Food is my enemy

[Joannewoods_]

I really struggle to eat right. Or not eat for the sake of it. Has anyone got any tips on eating well and reducing unnecessary snacking?

[Hidden]

Hi and welcome Joannewoods_

can I suggest you have a look at the NHS 12 week plan and print off the planners

I would like to invite you to join our Newbie Club, which we hope will be a good place for you to connect with members, who are also just starting out, or re-starting.

If you just post a few words on the October Newbie Club thread to introduce yourself and respond to others there you will soon feel part of the club.

Follow this link to the Newbie club: healthunlocked.com/nhsweigh...

Please read all the information carefully, it is very useful and can be referred to whenever you want to check something.

It just remains for me to wish you well on your journey

[Nikabi]

I am trying to keep healthy ready made snacks in the fridge. I have a container of carrot sticks, another of cucumber sticks, smaller ones with portions of mixed grapes etc. In the cupboard I have a tub of air popped popcorn. All healthy snacks ready to go to. Don’t have unhealthy snacks lying around, they only call to you from the fridge/cupboard! But we all slip sometimes. Eating out last night I had a salad. crispy bacon and grilled chicken, really tasty and filling. But had pudding as husband was having one - chocolate cake with chocolate sauce. God knows how many calories and I didn’t even enjoy it. Not used to sugar anymore and was too sickly. Plus my husband ordered a J2O when he forgot to ask what I wanted (I was driving) so add that sugar to the mix too. 😔 I am fine with my new eating until I eat out and there are temptations.

[Joannewoods_ in reply to Nikabi]

I know what you mean I’m normally okay with eating out because someone else is cooking it for me 😂 I just struggle when I have to do it myself. My boyfriend isn’t a fan of all the prep either...

[Clare987]

Hello,

I think I know what you mean: to snack or not to snack and if yes, then what? Now, I am new here, so am not practising what I preach, but this is my plan, and the reasons behind my decisions:

I cannot remember snacking being an option at all when I was a kid (1980s, 1990s). Cake was for birthdays, chocolate a small treat at xmas and Easter. Puddings were rare. Now, even if my parents were extreme, I am sure that if you went back to their childhood, this description stands true for all children of their era. We do not need snacks, bottom line. Lives were busier with many more chores. Now we over analyse, feel stress, have to deal with boredom, anxiety. And we deal with these emotions with food. But it never used to be an option.

Going cold turkey will be so so hard, but I think the answer for me. Not to be hungry, no, but not to fill my emotions with food. My plan is to have a back up of drinking (not alcohol!!), fruit if desperate. But this constant snacking is mad for me.

Good, good luck to you. Hope food becomes your friend instead.

[aneesto]

what might help is to eat something that will make you tired - like sucking on that carrot stick for a few minutes, or eating an able with skin on very slowly, then you'll just get fed up and carry on with work when you're at work. This has sometimes worked for me and sometimes made me want a cookie even more. Or have several walnuts or almonds and chew on each one very slowly.

Probably paying attention to how you feel when you are having the food could work too = or whenever you want to eat a cookie or snack go to the bathroom and do 15 squats 15 startjumps and then do a lap around the building or the office. Then you will know that all the time you have 'wasted' on exercise and would have rather spent on snacking is gone so now you definitely need to get back to work, otherwise you will start falling behind.

[Joannewoods_ in reply to aneesto]

I love these ideas. Especially the exercise one