How to stop loving bad foods?

[KristaTurner]

I absolutely love junk food. I will pack a healthy vegetarian meal and still buy/eat junk. I have no idea how to stop this, and I have the worst self control ever. Anyone else out there have this problem or had it? How do you prevent yourselves from making a mistake that you know you'll feel guilty about?

Thanks in advance!

[WendyB · Accepted solution]

Set a goal to not buy any junk food for 3 weeks. Then follow through.

Takes that long to break a habit.

Personally I llok at the calories of an Item before I buy it and that usually stops me

[carl669]

find alternatives as well for when those craving hit REALLY hard.  for example, i love cake. so, i found a recipe that makes 2 cakes in a small, 3" ramekin.  i wife and i each each get one and top it with homemade whipped cream (very very very lightly sweetened). it's the perfect serving size to kill off the craving, and i still get to indulge a little.  plus, it's got a good amount of fat (23g) and a little protein (6g) in it as well to keep me satiated for a few hours.

[KC12]

Healthy substitutions. Sometimes that means getting a smaller portion than normal, sometimes it means making a comparable meal. Figure out the stuff that tempts you most, then figure out a better version of it. If you like candy bars, maybe a small handful of chocolate chips will satisfy your sweet tooth. If you like the fizz of soda, maybe seltzer water will do it for you.

Physically remove yourself from the temptation (if possible). I normally eat my lunch in the break room, where the vending machine is. Lately, I've just been using the break room to warm up my food, then I'll eat outside instead. No more 45 minute internal struggle about whether or not I should buy that bag of chips.

Wait it out. Sometimes, you can wait out a craving. Try to distract yourself for a few minutes and that craving might disappear.

[LewWagner]

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@KristaTurner wrote:

I absolutely love junk food. I will pack a healthy vegetarian meal and still buy/eat junk. I have no idea how to stop this, and I have the worst self control ever. Anyone else out there have this problem or had it? How do you prevent yourselves from making a mistake that you know you'll feel guilty about?

Thanks in advance!

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Krista,

I absolutely loved junk food, as well.  One of the reasons I ballooned to over 300 pounds as late at Oct 2013.  You just have to see a nutritionist, find out what you need to eat and then eat it.  Throw out or give away all the other stuff.  Then go shopping and buy non-processed foods (fresh fruit, vegetables, and perhaps deli meat). 

Weight the food you eat rather than guessing.  Buy a small portable electronic scale to do so.  Then enter in the values for your food intake religiously.  And honestly.

Drink water vs. soda, malts, or coffee.

Figure out ways to keep yourself occupied vs. wandering into the kitchen.

Exercise, exercise, and...you guessed it...more exercise.  Get into or back into the habbit of physically exherting yourself until it's second nature.

Just some thoughts from a bloke who was there, did the above, and made it.  I don't ever want to go back to where I was.

I hope you can break this habit...good luck.

Lew

[Catz]

I suffer from self control issues myself.  I have read, and re-read the advice you have all given.  Hopefully, I can conquer these issues.  Thank you all!

[westmoraine]

Don't know where you work or how you take breaks, but you might try two things:

Take GOOD treats for the munchies on breaks - (celery comes to mind)l.  Maybe you eat as a nervous habit.

And

if you have to go to a "place" to buy treats on your break, just don't take any money - leave it in your locker or desk or wherever you keep stuff.  

No money no junk food.  

[SunsetRunner · Accepted solution]

Don't restrict a favourite food to much, otherwise the craving for a certain food grows larger, eating more of it when getting your hands onto.

I ate personally a few years ago, lots of candy (even when not being hungry) 'cause of the temptation to just eat if it's been in sight.

When decided to go back to a lower weight, changing food habits bit by bit, eating more fruit,.. don't have the needs to eat that much candy anymore, when feeling the need to eat a piece (and when being actually hungry), allow myself to eat 1 or 2 pieces max.

On most days don't even fancy to eat candy anymore, but sometimes the little 'craving' is there, but eat nonetheless with moderation, 'cause if not doing, it would lead to eat lots of it..

[josephz2va]

- Put your credit cards away to break the temptation or just decide not to stop by your favorite eateries

- Look up the nutritional label at the store or online and deter yourself from eating (300 calories, 73 carbohydrates, etc).

- There's only a handful of foods that are healthy for you that a fast food restaurant will sell. But it's more healthier and affordable to make at home. Not fresh later on, but cheaper and healthier.

[PaleoCrossfit]

I have a SERIOUS love for chocolate. I want dark choclate every single day (and not just a little, either). I still eat some every once in a while, but not very often.

I bought dark chocolate cocoa (the baking kind), and I add it to all kinds of things. I still get the flavor of chocolate, but not all of the bad crap it has in it.

Also, I always have add chocolate isolate protein to my green smoothie every morning, so that helps a ton.

[josephz2va]

Be sure for the "Dark Chocolate" it ain't a Ritter Sport or a Godiva.

Most are times 3 servings of this nutriton. Very bad for you.

[Caramammal]

Hi there - try some research into what wholefoods do for your body and health vs. what junk food does.

For me once i understood what terrible diseases a bad diet can truly cause, avoiding them became lots easier. It's not called junk food for nothing, and due to its manufactured flavours and high sugar and fat, it's similar to crack coccaine in the addictive sense, no wonder people struggle with giving it up. Food manufacturers should be held accountable for producing such food that offers zero nutrition and gets people addicted and craving it, not to mention fed up, unhealthy and unhappy -  just so these companies can get super rich on the back of peoples health. Once you look into the 'food' industry, it becomes scarily clear how junk food is simply killing people.

[jsyden4535]

Honestly I am in the same boat. I LOVE Tim Horton's. I love their iced coffee. I tried to get it with 2% milk and it tastes terrible. I use equal- I know, not great, but no cals. I love their doughnuts. I just frickin love the taste. I am not hungry. I drive past two TH on the way to and from work and stop on the way in for breakfast and the way home for a snack. I have packed on the weight and was heavy to begin with. Now more to lose. I am worried about my health and want to get healthy, but that taste. I can't figure out how to gain the will power to get past it. I can avoid snacks after dinner. I can avoid them all day long. But in the car. UGH! What is wrong with me? Why can others do it and I can't even get started before I fail? I have the fitbit and used it for a while. Then stopped. Now I have started again and hit 10K steps tonight for the very first time -- I didn't think it was even possible. So that made me really happy. I am logging my food honestly for the first time too. Apparently writing it down where only I could see it was still too embarassing to myself before, but I am trying to do it this time. Any thoughts?

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@Caramammal wrote:

Hi there - try some research into what wholefoods do for your body and health vs. what junk food does.

For me once i understood what terrible diseases a bad diet can truly cause, avoiding them became lots easier. It's not called junk food for nothing, and due to its manufactured flavours and high sugar and fat, it's similar to crack coccaine in the addictive sense, no wonder people struggle with giving it up. Food manufacturers should be held accountable for producing such food that offers zero nutrition and gets people addicted and craving it, not to mention fed up, unhealthy and unhappy -  just so these companies can get super rich on the back of peoples health. Once you look into the 'food' industry, it becomes scarily clear how junk food is simply killing people.

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[kat3]

I know it sounds drastic, but it's like any other addiction, limit you're contact...change the company you keep to people with more healthy habits who don't revolve life around food.