How do you keep yourself accountable?

[allisong]

I'm such a terrible snacker as well as an overeater. My H and I switched to a mostly vegan diet for various health benefit reasons but I'm having such a hard time when it comes to snacking way too much and overeating, especially when I get home from work. I then feel shitty about myself but then do it again the next day. I just don't know how to get out of this cycle.

[leatherpants]

Jul 7, 2017 11:17:18 GMT -6 allisong said:

I'm such a terrible snacker as well as an overeater. My H and I switched to a mostly vegan diet for various health benefit reasons but I'm having such a hard time when it comes to snacking way too much and overeating, especially when I get home from work. I then feel shitty about myself but then do it again the next day. I just don't know how to get out of this cycle.

I don't have an answer for you but this is my struggle too.

When I have been doing well, I just know in my head that I don't have to eat whatever it is I want to eat. When I'm not doing well, my inner monologue is always "but I want to eat it".

So that's not helpful but is the best I have

[brewcitygal]

I honestly don't have an answer to this, but I want you to know that you aren't alone. I told my husband the other day that I feel lost on how to lose weight, because although I love working out, I also love to snack.

One thing that helps me at night is after putting the kids to bed, I will brush my teeth sort of forcing myself to be done eating. Of course there are times I still snack anyway, but it does help me once in awhile.

[bobyn]

Are you at a place where you can remove all negative temptations from your home? I know it can be hard if you have unhealthier snacks around for children, but I find that I need zero opportunity to "cheat".

[kittyforman]

I struggle with this as well. I binge and overeat, hate myself for it, vow to never do it again. And then the next day will be tempted by a food and go crazy. I should probably attend some OA meeting or something, but there aren't any local.

[allisong]

Jul 7, 2017 20:17:21 GMT -6 bobyn said:

Are you at a place where you can remove all negative temptations from your home? I know it can be hard if you have unhealthier snacks around for children, but I find that I need zero opportunity to "cheat".

It's definitely difficult with the kids snacks. I mean who doesn't want to eat a bunch of cheese-itz?! It's so hard..

[tjr42]

Totally my journey so not one size fits all (exercise/weight loss pun not intended...although I wish it were because I love a good pun!).

I'm a terrible stress eater. I know this. So I have found huge success with mindfulness exercises. Building the mind body connection has helped me to notice I'm getting stressed well before the point of handfuls of chocolate chips hiding from my kids in the pantry. And, if I still chose to grab a handful. I know I'm doing it and I know why. That's helped me not to then feel more stress from judging myself for eating the first handful. It's also made it "okay to eat one or two cookies" because I realize I didn't blow my diet. Before I would just say "fuck it, a handful of chips is still crossing the line so why not half the bag. Well damn now I feel shitty I ate half a bag and feeling stressed I just sabatoged my whole week and the only way to cure that is the other half of the bag." Ok so slight exaggeration, but honestly only slight.

Tracking what you eat is helpful, but I would suggest writing it down before you eat it. That way you are mindful of what you are about to put into your body and can decide if it's worth it. At the very best...you don't. At the worst...you made a decision that is inline with your health based values. At the end of the day you either need to be ok with eating it (or you wouldn't have) or you are ok because you didn't eat it. I would say to myself, I earned this cookie. And I did. I totally ran it off. But when scale doesn't change or the image in the mirror isn't the one I want, I either say this look/number is ok given I get the cookies or need to change it up to watch the number drop (i.e. Stop eating junk or exercise more, or even better still... eat what I like in moderation and take the stairs).

I think I just got preachy...

[Ee]

Jul 8, 2017 12:51:04 GMT -6 allisong said:

Jul 7, 2017 20:17:21 GMT -6 bobyn said:

Are you at a place where you can remove all negative temptations from your home? I know it can be hard if you have unhealthier snacks around for children, but I find that I need zero opportunity to "cheat".

It's definitely difficult with the kids snacks. I mean who doesn't want to eat a bunch of cheese-itz?! It's so hard..

I had to move all the kid snacks to a separate cabinet and just officially designate them as kid only and adults are not allowed to eat them. This strategy has been working pretty well here.

[Lakes]

I've just started working on losing my baby weight. I second not buying tempting snacks, keeping the kid snacks on a high shelf/separate, and tracking. Tracking was eye opening for me. It was a "that handful of my kid's goldfish is how many calories?!" type moment. It's helped me stop stealing their snacks and finishing their pb&j

[redbears]

If I need to eat just for the sake of eating, I opt for veggies with some salt.

[meggriffin]

I have been tracking my food on My Fitness Pal. Logging all my food and seeing the calories add up and how much I have keeps me in check at night.

My H and I work opposite shifts so I am home alone at night and it is really easy for me to go crazy knowing no one is there to see me eat.

[leatherpants]

I can't remember what thread it was being discussed on but I was reading about the macro calculators so I did it last night and decided today I'm going back to tracking but focusing on my macros this time.

The biggest thing though was I changed my food diary setting so my MFP friends can see it instead of private. I'm hoping that keeps me accountable

[angelashly]

Since I started last week I have been not only tracking in MyfitnessPal, but posting daily food in the noom thread.

[redbears]

I weigh in at my WW meeting on Friday's, so when I find myself eating just to eat, I think about how I will feel about this on Friday. Also, it sounds silly, but I can hear the people in my meeting and leader saying positive things from past meetings and it helps reign me in

[trippyalien]

I have started listening to health, nutrition, and weight loss audio books and podcasts during my morning and evening commutes. It helps keep my health and nutrition goals fresh in my mind and seems to help keep the motivation and will power to avoid mindless snacking strong. Also, having healthy snacks on-hand really helps if I am truly hungry so I am never tempted to go for something less than ideal.

[copperboom]

I have some fitness stuff pinned on a Pinterest board. When I'm losing will power, I sometimes pull up the board and scan through the quotes and transformation pictures.


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[Sunny41]

I just noticed this is an old post that got bumped up but I'll comment anyways.

My guilty please is licorice. I used to be able to easy a 1# bag in 1 night. But what I found more helpful during this recent pms was an alternative. I found sugar free jello that meets the texture and flavor need. Is there 1 snack that you can find an alternative to? Light popcorn or edamame instead of pretzels or chips? Snackable fruit on hand. Chocolate protein bar instead of oreos? I guess I'm saying concrete substitutions rather than veggies instead of everything.