I mindlessly stuff my face too - now I just do it with water and gum. I will always reach for whatever's on my desk continuously until it's gone and I always need to be stuffing my face... so now I go through bottles and bottles of water a day. It's done wonders for me!

Ugh I have water and a diet lemonade right here - and sugar free hard candy and gum within reach....it does not stop me.....

I pack daily what I am going to eat each day and nothing more... because I will eat everything I bring. I pack my lunch and my two snacks... if I eat them all in the morning, then I am VERY hungry in the afternoon (so I don't do that!). I think of vending machines and the cafateria as "off limits". I just do not give myself the option of using them (on the rare occassion, I might get a salad or fruit from the caf.).

Do you take breaks? Can you get up and go walk a loop around the office or up and then down a flight of stairs? If I munch like that at work - it is out of boredom... so I have to do a little self talk: "Sherri, you are just bored right now and not actually hungry. Get up and stretch your legs. Go say hi to your co-worker. Go to the gym early. Or just wait until it's snack time."

OR - the other thing that I SOMETIMES do is to pop a 100 calorie bag of Orville Redenbacker pop corn (94% FF) and I can munch on that slowly.

Well luckily there is no vending machines - I don't work for a large corp anymore (the ones I used to had such a good caf!!). So our office is actually a house but no kitchen. I get an hour for lunch and do often walk. I think I need to have the darn willpower in the morning to only pack what I should eat and no extras because it looks good. Because its blatantly apparent I will eat any extras and then some! At least people don't bring a lot of junk to share. Good lord I sound like a freak... I feel like a freak! If I could stop thinking about food I'd probably have the time and the brain power to write the next great novel!! I'm not a gum chewer really but maybe I should do the sugar free hard candy more....there isn't a ton of calories and its something with my mouth. The sugar alcohols make me though.......lol.

Why are you not counting calories and journaling your foods? Each and every bite. It doesn't go into your mouth till it's on paper FIRST. These are wonderful tools to put an end to *face stuffing*. Really. Give it a try!!!

And yes, about the planning - take only what is *allowed* and acceptable. And I don't know where you're packing from, but why is there such extras that look so good lying around? Clean out your environment. Set yourself up for success. Stop making this difficult thing that much harder. This is another area where a calorie budget will come in handy. You have to set a pre-determined limit to what you can eat. Calorie counting will do that for you. You've got a budget to adhere to and thats that. You take only that amount of food. Period. You've got to set some boundaries for yourself.

Another thing about the planning, once you get into it, planning out each and every morsel that will go into your mouth ahead of time, the thoughts of food will stop dancing around your head. There will be nothing to think about. You're eating your planned foods. Nothing more to even contemplate or worry about.

These are wonderful habits to get into. And once they are established, but you will indeed have to establish them, they will be just as hard to break as the bad ones.

do you belong to a gym? I have a snack between 4-430, go straight to the gym from work and by the time I get home its 7pm, i take a shower and start dinner. by the time your done your boyfriend will be home and ready to eat