Hi I'm new on this forum and I'm over weight due to eating late at night and eating the wrong food at that time biscuits and crisps are my

[786ayesha]

Downfall. Does anyone have advice as to how I can train my mind to stop doing this as I knw I'm not eating because of hunger.

[Eiri]

Hi 786ayesha.

I was the same as you a few months ago,snacking on crisps and biscuits and not able to stop.I managed to change my eating habits by changing my diet to include more fruits , nuts, seeds bio yoghurt etc and snacking on these instead of unhealthy sugary and fatty foods. I also cut down my portion sizes of my main meals and swapped white rice and pasta for brown.I started by wallking a little each day and am now managing to run 3 to 4 times a week.I feel so much better now and have lost nearly 2 stone .I lost weight quickly at first and now loose about a pound a week.

[786ayesha]

Hi Eiri

Thanks for your reply I'm goin to try to change over to sum healthy snacks like u said but unfortunately can't exercise much I have arthritis in my knees and worse than that is the pain I have in my heels from planter fichititis but will try the snacks idea but don't nuts be really fatty cuz of the oils in them

[NowUseeMeNowUDont in reply to 786ayesha]

Hi. Have you thought about gentle swimming?. There is less pressure on my joints in the pool. I use a treadmill at home (slow walking as i'm recovring from a major operation) and use the pool. Much less pressure on my joints when i'm swimming. Perhaps it may help you. Thanks

[Windswept1]

I don't have a sweet tooth but tend to binge on savoury stuff like crisps & cheese at night. my solution is not to have them in the house and if I get a real urge I have a rice cake with peanut butter.

[786ayesha in reply to Windswept1]

Yeh that's a good idea although I tend to bring the biscuits and crisps for my kids and visitors but find I'm controlling how much the kids have and then losing control wen I've put them to bed and it's just me and the telly

[Windswept1 in reply to 786ayesha]

You'll be doing your kids & visitors a favour too! You can offer them healthy stuff instead

[Diana in reply to 786ayesha]

Bake goodies, freeze and only defrost enough for the others?

[chunkymum]

Hi. I am also fairly new to this and have the same problem. I too buy biscuits/cakes and crisps for the kids and then binge on them when they are in bed. I always have healthy food in the house but find it's not what I crave and clearly it takes more effort to prepare. This week I have prepared tubs of chopped veg sticks and chopped up fruit when I make our evening meal and put them in the fridge so I have an instant healthy snack when I feel the need to binge. I find that dipping veg in a small amount of low fat hummous or peanut butter helps hit my craving for nutty snacks too. I've also given these to the kids as snacks instead of crisps and biscuits and so far no complaints. I've also bought some flavoured rice cakes which my brain seems to accept as crisps, but with far fewer calories. I think for me I need to not have the bad stuff in the house, at least until by brain is retrained!

I can see that the kids are likely to want the odd unhealthy snack sometimes, especially when they have friends over, so my plan is to buy smaller packs so they can have one each and there are not multipacks in the kitchen to tempt me. I'd be really interested to hear what works for you, as I am sure this will continue to be my biggest problem.

Hope this helps in some way, and good luck

[786ayesha in reply to chunkymum]

Thanks for that, I think I will try that carrot sticks with low fat homous sounds nice. Your absoloutly right abt the effort side it's hard work making healthy snacks where as all the bad food comes in packets you just open. Anyway will try the cutting up of fruit idea too. Thanks

[Diana in reply to chunkymum]

You can slice root veg thinly and bake as crisps! Never tried , use fry light ?

[786ayesha]

Hi. Thanks for all the helpful tips will see how I get on in the next few weeks guys.