Blech, I'm on a plateau and there's no one to blame but myself. I've definitely been slipping a little more and just not sticking to plan as often.

I've been trying to analyze what my problem is, and it boils down to one thing: Impulse eating.

I really have three problem situations -

First, days when I'm a bit bored and I'm at home are DEADLY. I find myself mindlessly grazing myself right into a bigger pair of pants. All it takes it a few minutes of mindless impluse eating to undo the good I did the rest of the day. Do you have a trick for getting through these kinds of days? It's hard to be diet-conscious ALL THE TIME!

Second, I am weak, oh so weak, during the mid-afternoon slump. That time from about 1pm to 5pm is the WORST for me. I get so tempted by snack foods. Any strategies for dealing with this? I could eat constantly during this period! I've scheduled a snack around 2pm, but sometimes that doesn't prevent me from impluse eating during this period.

My third problem situation is when there is free food around. Maybe I'm just cheap or something, but when there's treat food readily available for snacking, I really have difficulty avoiding it. I've been getting a lot better at this! But it's still a challenge. So, for example, if they have snack foods freely available at meetings it's hard for me to skip it. Or family pot-lucks. Or snacks at a friend's house. Any time good foods are freely offered, it's a problem. It's like I'm subconsciously worried I'm going to miss out on something great if I don't eat it there and then! It's ESPECIALLY difficult if I combine problem two and three - if they are offering me free food in the mid-afternoon. Those boring mid-afternoon meetings with free cookies are really diet killers for me. Even if I'm not really physically hungry!

In looking over these problem times, it's clear that it's mostly emotionally motivated eating. Boredom is a big trigger, it seems! But social eating (feeling the need to eat because everyone else is) is also a problem.

Any tips, comments, or suggestions? Anyone else struggle with this? How do you learn to do better in these situations?

I have some suggestions. 1) Water. Take a 32oz (or larger) cup and fill it with water, and chug it down. Don't just "drink" this, you need to chg the whole darn thing down! This will fill up the stomach nicely, and make you feel full. 2)If you are eating, because you simply want to move your mouth, chew on sugar free gum. Like any diet foods gum has come along way. It used to break up in pieces in your mouth right away, but it no longer does. I can literally chew the same pieces (I like 2 or 3) for hours. A stick is only 5 calories, 2g of carbs (for carb counters it has 2g of sugar alcohols, so you can subtract those). 3) buy sugar free hard candies and suck on those. 4) If you want to go the healthier route, buy apples. They are so loaded in fiber. It takes me about 10 minutes to enjoy an apple. They say it takes about 15-20 mins for your brain to register that it is full.

I hope this helps, these work for me.

Are you in control of what goes in your house? I keep only healthy foods around me. I hide hubby's stuff in a cabinet. We keep our foods separate. I don't see in his cabinet, so I'm not tempted by what might be in there. I keep a bowl of fresh fruit in plain view. So when I am tempted to impulse eat or snack, it will at least be healthy foods.

Now when the temptation strikes, I try other things. They don't always work, which is why I keep the healthy stuff around so it's not so bad when they don't work. I might try to slowly lick on a spoon of peanut butter or chew gum to occupy my mouth, or sip a cup of hot green tea, or exercise, get out of the house, whatever I can do to try and get my mind off of eating.

If I'm with family and we end up at a buffet, I fill up on salad first so I don't have much room left for unhealthy foods. Then, I can eat some of the unhealthy stuff, I just won't eat as much of it. If you're going somewhere with food, try munching first on veggies or drinking a lot of water. I realize that drinking a lot of water before a meeting might not work too well unless they install a porta potty in the room, but the veggies might do the trick.

As for the boredom, have you tried doing something else not to be bored? How about a walk, or maybe picking up a good book, knitting, etc. This is what has helped me tremendously. I am an emotional eater as well!

As for mid-afternoon - I eat every 2.5 - 3.5 hours, so there is usually a snack somewhere between 2:30 and 3:30 in the afternoon. I usually have some veggies and a piece of fruit. If you need something more "filling", try something with fiber and protein. But I imagine that this may also because of your boredom factor, as it is with me

Last - ah the free food! So hard to turn down But its not really "free" is it?! You are going to have to do some hard work to get rid of those calories! So don't think of it as free, and hopefully that will help!

I keep foods/drinks separate too. One of my weaknesses is Coke...so I keep it in the basement fridge...out of sight/out of mind. Same with cookies, bread, and snacks.....off of the counter and into the cupboard. I keep carrots, apples, bananas...whatever is healthy in our house at the time, where I see them first.
I usually have a cold fruit smoothie for a mid-day snack. Orange juice, plain yogurt, banana and frozen berries go into the "Bullet" (or blender) and it really fills me up until dinner. I try to drink plenty of water. I read on another thread that foods rich in fiber will go a long way to filling you up. Maybe try something high in fiber for lunch.
I have learned (in my limited experience) that will power only works when you are not really tempted. I need to rely on stratagies to help keep me successful.

Robin, I have the same problem and I am so close to goal,very upsetting. Somehow a jar of peanut butter got into my house. Nearly irrestible. One thing I do when the impulse strikes is to log on to 3FC,hoping the urge will go away.