Can't resist - Help me PLEASE

I have access to a gym for free, but I also have access to lots of junk food. I am trying to lose 10-15 pounds by mid june, most importantly my very curvy stomach, but I am a very picky eater so I usually fill up on junk food. 

That's my HUGE problem! I know I could totally lose the weight if I wasn't so tempted by for example, what ive eaten unhealthy in the past few days: large fries, cheese pleasers, 10 chocolate cookies (the kind with chocolate on top and butter coookie on bottom), a thins chocolate bar, mini eggs, 2 cookies, etc etc. They're like not even cravings if I have an oppourtunity to go get some or its in front of me or whatever I dont even think about not. I've been like this for such a long time I dont even think about it when im starting to eat it or buying it. 

I can't resist and I end up having great intentions but horrible results. Please, SOMEONE help me with some tips!!

I can't really tell you not to be tempted by all those things.. its good to indulge in moderation... but

I also love eating food.. tasty food. If you really want to eat all those things that you like just make them yourself from fresh low cal low fat ingredients. It's entirely possible to have your cake and eat it too.. just research recipes online that transform all the junk you love into low calorie meals.. try hungry-girl.com

Try stocking your area with healthy foods instead. When you get a craving for the unhealthy stuff, you've gotta eat yours instead.

Keeping healthy snacks around you helps a lot.  You can also take measures to break the junk habit.  Don't eat anything like that for one week, and you'll find it much easier to pass on it.  Only you can change this.  You have to just make a plan and stick to it.  End the "I don't even think about it" habit.  Start taking a moment before you eat anything to think about what you are doing and make a healthier choice.

Ugh I feel ya sista!  If there is junk in front of me, it doesn't even matter if I'm hungry, have a craving or not, or wasn't even thinking about it a second ago....I have to have it!!

The only way I can resist junk is to remove myself from the temptation.  If I don't have it in my house, the only way I can get it when I get a craving is to go to the store, and I'm too lazy for that lol.

Where is this food being kept?  Are you able to store it in a different room/area so it's not so accessable to you?  I stopped eating lunch in my work cafeteria because if I did, I would buy their oh-so-delicious desert bars....soooo good!  So now I don't even allow myself to go down there and I eat lunch at my desk instead.

Learning about and applying moderation to your diet can be very hard to do.  Focus on educating yourself through this website about healthy snack alternatives, you've already taken the first step by posting your question.  By researching you are arming yourself with the knowledge of a sound diet and embedding it in your head.  So the next time you snack or want to snack on something bad you will contemplate it a little longer based off of what you have learned here.

Next you have to begin to apply the healthy eating style to your daily routine.  This can be done numerous ways, as people have begun to tell you already.  Packing healthy snacks for work/school, finding a work out buddy to motivate you, etc.  I personally think it would be in your interest to rediscover fruit.  Fruit is very nutritious, relatively low calorie and full of vitamins and anitoxidents.  Not to mention that some 60% of Americans don't get the USDA recommended amount of fruit a day.  Try the fruit, you'll feel better, and it tastes great.  Banana's, apples, oranges, clementines, pears, strawberries, blueberries, etc.

I'm 41 and have always been hooked on sugary foods, eating them every day for all of my adult life. I recently gave up all sugary foods, which might sound extreme but the result has been a revelation to me - I no longer crave them, and you can do this too.  Cravings are your enemy if you want to lose weight. Read what British cook Delia Smith has to say about this below (from her website). Try giving up sugar for 2 weeks, the 2 weeks might be hard but at the end of it you'll wonder why you never did it before, trust me!

'Sugar (left) is a highly refined, concentrated form of sweetness and if you were to remove it (along with artificial sweeteners) from your diet, a minor miracle would happen: you would eventually cease to be an addict. In fact, in about six weeks, you would begin to discover how wonderfully sweet an apple or a glass of milk is. When I gave up adding sugar to tea and coffee I hated it for weeks, but when I put it back I hated it even more, and understood how the sweetness had been masking the real flavour. Once you’ve managed to kick the habit, you’ll find most commercial products too sweet and you won’t want them. (It’s my theory that chocoholics may not be addicted to cocoa, but simply to sweetness.)'

I agree with susanep.  You are struggling with a sugar addiction.  Unless you cut out sugar completely for two weeks you will not win this. 

Be careful not to substitute with bread or potatoes, the glycemic index there is also sky high. 

Did you know once you have raised your blood sugar your body is incapable of burning fat for hours due to the fact that by eating sugar, you triggered the release of a truckload of insulin into your system, and insulin facilitates fat storage, not fat burning.

That's why even chewing (sugared) gum can keep you from losing weight.

Good Luck!!!!

Hello,

First off you must figure out if you are actually hungry or just thirsty.... So before you reach for anything think about a big chicken, steak or something of that nature and if it is appeziting to you then you know you are hungry, if its not then you are just thirsty.

Also, you shouldn't deprive yourself of things you like just do them in moderation. What I like to do, is make myself drink a full glass or bottle full of water before I eat anything so that I won't overeat. At night at like 8pm, brush your teeth. This will prevent you from eating late night because you won't want to ruin that clean feeling you have.

Hope this helps!

Ordinarily, I'd agree that you can have what you like, providing it's in moderation but the problem with a sugar addiction, like any addiction, is that you do have to deprive yourself of it for a while if you really want to kick it. It's a bit like smoking, you wouldn't have a cigarette now and again if you wanted to kick the habit, you'd have to stop completely because you need to get it out of your system to reduce the craving. The only difference is, once you have got the sugar habit under control, you can return to having good quality sugary treats on special occasions (providing you want it, you'll probably find that you don't as you'll have changed your palette). It's worked for me! Good luck.

once again I agree with susan

I used to have the hugest cravings for junk food: it didn't even mean that I was necessarily HUNGRY, I just wanted the food because of how it made me feel for the first five minutes after consuming it.

Something that has really, really worked for me:

Besides finding out the nutritional information of your food before you consume it (which certainly CAN help greatly), also make a point to find out where your favorite junk foods come from.

For example, after seeing the movie Super Size Me, I haven't gotten anything from McDonald's in over two years. After reading about where the food from Burger King, KFC, White Castle, etc. comes from, not ONLY have my cravings stopped entirely, but I've also become a vegan. I've lost 30 pounds total thus far using this technique of being well-informed - perhaps it could work for you.

Best of luck!

Did you know once you have raised your blood sugar your body is incapable of burning fat for hours due to the fact that by eating sugar, you triggered the release of a truckload of insulin into your system, and insulin facilitates fat storage, not fat burning

Cravings and the need to eat more will also follow the insulin spike.

I gave up sweet foods (including fake, SF foods) 12 days ago. Not only have the cravings stopped but I am also eating less and getting full faster. I do think that I was addicted to the "sugar rush". Moderation will never work for me.

My husband and I have been trying to cut back on eating so much. When you start having a craving for sweets, try a piece of dark choc., it seams to help. The more you use the dark choc. the faster your craving goes away and it only take one or two pieces. As for the fries and other foods, try eating half, and  eating something healthy with it. You will work the bad stuff out of your diet. Sometimes it just takes extra time. Its like the harder you try the more hungery you are. You will get there. Maybe try a handful of almonds. They really help with hunger.

Honestly its all a mind game.  You need to set your mind and stand back and say, hey not for me.  Look at the junk like its a pile of !@#& and walk away.  You just need to be hard and strong.

I have trouble with junk food cravings too.  I know all about how bad those foods are for me, but that doesn't stop the 4-year-old in my brain from yelling "I WANT! I WANT!" when it gets late in the afternoon.

You don't have that much to lose, so I'm guessing it would help you a lot to substitute real food for junk food.  A few hints:

1) First, confront your inner four-year-old.  Say to her, "Wow, you sound really hungry.  I'm afraid all I have is some broccoli.  That ought to fill you up, right, and hold you until dinner?"  Usually when I think this way, my inner four-year-old suddenly discovers she's not so hungry after all and slinks away to do something else.

2) When you're hungry, eat.  Something real.  Make sure you're eating enough at meals.

3) Plan ahead; make sure what you're going to eat is exactly what you want. Before I choose what I'm going to eat, I stop and think about exactly what sounds good.  If the exact right thing isn't on the menu or otherwise available, I might skip it.  It helps to plan something for mealtime that you really love, so you'll have that to look forward to when snack cravings strike.

4) Awareness helps me a lot.  When I'm eating something, I pause between each bite and really taste it.  Is this the luscious dessert I think it is?  Does it really have a delicious creamy texture (or whatever I've been craving)?  What do I taste after that first hit of salty crispness?  Sometimes junk food doesn't actually hold up that well when we really take the time to taste it.  And then, how does it make you feel?  Does your body feel good after eating it?  Is it refreshed and energized, or is it overloaded, like it's going to have trouble digesting?  You don't have to think punishing thoughts, just observe your body's reactions and think about what fuel you really need to function well.  The thinking process may seem artificial and silly at first, but after a while it will become second nature.

YOu're right about the storage of foods. I have been pretty good resisting bogof's for a while and mostly the unhealthy stuff but now and again I can't resist a bargain or, having kids still, parties in the offing need to buy stuff in. This stuff along with all the other unhealthy stuff like jam, is all stored down the bottom end of the garden in the sumer house. this is double locked so it requires both the effort to walk down the garden plus double unlocking. Sometimes it isn't worth the effort, especially if it is bad weather. Unfortunately the fridge is still in the kitchen with the cheese in it. today's stupid mistakes because I could see it  toast & marmalade - because daughter had a sleep over, already had oats and cheesey puffs because the girls had them for lunch along with icecream. So easy to blame others but if they weren't here I wouldn't have eaten them as puffs still in summer house and icecream still in supermarket. I can be so good while out but at home resistance is futile.

OK- I totally feel your pain. 

I have replaced sweets with Fiber One Choc. and Oats bar. I cannot begin to tell you how amazing these are. For salty I have popcorn or multigrain tortillas with salsa. My objective is not to try and resist my need for sweet and salty but to replace them with better options. You can pre-pop popcorn and grab a bar to keep with you at all times. They are always in my purse. Sometimes as I stare at someone eating the junk, I slowly eat my junk replacement.

Hope this helps. Hopefully we'll both be 10 lbs. lighter by June:)

here's the deal. cravings are hard to resist, especially for those of us with a sweet spot. i almost always have to turn down cake b/c i know for a fact that i cannot stop at just one piece. or even two pieces! it will take a bit of time, but you have to retrain your taste buds to crave good foods. don't buy any sweets at the grocery store. try something like carrots and hummus or celery and salsa for a pick me up snack- it has actually become something i crave! also, make sure that you are always prepared with good healthy snacks on hand so that you you don't run to the vending machine at the first pang of hunger. kashi go lean crunchy protein bars have a layer of chocolate on the bottom but are still packed with protein and fiber to keep you satisfied. good luck- you can do it!

i work in a gourmet chocolate shop and am encouraged to nibble... sounds like a nice thing, but when you're trying to get in shape, its difficult to stay on track.  rule number one: don't deprive yourself otherwise you will binge.  if you love junk food, eat a small amount each day.  i have to plan out my work day calories ahead of time, factoring in a small piece of chocolate, and bring the healthy food with me to work.  i drink tons of water mixed with iced green tea which occupies my hands and mouth if i feel like reaching for something, which is usually not out of hunger, but out of boredom.  i used to have zero willpower when it came to sweets, but training myself and building that willpower has been almost as rewarding as clothes beginning to fit again.  you CAN do it.

If your issue is that you "don't even thing about it," make yourself think about your food by keeping a journal.  Writing down what you eat makes you really think about what you put in your body.

Please, take a word of wisdom here, eat for your health, not your weight.  Once you know how to eat healthfully, your body will take care of the rest.