Following as I’m in the same boat as you… for me the only thing that helps is when I’m doing one of my hobbies or something else, although usually I end up forgetting to eat in that scenario 😢
Find hobbies or projects or do stuff with friends to the point that you don’t have time for movies and youtube
When you’re at the store, don’t buy junk food. If it’s in the house it’ll be extremely difficult to say no to, but while shopying it’s easier to make a more rational decision. Also, plan your meals for the week and maybe meal prep
Basically we all need to learn how to hack ourselves.
Whatever that may look like for you is fine, so long as the hacks don’t cause secondary problems then whatever works works.
Your Ritual = sit, watch, snack on crap, repeat until ??
So maybe try and replace each bit, one at a time, and see what you can bear to white knuckle long enough for it to transform into an enjoyable habit:
Sit -> walk on treadmill / exercise bike / whatever while you watch, or go outside for a walk while you listen to podcasts etc
Watch -> listening to podcasts and music or video audio frees up your eyes to be doing a crazy or hobby while you listen. This also means your hands will be occupied and not snacking.
Snack -> swap in fresh sweet crunchy veg (carrots, sweet bell pepper etc) or popcorn (no butter ya sneaky bugger) etc
Repeat until ??? -> Portion control. You don’t take the whole bag of chips out of the kitchen, you take out a small bowl full and that’s your limit
Pick whichever one you want.
Change is hard. We kinda hate it. But it’s worth it.
don’t buy it. ever. and if people bring it over make them take it back. make grocery lists before going to the store with healthy snacks you like on it or meal plan filling meals. and eat before you go to the store so you shop with your head, not your stomach lolol.
Just stop buying that kind of food if you can’t control your consumption of it. If that’s too extreme for you, buy less of it, and when you do eat some, put one serving in a bowl and eat it out of the bowl. When the serving is gone, no more, no refills, you’re done snacking on that food.
Stop buying it. Starve yourself of it by just not having it around.
Keep a tall glass or bottle of warm water with you when you’re junking on content. Keep sipping it. Slowly. Over time you’ll finish the bottle and get up to pee. That’s there number 3 comes in.
Recognize another harmful pattern here. Is your approach to watching content affecting your mood or causing you to spiral into junk food addiction? Maybe cut down on the YouTube videos. Or if you enjoy them a lot, combine them with some other activity you can do with your hands - drawing, writing, lifting weights, anything. Basically understand that your hands are idle while your brain is engaged and that’s causing you to reach for that packet of food.
Recognize that junk food is an addiction. Deal with it as you would an alcohol or nicotine addiction. You can go cold turkey or taper down. But you have to commit. You have to hold yourself accountable. But do not let yourself get bogged down by failure. Addiction is difficult to deal with. Deal with it anyway.
I find your third point interesting. I read something a while back that suggested some cigarette smokers got started or hooked because of a compulsive need to have hands and/or mouth preoccupied, particularly in stressful situations. I think it was called something like digital-oral fixation? Anyways, I wonder if that’s one of the reasons behind constant snacking. Maybe a stress response paired with a compulsive disorder…
It’s actually incredibly common. Think about all the people who bite on the end of their pen or always have a drink (like a water bottle or coffee) to hand
I love me some salty food so I feel the pain. I’ll echo the sentiment of not buying it in the first place. Will power is an exhaustible resource.
I find that it almost doesn’t matter what I snack on I just want to snack. I will literally buy a huge bag of carrots and just eat those. Or my other favorite is toss a couple of strained cans of garbanzo beans in an air fryer, spray a bit of cooking spray, toast those suckers for 25 min, and salt/season them for a protein heavy snack that actually has fiber. Cheap, easy, and gives me similar vibes to a potato chip in an incredibly more healthy way.
Thanks for the chickpea recipe! To add to your carrot tip: when I buy them I peel them straight away and store them in a sealed container in the fridge. They stay crispy and juicy that way.
I get them whole and eat them whole. So dang cheap. Like $3 for a 5lb bag. I get made fun of endlessly by some, but I joke that if it were a bag of Doritos no one would bat an eye and that says a lot about the state of things. My wife joked that I have “car carrots” and just leave a big bag of carrots in the car if the weather permits.
I am never hungry for a snack if I eat 2lbs of raw carrots.
It can be tough to break from habitual behavior in the moment (i.e. when you’re reaching for a snack). Instead try putting some effort on making it harder or more inconvenient to indulge in that habit, while also giving yourself alternatives so it doesn’t feel too torturous and make you want to give up.
For example, I’m guessing it will be a lot less emotionally “painful” to resist buying those snacks when you’re out grocery shopping than it will be to resist grabbing them when they are already in your pantry. Use that to your advantage and stop buying the worst ones and try replacing them with a few healthier alternatives so that when the urge to snack hits at least the worst options are not available to you.
I’m hardly the healthiest eater, but a good apple sliced up satisfies a lot of my urges to snack. Baby carrots with hummus also keep your mouth busy and fill you up with relatively few calories. Try a few fruit/veggie snacks to see if any scratch your itch to snack. You don’t have to change 100%, if you can break the junk food habit even 1/4 of the time, that’s a step.
Another thing that’s worked for me is portion control. Instead of bringing the whole bag of chips with you, pour a bowl and leave the rest in the kitchen. You might go back for seconds sometimes, but it still creates a barrier to eating more.
I think the most important thing is don’t try to make it all or nothing. That will just set you up for failure and frustration. Take steps that are meaningful but achievable. And when you have the motivation, try to think of ways to set yourself up for it to be easier to make good choices when you have less motivation. You got this 💪
I was able to curb my nervous/bored eating and drinking with bitters and sours. Instead of reaching for food I now reach for some tea (with just lemon), coffee (decaf black), a glass of water with lemon, or just suck on a lime wedge. The lime thing is mostly to curb alcohol cravings.
PS: My wife’s answer was Kombucha. Everybody is different.
I still have some of it in my house, but over the past year I’ve cut down majorly, by refusing to snack during the day, and tracking my calories each day. Just being aware of what I ate made a huge difference. Also, instead of ice cream, I buy TruFru dark chocolate raspberries and just have a few each night. I’ve lost about 50 pounds since last January through diet and exercise.
I’d say it’s more like 70/30 personally. It also gives you some wiggle room with a low cal diet. But you definitely can’t just do some running then go out for bucket of KFC all the time.
Calories burned from running isn’t that great of a return.
An estimate is that a 200 pound person burns 792 calories per hour running at 5mph (12min/mile, or 8kph) on a firm, level surface. A 140 pound person burns 555 calories in the same scenario.
So yeah, with a 1500 calorie deficit diet, that’s about a 3rd of what you eat for the day, so like 33%. That’s a pretty big chunk, and easily allows you to snack on occasion and still hit your deficit. I’d say it’s pretty helpful, but diet is still absolutely necessary for any results.
This is the only way. I lack all self control to not eat junk food and sweets. I never buy them for this reason. Only eat dessert and junk food if I’m out or it is provided for me somewhere else.
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