Cashews, almonds, peanuts, anything like that seem to be causing an issue currently for me. I'm finding it impossible to eat just a serving.

Hmm. I changed my eating habits almost 4 weeks ago and so far at least I've not encountered any food that can't be in the house. A few days ago we brought several grocery bags of food to the food bank, but they were foods that are no longer appropriate for me and that I knew my husband would not eat. We still have things like tortilla chips, ice cream, crackers, pilot bread, pasta, chocolate (uh lots of chocolate, my husband is a chocoholic), other candy, rice, bread, cake and brownie mixes, etc. I have "broken" and eaten raisin bran and a sandwich and I had some peanut butter and crackers when the power went out but I needed food and that's what was available. As time goes by and I've been eating this way longer, I might have a harder time avoiding certain foods.

Before I began to change my eating habits, I pretty much ate whatever the heck I wanted. That meant lots of carbs because I love carbs. I like plenty of non-carbs as well, but 90% of the time I'd choose a piece of toast over an apple because I liked toast better, even though I like apples as well! Even with me eating whatever I wanted, until a few months ago I could not keep any cracker other than saltines in the house. Triscuits, Wheat Thins, Ritz, especially not Cheez Its. I could eat a box in 2 days so crackers only came into the house occasionally. I'd also eat too many chips sometimes if we had them, but for whatever reason crackers were my big problem. However, I got ahold of my cracker issue about 3 months ago and was pleased with myself because I could actually successfully limit how many I had at a time and a box of Cheez Its could last a couple of weeks.

Other things I had issues with were my favorite carb-laden foods: pasta (mac and cheese specifically), potatoes of pretty much any variety, and homemade bread items like garlic bread, biscuits, regular homemade bread, cornbread, rolls... If I knew they were in the fridge, it was pretty hard to stay away! Especially bread items since they just sit on the counter in a container. For Thanksgiving I'm planning to have ALL of these items. Mac and cheese, mashed potatoes, and biscuits! But I'm going to make small portions of them all, enough for us to eat (reasonably) over a couple of days and not have oodles of leftovers. In some ways I'm glad that I've cut out grains and starches from my every day diet because at this point I think it would be harder to have just, say, half a cup of pasta with my meatballs than no pasta at all.

The only thing that I absolutely can't have in the house, a binge happens every time, is Jelly Belly jelly beans.

The one thing that I just love and I don't buy because I'm gluten free is jalapeno pretzel bites. Damn you, Snyders, and your delicious little spicy nuggets.

I can portion them out and eat one portion at a time, but I shouldn't have them at all. Before I went gluten free, my boyfriend twice bought me a 99 cent bag and I put it in my menu plan for two servings per the nutritional info (one one day and one the following day), but that is just not a snack I need to be eating!

dried fruit!!!!!

ANything refined carb: bread, pasta, crackers, chips; or anuthing sweet: chjocolate, lollies, milo. I keep tins of chicken for salty cravings, vegemite on a spoon, some almond butter for crazy cravings and suger free jelly which I mix with fruit. Oh, and herbal/fruit tea is a lifesaver at the moment. This is HAAAAAAARD!!!!! Oh an d my poor partner is Polish, so he struggles with this. I figure, he can always go shopping/cook for himself :-D

Jessie, I've been drinking so much tea! I've always liked tea but have 2 or so mugs of it a day now. There are SO many flavors and blends out there now and they don't have any calories since for the most part I don't add any milk or sweetener (depends on which tea it is). For the most part I drink herbal so I'm not getting a big hit of caffeine or anything. I love peppermint tea the most but there are lots of other flavors. Jasmine is really nice and right now I've been enjoying Bigelow French Vanilla a lot. It's a black tea so I only drink it earlier in the day and not every day, but with a little Splenda and a tablespoon or two of milk, it's so very nice. There are a lot of really small tea companies that make fascinating teas. If you want to check out some unique teas, look at ones made by ButikiTeas. I haven't tried any of them yet but they have some truly fascinating looking flavors and have really good reviews.

Baked goods(cookies, cake), cereal, peanut butter. Peanut butter is my worst enemy. I still can not buy a jar of it (skippys reduced fat is my fav and no reduced fat doesn't make it any better it just happens to be sweeter and thats why i like it). But jif makes to-go cups now. the serving size container helps me and also that its not skippys helps too. I wish i could get past my baked goods problem.

I love those critters too! I only get them a couple of times a year, always when I'm out of the house and expect to eat the whole bag in one go. I always enjoy seeing the new varieties in the bins and making my selection.

F.

I can't have cookies, candy or donuts in the house—not any for me, that is. My husband is allowed to have those things, but he keeps them in a special cabinet that is high up and hard for me to reach.

When we first started this policy, we were taking turns going grocery shopping. I had a problem where if I bought some cookies for him—his favorite kind, not mine—I would poach his cookies, standing on a step ladder if necessary.

So we changed our plan to separate grocery shopping. He buys his food, and I buy mine. If I never buy cookies or whatever other carbos for him, it's like I don't know they're in the house. Over time I have become totally not curious about what's in his cabinet. This is a huge relief, believe me! When I go grocery shopping for myself, I occasionally pick up a couple of items for him, but ONLY those things he likes that I would never eat—cottage cheese w/ pineapple, for example.

I know I'm blessed to have such a supportive husband. We do look forward to the distant day when we'll be able to cook for each other and eat together again, but not now...not during the long journey to a smaller size and better eating habits that I've embarked on.

Rice is definitely my weakness TT u TT;; oh gosh, I can just eat it all day everyday...WHICH I USED TO! In high school, whenever i came home from school, I would make a whole pot and eat it before my parents came home! wow!! ^^;;

What drives me nuts is not the banned foods (candy, chips, etc), but those I can have for a while ... but that will eventually trigger a binge.

For example, I was loving Kashi crackers for quite a while. I would have a few with hummus and plenty of veg. And for a few months I was ok with them in the house. But eventually I broke down and started scarfing them. So they are on the banned list for now.

Nuts are usually banned, but at the moment I have some in the house and they aren't triggering anything.

Last night it was freezing so I made some hot tea with honey and finished off the bottle of rum I've been nursing for two months (I count this as a binge even though there were only two shots left ... I only wanted one but I had both).

Sometimes I can have ice cream in the freezer ... sometimes I can't.

Dieting is crazy sometimes.

This was post #2 but this is me EXACTLY also. For me, my laziness always trumps making a special trip to the store for those cookies or whatever. I miss having those snack-able things, but not having it in the house forces me to learn to adapt which I need to do anyway. I'm low carb which means we scour the meat prices and stock the freezer so when I HAVE to eat something, there's something there even tho there's no "immediate gratification" while waiting for it to thaw. But, again, that helps me to learn to adapt that hunger is not the emergency situation that I try to make it.

This technique doesn't work for baked goods that I lie to myself that I can freeze so it makes it harder. You can eat frozen rum cake and frozen Girl Scout cookies. There's no lag time at all.

Stuff like bread, crackers, etc aren't that bad for me, but anything sweet like cookies.... Candy/chocolate is especially bad for me. I can't have any sort of chips near me or I will eat the whole bag Also, since I count calories anything that I "in theory" know is bad for me but that doesn't have a readily available calorie amount (like takeout, for example) I cannot have or I will go way overboard.

Sometimes I'll just go into zombie-mode and start baking cookies, telling myself that individually they aren't that many calories and I'll just have one, and I KNOW that I won't actually "eat just one" but I BAKE THEM ANYWAY... sigh...

I have to have all kinds of stuff in the house since I have a fit husband and two ravenous teenagers. The trick for me is NEVER EATING ANY. So it is there but I never take that first bite. EVER. Here are some of the things I normally would binge on, and somehow have to tolerate, but seem to be able to resist:

Bread
Candy
Peanut butter
Crackers
Chex mix
Pie
Cake
Cookies
Nutella

These are all IN MY HOUSE and I somehow manage to NOT EAT ANY. EVER.

But there are other things I am "allowed" to have in moderation and that's where I get into trouble:

Sour cream dips of various kinds
Hummus
Guacamole
Cheeses
Nuts
Low-carb cookies

I have to measure the dips/hummus/guacamole carefully and limit myself to one or two tablespoons or I will dump 3/4 cup onto my plate.
I have to weigh the cheese on a kitchen scale or I will eat half a block.
I have to eat only nuts-in-the-shell because then I have to take my time cracking them open and it forces me to slow down and eat one at a time. I eat a set amount of nuts-in-the-shell every day.
Low carb cookies: oh. my. gosh. I bake them myself, they are amaaaazing, and I can't resist them. At least they are low carb but they are definitely NOT low calorie! Ugh