Deprogramming Eating Habits

[gia]

I used to be 'normal', and didn't care about all these high fat, low carb diets, or even 'diet's' in general, i was just very active and played sports, and had the average 3 home cooked meals a day and i was fine! I looked far better than i did now, and felt better for not caring so much about food.

I've turned into a major comfort eater though whenever i'm stressed or angry/upset.
I'm not as bad now as i used to be, especially now my assignments are in as the last few weeks of uni had me snacking on chocolate bars/cakes etc! but i'm just wondering if anyone has any tips for getting out if this 'i need to eat to feel better/de-stress syndrome'!, are there any techniques, or is it simply, just suck it up and deal with it and i'll eventually learn not to.

I'm confident i can lose the fat now it's the summer holidays as i never buy junk food, but when i go back to uni i fear i'll let it all slip again!

[Martay]

Personally, I found it quite easy just to stop and go cold turkey. I figure that if you're going to put in all the effort at the gym you might as well with your diet too. If you can't do this why don't you allow yourself a certain amount of cheat meals... 10% or something. Meaning if you eat 5 meals a day that's 3-4 meals a week where you eat what you want.

[Duncan]

I sympathise- I've been through a bit of a rough patch recently and the urge to comfort eat has been pretty strong as a result. The only tip I can offer is to learn to recognise when you're looking to eat because you're hungry and when you're looking to eat because you feel stressed/down and try to take control. A lot of the time, food cravings due to emotional factors can feel very similar to normal hunger incentives and you really need to be able to tell the difference.

In practical terms, whenever you're about to eat anything, just ask yourself are you eating because you're hungry or are you just eating to make yourself feel better. Might sound like the stupid "count to ten if you start to feel angry" thing, but it's how I've been dealing with it.

[gia]

it's just a habit i'd love to eliminate for good though really, i have a cheat meal about, once, maybe twice a week which is fine for me, as long as i'm not stressed! lol. I do often think about how hard i work at the gym and how my diet may sometimes ruin it, but... it still wont stop me buying several chocolate bars if i feel i 'need' them!

[MeshMan]

I wish I could help but I just can't bring myself round to the way of thinking that people comfort eat. The last thing I want to do when I'm stressed or worried about something, is eat.

I often relate to cheat meals as a taste bud lust. If your focused on satisfying that lust then your not thinking of the real benefit or affect on what that food is having on your body. I guess it's a paradigm shift?

When you go to eat that chocolate cake, I guess the most "normal" way to think of is "Ah, this is going to taste so good. Mmm - satisfied.".

I think of it as "Simple crappy sugars that are going to cause an unnecessary insulin spike, bad empty calories that will most likely go on as fat, and make my taste buds lust after wanting more of this crappy bad unhealthy crap and throw my metabolism off burning fats!"

I guess the latter way of thinking is always keeping in mind your goals of sculpting your body, dismissing things that only satisfys short term lusts.

The only time I can recall being so near to throwing rubbish down my neck, is in a social pressure situation of "Everyones trying a piece of that birthday cake." or totally engrossed in something where someone for a split second offers me a crisp or a piece of chocolate. So many times I've gone "Thanks" and took one, but then the moment before I eat it, I realise lol.

Can't you "replace" the crap chocolate bars with other acceptable cheats? For example, instead of a pudding, have fruit (Strawberrys!) with cream?

Instead of snacking on crisps, snack on fruit?

Good luck gia.

[Karlos02]

Just don't buy the stuff. You're complaining now so you obviously care, so just remember that you care when you feel tempted to buy that pack of jaffa cakes. It's probably obvious, but i believe alls this will take is abit of will power to overcome it, and once you go for a few weeks, temptation to eat crap will naturally reduce. By eating crap you reinforce the temptations to recommit the offense.

i'd even go as far as saying kick the cheat meals in for two weeks. Cheat meals are glamourised and you end up having a mind set which will encourage you to eat junk even when the cheat meal isn't scheduled, which is obviously nicht gut.

[mxd]

I'm being well naughty in my book atm my diet macros are as follows 500c/300p/120f I even have a lil choco here and there.

Don't restrict your self too much if you feel like binging do it and then get it out of the way.

Have a cheat meal every so often its not really going to kill you. Even if you had one cheat meal every day in your calorific allowance that 7 cheats a week but you still have 35 other good meals.. is it going to negatively affect you??... not in my opinion. (Unless your contest prepping).

Saying that I do agree with K dawg.

Just balance what makes you happy

[stronglikewood]

There's already a lot of good advice here but here's my take on it. Some of it is repeating what others have already said!

1. Recognise when you feel the need to comfort eat and instead sit down with a glass of water and tell yourself that you don't need junk to feel better.

2. A little isn't going to hurt you so stop glamorising some foods by calling them 'cheat foods'. You're not cheating unless you are contest dieting for a show. I'm eating junk most days at the moment but it ranges from 0%-approx 10% of my daily calories. This is nothing in the grand scheme of things. If one day I go slightly overboard it's not the end of the world and the next day I remind myself that it's probably best either to have no junk food or have less than the day before.

3. You could try the V-diet! This will sort out any discipline problems and set you on track.

[hailtotheking]

Gia, i'm also studying at the moment, and i know how it is to wnat to go for the chocolate and biscuits when working hard. My answer is simple, but will initially take a bit of willpower to stick to. Basically, i get a tupperware box with a few apples, satsumas, grapes, carrot sticks, celery, and fresh mixed nuts, and leave them next to my computer when studying. This way, if i do want to snack, i can do it on the right kind of foods.

[Canuck Singh]

Here is a very simple solution to your problem. Purchase the most delicious sublime protein shake you can find that would quench your craving, and keep the powder nearby with a shaker. Crave --> Shake --> Drink.