So, I made a decision last night to throw out a load of home-made flapjacks. Now they weren't particularly bad, they were small and full of healthy things (when eaten in small amounts!) i.e. peanut butter, flax seeds, oats etc. so one on its own would be absolutely fine but I KNEW the longer they stayed there the more likely I was to have some kind of binge/over-eating episode which would affect my weekly weigh in, as I was already starting to obsess over them - ridiculous I know!!
But although I know throwing them out is the right thing to do it made me sad that at the moment I cant seem to keep things like that in the house. My boyfriend is really healthy so I am very lucky that he doesn't keep much junk at all in the house at all but on the odd occasion someone buys him something, say a bar of chocolate, I try and convince him to either eat it or give it away so our house is a junk-free as possible which isn't really fair on him!
My plan is to get to my goal weight with as little junk food in the house as possible and then slowly try to bring things back in, in a controlled and slow way....has anyone else had success with this or got any other ideas? Not sure what is the best way to manage it really!
i HATE to throw food away...I don't know what that even stems from because I had an average-income childhood, a few years of very poor college living, and a fairly average-income adulthood
i'm a big fan of freezing things for later if I can't bear to throw it out, especially something homemade....however I also have 2 boys and a DH in the house so most food doesn't last long enough to freeze...sometimes I "save" it on the counter for a day or two and then, convinced that it's gone moldy, will throw it out....at work in a school setting, I will send extra food home with students who are in poverty situations rather than let it sit there tempting me to nibble on it later
i HATE to throw food away...I don't know what that even stems from because I had an average-income childhood, a few years of very poor college living, and a fairly average-income adulthood
i'm a big fan of freezing things for later if I can't bear to throw it out, especially something homemade....however I also have 2 boys and a DH in the house so most food doesn't last long enough to freeze...sometimes I "save" it on the counter for a day or two and then, convinced that it's gone moldy, will throw it out....at work in a school setting, I will send extra food home with students who are in poverty situations rather than let it sit there tempting me to nibble on it later
Yep, I freeze everything! Flapjacks would freeze great either by flash freezing or putting a piece of wax paper between them.
You have no other choice but to throw out everything unhealthy and keep the house junk-free, at least that's how I see it. I often go through the cupboards trying to find some treats even though I know there isn't anything there. And I'm glad there isn't anything there.
There's a new problem though: a shop has opened just around the corner that's open very late in the evening. It is horrible when you start to feel like having something "nice to eat" at 10 pm and realize you could just pop in and buy some chocolate...
What I would do is have one shelf in the refrigerator be "OK for Me" foods and one shelf in the pantry be "OK for Me" foods as well. Now, other family members can raid them (that's life, after all!). But if I see Oreos, it's not on my shelf, and so I label it "Non-Food" LOL!
Man that really sucks but you did the right thing for you! You shouldn't get down on yourself because you can't keep something like that in your house right now. Eventually you *might* learn ways to cope with it, but it is better to prevent temptation, right?
I've learned to cook smaller batches of things that I'm likely to binge on, or buy smaller amounts. Freezing doesn't help me avoid tempting foods at all!
Don't worry about it and well done. I often find semi-healthy foods that I know I should not keep around me and it takes me time to get rid of them or throw them away. For me right now, my key issue is honey. I have a fabulous collection from all over the world just sitting in my cupboards that I used to eat on my weightloss journey but it got too much (6 tablespoons a day too much). So I don't eat it any more which is good discipline but one day it will need to go else always be a temptation. It's just part of the process. You did good. Real good. Fill your life with healthy foods. Not borderline or unhealthy ones.
Everything in my cupboards (with the exception of honey) is stuff I would really struggle to get fat eating even if I ate a lot of it.
Which also means a calorie is not a calorie.
But I do keep a dark chocolate collection. That has special uses. I eat it before a long run. That might be the other trick. Pre-exercise food in small portions else you will feel sick that you only eat then.
Thanks so much for all your advice guys! It has completely removed an unnecessary temptation and now they are gone I haven't even thought about them so it did the job! And now I would be the same, if I went in our cupboards everything is really healthy, nothing is a trigger food so feel completely free from temptation and can just concentrate on eating right and exercising! No point in making things harder than they need to be, losing weight is hard enough already!!
Freezing is a really good idea for future reference though! I never would have thought about that! Would mean I would really have to pre-plan my treats which would help with binges so will definitely keep that in mind for further down the line!
I know what you mean about keeping tempting foods in the house. My DH too can eat and stay thin. He is just like yours he doesn't want it in the house.
When you see them in the store you only have to say no once. When you bring them home you have to say no repeatedly until they are gone.
That's my biggest weakness! And DH favorite treat. DH is on of those freaks of nature that can eat ANYTHING and seems to eat NON STOP and NOT gain an ounce. Everyone used to say some day it would catch up with him. He is nearly 60 5' 10" and weighs 155 lbs. If it hasn't caught up to him by now, it probably never will.
He used to ask me to dish him up ice cream after supper, even if he knew I was dieting. I would almost always take a spoonful or two for myself sometimes even dish myself a bowl. Before I started dieting this time I sat down with him and made a list of things he had to do to help me succeed. One of the things was DO NOT even ask me to dish up ice cream! Also if there was ice cream in the house it had to be in the basement freezer. My reasoning, first of all I would not see it every time I go to the freezer for chicken breasts or frozen veggies. Second of all if I had to go downstairs, get the ice cream, bring it upstairs dish it up, bring the ice cream back downstairs, it would either be "to much work" or I would have time to actually think about what I was doing and talk myself out of it.
He has other snacks around the house, but they are in containers that I cannot see into so I don't pay that much attention to them.
I've had to throw things away in the past, and I've just had to get over my aversion to throwing food away. I hate wasting food, but hating myself for binging on it is just not an option anymore.
We don't have any junk food in the house at all. Because I am a binge eater, there are certain things I cannot control myself around that aren't even necessarily junk food (for example, peanut butter) so I don't buy those things anymore.
After learning a few pivotal techniques, I've slowly learned how to not binge anymore - so I've been able to reintroduce some foods I haven't had in the house for a very long time. In fact, I've had mixed nuts in the house for two months and haven't had a binge on them. Also had almond butter and a block of cheese that I was able to eat normally. Honestly, since I'm new at being able to say No to my binges, I haven't brought any super high-value stuff like ice cream, chocolate, etc. - but I think, in time, I'll be able to do that, too.
That said, I had to go about 4.5 years without any of this stuff in my house before I was able to eat it normally.
FYI - Freezing does absolutely nothing for me. If I know it's in the house, I'll eat it.
I guess I got to rambling and forgot the main topic. Throwing things out.
I have a much easier time throwing food out than hubby. I will throw leftover if I know we won't be home the next few days to eat them. Hubby will put them in the fridge, wait until they are moldy then throw them out. However we currently have 2 pigs, 30 chickens, two dogs and 10 barn cats. So even if I throw any food away something will eat it.
Throwing things out...
It has completely removed an unnecessary temptation and now they are gone I haven't even thought about them so it did the job! And now I would be the same, if I went in our cupboards everything is really healthy, nothing is a trigger food so feel completely free from temptation and can just concentrate on eating right and exercising! No point in making things harder than they need to be, losing weight is hard enough already!!
