My Tips to Avoiding Temptation and Saying NO

Long time lurker, first time poster here. My starting weight was around 350 and I'm now around 315, so I'm down around 35 pounds!

I've struggled to lose weight for years, and one of my biggest set backs is breaking my diet and getting/eating food I shouldn't and didn't budget in my daily calories or meal plan. I knew these instances of failure weren't brought on my hunger, I eat plenty and I'm rarely ever actually hungry. It was just my lizard brain convincing me to go to the vending machine for some chips and hostess cakes before I could stop myself.

Usually whenever I cheat like this it results on my giving up for the rest of the day. "Welp, today is shot, might as well eat a big bowl of macaroni and a whole thing of Halo Top while I stew in my own self loathing!"

So I decided to take some time and come up with some ways to stop myself from getting snacks when I shouldn't. I thought I'd share some of these with you.

1. Muscle Through it, the urge will pass.
   This is the biggest one. When I get the urge to go get a snack I do my best to just muscle through the impulse. Sometimes it's past in less than 5 minutes, sometimes I struggle for an hour. The urge especially hits in the afternoon around 2-3 PM when I've still got a few hours of work left and the clock is dragging. Sometimes I will literally just sit there, fists clenched, staring at the floor waiting for the urge to pass.

2. Get something else to trick your mouth.
   I'll get some water, tea, or black coffee, or Powerade zero, or gum, or I'll go to a coworker's office who has little single-package life saver candies in a bowl on her desk. I'll take one and go back to my office. The act of eating or drinking something with little to no calories is sometimes enough to fill the need in my brain for food.

3. Distract yourself.
   I will dive headlong into a work project. Or when the urge gets me on my feet and headed to the vending machine instead I'll take a walk through the building, visit a couple of coworkers, use the ladies room, maybe even go for a walk around the outside of the building. Or I'll jump on reddit and browse for a bit, write a couple comments. Doing something to get my mind of snacking is one of the better ways I've found, especially going for a little walk. Once I literally just leaned back in my chair, closed my eyes, and recited the first 10 minutes of the Lion King to myself in my head. Whatever works!

4. Don't give up on the whole day if you do cheat.
   So you cheated, you ate a 350 calorie snack from the vending machine, leaving you with maybe 100 calories left for dinner. You're not going to eat a 100 calorie dinner, or skip dinner (I mean you could, I've done it before when I've slipped up). Don't use that as en excuse to eat more junk because the "day is shot." Log the calories and move on, note that you went over. Don't beat yourself up over it, but also don't forget it or brush it off. Accept it, promise to do better, and move on. Be over by that 350 calories and realize that snack wasn't worth it in the grand scheme of things.

5. Write down your excuses and learn to spot them.
   "I killed that presentation! I deserve a treat!"
   "Today really sucks, I'm so depressed. I deserve a treat to make myself feel better."
   "I'll start again on Monday."
   "One snack won't matter, one snack wont erase all the work I've done"
   "Today is my birthday/holiday/special day, I can cheat today"
   "I brought a salad but it's so unsatisfying. I need something more than this"
   Once you've come to recognize your excuses you can stomp them out. Do you deserve a treat? Then treat yourself some other way. Buy a new book on your kindle, get a new sketchbook when you go out, buy a new video game on steam, take a nice bubble bath when you get home, set aside 30 minutes for a nice walk, or to play with your dog, or to just lay back and listen to music. There are other ways to reward yourself (and cheer yourself up) besides food. There is literally NO GOOD EXCUSE for cheating on your diet and eating something you shouldn't. You're not starving, you're not going to die, you'll have a chance to eat cupcakes again, this isn't the last cupcake ever. Whatever excuse you tell yourself is a lie and you can refute it.

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With these things I have managed to stop breaking my diet with snacks I shouldn't eat. It's still hard, every day is a struggle, especially when things happen that would trigger a binge. It still does, but now sometimes I literally just go into my room, curl up in my bed, and go to sleep rather than go into the kitchen and binge.

It is possible. You've got it in you to be stronger than your addiction to food. I believe in you. :)

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