on roast night. Maybe that's why they're such a treat to me now. Comfort food.

My teenage boys are all skinny, and they eat constantly, so for them potatoes aren't taboo. But for me, I can see now that I need to watch this.

I read on one post that someone used mashed or riced cauliflower instead of potatoes. Um...anyone have any experience with this?

I swear I have a fear of starving. I notice that when I am really broke (which lately is a LOT of the time), and I mean like, we are literally going to be out of food soon... I give myself the excuse to eat everything in site if I am offered! I think that combined with the fact that junk foods are just not satisfying, so we keep going and going... I am not sure that it is all trigger "foods" as I have always been this way. My entire life I have eaten "fast and furious" like I have never seen food before. I think I really need therapy! LOL

PS
My pregnancy has not really altered my cravings/binges except that me (and the people around me) tend to let it lye as an excuse to eat eat eat! I wish I could say "it's just the pregnancy" :P

If you want to try sample them before taking a stab at it, do you have a Ruby Tuesday's in your area? They have creamy mashed cauliflower as one of their side dishes. Although, I prefer my own version, as I add light cream cheese. It gives them a better flavor IMO. Just boil your cauliflower, drain, add seasoning, butter flavor, cream cheese (to taste), and blend until smooth like potatoes. Another reason the cream cheese makes them better is that it helps to thicken them more, for those of us into thicker, heartier potatoes.

susan - lots of good advice here - but i gotta mention something that both of my sisters and i have noticed. when we are with mom, we get instant 'hand to mouth' syndrome that lasts as long as we're with her! we get back to normal when we're away from her [well, they do - mom now has alzheimer's and i'm her caregiver, so i don't get to escape - and that's a whole OTHER set of issues!!!!]

So I see I am not alone!