What has helped me during my fitness journey is to think about how I going feel after having one of these unhealthy food items.  It may seem satisfying while you are consuming the food, but immediately following I will feel sluggish and if  it is simple carb like most of the items are then the high and low that comes with the blood sugar swing.

Think of food as fuel.  Feed it the best fuel you can it will be a well oiled machine; feed it junk and it will be garbage can!

I totally agree with this article! I am the only one in my house trying to lose weight, so there are non-diet friendly foods here...like soft and chewy chocolate chip cookies.

If they are where I can see them I struggle a lot with wanting one (or two!). These are the fresh bakery kind...so when I get them home from the grocery store, the cookies are put in a ziploc, returned to the bakery box and put on top of the refrigerator. I know they are there, but as long as I don't have to actually look at the cookies, I can resist.

It took me a while to figure this out...since then, I really try NOT to look at food that I plan not to eat. No photos (or looking at others meals) with thick melty cheese, etc.

Food commercials are the worst. I love reading so I try not to watch nightime TV because every commerical is about food.  I also stay far away from the kitchen after dinner!  Both of these tricks has helped me lose 80 lbs. this year along with healthy eating and exercise of course :)

I have always closed my eyes or looked away from the tv while running on the treadmill when all the fast food and restaurant commercials come on.  Didn't know there was a study, just wanted the junk food after watching it so....stopped watching.  

This is so true! I love to cook and one of my favorite channels is the food network! i always find myself getting hungry or well wanting to eat after it. I usually try not to watch unless i just ate because then i know its not that im hungry, i just feeltempted to eat. theother thing is is that i work in the wall, and eventhough i work in a shoe store we have tons of candy. i have a sweet tooth and all day when im there all i want is chocolate even if i just ate. staring at it constantly is pretty rough!

That must be hard mnz23.  I have the same temptations in the office. Lot's of goodies.  Have you tried bringing in fruit or celery/carrots to much on instead?  I have lots of healthy things in the frig for that reason.  It's always someone's birthday and they have cake AND ice-cream. I do not go near the break room 99% of the time.  But, as others have said if it's been a few weeks since I allowed myself to "indulge" I will have a small piece (sliver) of cake and I don't feel guilt after it either!  lol  Willpower to us all!!!

Fun coz for me it's actually the healthy stuff that get. Oat porridge cooked the old fashion way with a good helping of peanut butter, cream and dash whisky so i try not to cook oats at all coz that's the only way i will have it and when i do cook it i try my level best to cook just enough because i know if i cook a little bit MORE am definitely going to finish the whole damn thing. Then there's peanut butter - this ad gets me everytime!!! My daughter now hides the bottle from me, am only allowed it for my 10 a.m snack on provitas or rye bread and then it's gone till the next day! Other than that am all good. Ramadhan (fasting) has taught me how to refrain myself, thanks God.

Last night I saw that the Biggest Loser was on ... ugh! Why did I have to see all those various chinese food dishes during the challenge? ... it was too late to be looking at that. I guess it was to give me my own personal challenge.  I was thought watching the show was going to give me diet motivation... hahaha ... WRONG!  Goodnew is that I didn't eat anything.

I literally have to have a nice hot bath around 9pm almost every night because I start getting tempted to eat something stupid (I am the only one eating heatlhy in the house) .

Khan, I like that one, I have a great bathtub and never use it.  Always shower in mornings, but I will try that in the evenings :)

I used to love to watch shows like Man Vs. Food, No Reservations, and Bizzare Foods while running on my td... but cannot watch anymore because i'd find i'd want to eat an entire horse when i got off. You'd think watching a person stuff themselves beyond any human capacity, or watching a person eat grubs would be a turn off of food.. but nope.. Zimmern can make sucking worms in sewage soup look yummy lol!

the only time i'll watch those shows now is if they happen to be on when i've planned to sit down and relax with a healthy snack.

I agree with the food related commercials complaint, it seems every commercial pertains to food, diet, or cooking tools. UGH! I now record all tv shows and fast forward through commercials. Try it, it saves time and calories!

Original Post by: melizabeth

I used to love to watch shows like Man Vs. Food, No Reservations, and Bizzare Foods while running on my td... but cannot watch anymore because i'd find i'd want to eat an entire horse when i got off. You'd think watching a person stuff themselves beyond any human capacity, or watching a person eat grubs would be a turn off of food.. but nope.. Zimmern can make sucking worms in sewage soup look yummy lol!

the only time i'll watch those shows now is if they happen to be on when i've planned to sit down and relax with a healthy snack.

These shows have the opposite effect on me. I used to watch Man vs. food when I DIDN'T want to eat because watching someone stuff so much greasy nasty crap into their mouth and almost puking is a great way for me to lose my appetite. Eww

Now I just don't watch it at all.
Adam Richman is going to have a heart attack one day while eating those giant cheesy, bacon covered burgers. Have you seen how much weight he has gained?

I Like the cookng shows the best, I like coming up with healthier ways of cooking what is on the show.  Mewlkitten is right the man vs food type shows just made me queezy.  I would think that if I brought 5 to 10 friends we could all have dinner. 

Another trick for snacking is I stop and think before I eat the quick treat. Is, this is aobut 25-60 calories, where would that put me in my count for the day. 

I think you right about Adam Richman gaining weight.  Have you noticed he always wears a jacket when he is doing the eating challenges? Seems to me he doesn't want to show his upper body.

If I watch television, I watch it online and block commercials so that I never see ads for food but if I'm driving around and see food on billboards, I want to eat EVERYTHING. Fast food is so tempting. I try to order healthier options when I go, but Taco Bell and KFC are my favorites and healthy isn't really an option for either of those.

I can't COUNT how many times I've watched people eat on TV and thought, "I want a snack."!  A great deal of truth to the above!  Probably Still one of my number one obstacles.  Great piece!

Fortunately, the opposite is also true.  The "Eat This Not That" site is notorious for berating foods and restaurants.  On of the things I've seen them do is also show the food item in question in it's nastiest state; a burger that's oozing old cheese and grease; donuts dripping in elmer's glue looking glaze that look like they've been sitting out a few days.  Makes the items look Really unappealing and makes me feel very Not hungry! 

Case in point, at a local eatery last time I went, I saw the waitress go by with a platter of hot roast beef sandwiches and ff.  It looked so good that today, against my better judgement I ordered it with gravy on the side.  She brought it with gravy all over the bread and meat and gravy on the side, thinking I wanted the gravy to dip the ff in.  I had also forgot about the white bread, never thinking to ask for wheat, what was odd is that I ate the whole thing but was still hungry a few hours later, the white bread and gravy was not lasting as my more normal meals were, all brought on by salivating from what i SAW.

While I think this article is great, who picked the pic to accompany it?  Nobody could find a pic of somebody with their eyes closed rather than a delicious fruit tart/cheesecake dessert???  C'mon guys you're supposed to be helping us here :/

Being from Texas, every time I see a sign that says “Mexican Food”, I start salivating. I really do! Not a healthy choice.

This is interesting. Nothing distracts me from eating quite like curling up with a good cookbook. I don't actually need to eat food to feel satisfied. Often I CAN just look at it and avoid the hassle of cooking or eating!