squash your weakness
 

ok, i feel like the one thing in my way to really making some progress is ... :devil: ice cream :devil:

i do a good job of not buying ice cream at the grocery store or when we eat out. the problem is that my dad has recently moved in with us, and HE has bought ice cream. TWICE. and while a container of ice cream over the course of 3 weeks is not serious damage, it is mentally unsettling (i'm a little bit of a perfectionist).

the real problem with ice cream is i can not stop once i start and i usually eat many small bowls in one evening. tonight i ate about 2 cups of healthy choice rocky road total.

do other people have that one trigger food? i guess the best way is to go cold turkey. so tomorrow i am going to start just that. if anyone else wishes to join, feel free to list your challenge food.

I do have trigger foods. I know I'm radical and a lot of people strongly believe in moderation - but I simply put my trigger foods on a "no" list. I did not eat those foods anymore. Eating them just wasn't an option. Ice cream is one of my "no" foods. I'm with you, I love everything about ice cream and I could never stop at one small bowl if there was a container in the house.

Now, while maintaining, I would never buy ice cream for the house or allow myself to eat ice cream out of a container in the house. 1 scoop while out of the house is okay, sharing an ice cream dessert is okay. Finite things are okay. Stuff I can keep going back for more again and again? Uh uh.

I know myself too well - why torment myself like that?

congrats at being at your goal weight!

i usually follow the "moderation" principle-- i enjoy fried and fatty things, even chocolate, in moderation... but there is something about ice cream. thanks for not making me feel crazy for having to put it on the "no" list.

Ice Cream is definitely one of my weaknesses too. I am on the low-carb lifestyle and found that Braum's has a really good selection of low-carb ice cream. I prefer to just go there occasionally and get a scoop. Having a whole carton in the house would make me want to eat it all.

I just don't have a "NO" list. For me, denying myself the right to a certain food (fried chicken, potato chips, ice cream) would only perturb the likeliness that I'll find some other way to eat it later, and in a greater quantity than I actually expected to ingest. The only food that would fall under this "NO" category if any existed at all, would be oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. Ladies and Gentlemen, the cravings will devour you whole once your teeth meets the surface of this oatmeal-simple-sugar conglomerate. Do not attempt to diet and have this cookie during the course.

Simple carbs are a trigger food --- I just can't moderate them. So for me it is just best to stay away. Maybe someday I will learn portion control with them but now is not that day.

My weakness is Pizza. I cant just have one slice. I love it. The way it smells. I even love the grease lol. Sad I know. I only have pizza once every 6 months~ the real kind, Pizza Hut. I do make my homemade pizza, BBQ Chicken, which is wonderful, but sadly not the same.
My other weakness is chocolate and Starbucks. I do have Starbucks ONLY on Saturdays now, which is major control from my daily Starbucks treat. As for chocolate, well I dont think ill ever stop eating it lol

Ice cream was one of mine, but I think I have successfully entered ice cream rehab and got out the other side. I never buy it for the house anymore. I was the classic "bad day at work medicated by a tub of phish food" eater.

I have ice cream from my posh deli in the village. I have to walk. I have one scoop in a cone, and I have to walk back. They're only open four days a week, and only limited hours, so it's a pretty safe way to enjoy a treat.

Or at the movies. One scoop in a cup, and that's it.

Over the last 14 months I have had ice cream less than 10 times, and I don't even crave it anymore. It really was quite a thing with me.

I have a very active inner three year old that lives in my head. If I tell her she can't have something she throws massive tantrums that throw me off course. I can keep her placated with healthy options most of the time, and she's learnt to love strawberries and cottage cheese, but sometimes you just gotta give a three year old icecream.

Trigger foods?
Anything that's sweet or crunchy that's in a box.

I don't buy boxes of cookies anymore because I know I'll eat the whole box in a day. If I want a cookie I'll buy an individual bag or something like that.

I don't buy big bags of chips...because again I'll eat the whole bag in a day. If I just really want chips I get a single small bag.

The same thing for cakes...I can't buy a cake because I'll eat the whole thing! Stuff in my fridge and pantry has to be in small portions or packages. It's weird because now that I'm thinking about it...I have to separate the meat I buy from the store. I never cook the entire slab of ground turkey or the whole 8 pieces of chicken. I have to separate it and freeze the other half so I don't eat the whole thing.

I don't have any forbidden foods, but oh yes there are triggers. Almost anything sweet, plus other carb loaded snacks. Cheese crackers and cheese puffs are doom for me. I deal by almost never letting myself have these things, and when I do only buying as much as I should realistically eat in one or two gos. If I have a bag of something, that entire bag will be gone within two days no matter how hard I try, so I had to realize that and work around it.

oh ice cream- one of my worst triggers- I can no longer allow myself to have those drumstick cones because if I eat one, I'll end up eating 3!!! I'm bad about eating dessert at night, and this is one habit I'm still trying to break!

My most triggery food is cookies. If I do break down and buy them, I try to buy something individually wrapped because it seems to make me eat less of them if I have to keep opening packages. I have a box of Biscotti beside my bed in case of emergency.

I don't have any specific trigger foods, I guess. I'm an equal opportunity eater, I guess. So, there's lots of things I can't keep in the house. They aren't on a "no" list, per se, I just can't have them in the house. If I want ice cream, we have to go out for it. Lately we've taken to walking the 2 miles down to TCBY and back. I've got to really want it, in other words! :D

-Lala

Ice Cream lovers - check out Nestle Real Dairy Smoothie - ohhh soo good!
http://www.nestle.ca/en/Products/Bro...view=BrandView

PASTA. I can't even imagine how much pasta I could eat if I really let myself go. When it's there, I will eat it-- and all of it. I don't know why my brain finds it so impossible to leave a few noodles left in the bowl!

Fried okra. (I can hear some people cringing)...I don't get it often...but when I do...I can't stop.

I'm sure there are others...but that's my main one. Ohhh freshly baked cookies...especially chocolate chip.

Last night I made banana pudding for my dear husband, who asked for it. It was so tempting , but I refrained from it. I told him to take the rest of it to work with him, just to get it out of the house. I do miss the sweets, but have found that occasionally getting some low-carb candy is nice. Also , I eat a lot of carb free jello with whipped topping. After nine months of eating this way, it is starting to feel more natural to refrain from the things that I know I can't control myself with. ( that's why I got really FAT to start with).

Trigger foods aren't so much my problem - it's being able to limit portion sizes. I have a very difficult time trying to limit what I eat. I'm working on knowing my 'fullness' levels - satisfied, full, and oh lord what have I done?! My goal right now is to get to the satisfied stage and quit.

That said, I don't buy chips anymore. I make cookies (at least then, I know what's going into them and have a better idea of calories/fat/etc) every once in a great while. I do buy ice cream, but I'm very lactose intolerant so one small bowl every three or four months takes care of any and all cravings. There is one thing that I really have a hard time with - sodas. I'm addicted to them. Once I have one, the rest of the day is shot because I literally crave them, and get caffeine headaches.

oh that looks yummy! where can you get them? Only 100 calories!

I'm with the poster who said it is portion control which is her problem. I went to my nutritionist with a food diary for 2 weeks and she was very impressed with what I ate on a whole, it is just that I eat wayyyyyyyyy tooooooooo muchhhhhhhhhhhh of it LOL

I mean, I do have the occasional treat etc, but 99% of my diet is very clean... but even *clean* foods can make you really overweight if you don't know when to stop eating them. Which I don't.

But yes, ice cream too....we can't buy it around these parts.... whole carton, gone in an evening between my husband and myself... but he is still slim!!!... the jerk hahaha jk

ice cream
 

i love the blue bunny sweet freedom bars.. only 90 calories and made with splenda!

i like the ideas of walking to the ice cream place and then buying the small size. that way i am not "denying" myself and not losing control either. going out for ice cream is a very "normal" thing to do. alternative-- buying a 4-pk WW, etc. box of frozen goodies. if it is individually wrapped, it is so much easier to stop at just one! i think this just proves it is all mental.

for the record, i have not had ice cream since my original post! we don't have any in the house, but my mom's house is ALWAYS well-stocked-- that's where the challenge is.