Can't Stop Thinking of Food! Help!

I was just looking for different advice from people on what they use to stop them from thinking about food.

On the days that I am doing well, I think about food constantly. Every tv commercial, the smells of other people's food at work, or just being bored I am thinking about food. I try to occupy myself with other things but I can't stop thinking about indulging. It hasn't really caused me to go off track with my diet but it takes soooo much more willpower to not overeat when that's all you think about.

What do you all do to prevent this?

depends on, how much do you eat? why are you thinking of food constantly? maybe your diet is too tough and you are not eating enough?

 

if not, I used some tips that helped me a lot:

- drink more water

- have 5-8 small meals a day (when you get used to eat every 2-3 hours, your body doesn't ask for unnecessary calories)

- find another source of pleasure

- keep yourself busy

I agree with rilliyah. Eat smaller meals more often. It's nice to eat every few hours and you feel less guilty because each meal is small. By the end of the day, you really only should have eaten the equivalent of 3-4 square meals but it feels like so much more.

Monday through Friday, when I work, I plan my meals in advance and pack up several Tupperware (sometimes 10 or more if that's what I need!) I make sure to count out my calories for breakfast, lunch and snacks and everything comes with me. When I'm at work, it doesn't really matter to me in what order I eat my packed food, I just know that I can only have what I brought with me and usually, I find that I don't eat everything I bring. But that paranoia of "what if I get hungry" or "what am I gonna eat"  dissapears because I'm prepared. At home I eat a sensible dinner and I try to give myself a little leeway in terms of calories incase I need one more snack before going to bed, that way I never overeat. 

On the weekends I'm a lot more lax about it since I'm at home and I can more easily count what I'm eating. 

So, I guess in a nutshell, my advice would be to plan out your daily meals, whether you're at home, work or whatever and that way you can allow yourself to think of food because it'll be okay to eat what you have with you. Just remember to space your meals out so you don't eat everything at once. And after a while your body will get used to eating a bunch of small meals and you'll be fine.

I hope this helps! Good luck!

 

It can be real hard but i've got a little technique that sometimes works. First. Change the channel on every food commercial and every time a food commercial comes on drink some water, at least 5 sips. Next, what kind of foods are you thinking about? if its hamburgers or fried foods a good trick is to imagine your self killing then cooking that thing. Imagine all the bloody details.If its sweets, this might sound nasty but it works. Imagine that sweet thing spoiled, imagine how it would look how it would taste and how it would smell. try a couple of these things out a while and see if they work for you. they always work for me.

 

I know this might be replacing one obsession with another, but honestly the only thing that has gotten me through is to just get obsessive about planning healthy meals for myself in the upcoming week. Instead of thinking about all the food I can't eat, I will be perusing healthy cook books, coming up with grocery lists, trying to refine my weekly menu so that I can use more leftovers for fresh meals and conserve waste, etc.

Keeps my mind busy and off of what I shouldn't be doing.

Those are a lot of helpful tips, thank you so much.  I try to eat smaller meals spread out but I suppose I should do that more frequently or rather than have a meal and a small snack, have two small meals.  The visual thing is really great too, because I am such a visual person and that's what gets me with food.  I've tried to do the replacing one obsession with another as well but rather than thinking about none-food related thoughts I get consumed with food related thoughts, dieting, etc. rather jus going about my day as normal.

I'm wondering if that's how most people are?  Now that we are "changing" our lifestyles, food intake, exercise, is it normal to be consumed with those thoughts or do you all still live your days normally and just happen to do things differently then you use to? 

Those thoughts are always gonna haunt you until you get into a routine of eating healthy. then later you wont be interested in them as much. but ever so often when you are out with your friends or at a birthday party, that birthday cake is just going to be screaming "Eat Me! Eat Me! You just have to build up enough self confidence and determination to tell your mind "No".