Tips for Snackaholics
First, if you're eating when you're not hungry, it may be due to something you're avoiding or not dealing with. You need to do some soul searching and find out exactly what that is and deal with it. I recently started doing this and have since noticed that I'm less obsessed with food and when I go back to ignoring what's bothering me I want to eat again. My life is empty because of my social phobia (and other disorders), I don't have much of a life and I think I eat to fill that emptiness. We only want food when we're not hungry to make up for something else or to numb something. We need to explore what that something is and deal with it, I really think that until we do that, we will always have this problem.
Before trying any of the other tips on this page, I recommend looking within to see what you're avoiding, what you're not dealing with the next time you want to eat when you're not hungry. Until you conquer your problem, I hope the following tips can help.
I have a problem with non-stop snacking at certain times of the day, or when watching certain shows, mostly out of boredom. This behavior, while modifiable, may not be overcome cold turkey. I believe, however, that we can make gradual changes and over time overcome bad habits.
Don't Think About It
Believe it or not, this works. I had a REAL addiction to peanut butter and couldn't stop eating it. I realized I had to stop eating it to lose any weight or not gain and that helped me to stop thinking about it, why think about it at all if I COULDN'T have it. It's like one you get it through your head that you can't have something (or you choose not to have it which is an even better way of looking at it), you sort of let it go and when you do that you actually forget about it. The thought may reoccur, especially if you see the food or are in a situation/feeling that makes you want it but you can just stop yourself thinking about it and occupy yourself with something else. This has helped me a lot and if it weren't for not thinking about it, I bet I'd be all over that peanut butter jar.
Change Habits
You need to identify how your snacking begins. What causes you to eat too much? For me it's usually boredom and especially watching tv and not having anything else to do at the same time. I think watching something, even if I find it entertaining, still makes me want to eat because I'm still kinda bored and feel the need to do something. A bad habit I picked up over the years.
You need to identify your own personal behaviors and habits and do something different that will help you avert snacking. Be consciously aware of what you're doing. Tell yourself you're going to do something else instead of snack, make a point of it. It seems, for me anyway, that leniency, being lazy or not really thinking about it leads me right into temptation. It helps if I tell myself firmly, "I'm absolutely not going to eat that (or eat anything at all)." I agree with myself in my mind and follow through. I might tell myself, "Ok, I'm not going to eat anything past 7:30", or, "I'm not going to snack during this show".
Keep Busy
If I keep myself busy with something, for example, putting away laundry, working on my websites, cleaning up, reading (I can read all day and this really helps), etc., food doesn't even cross my mind at all. Even better, exercise. Do cardio or weight training. If you can't get yourself to exercise try doing something playful like board games, dominos, squish playdough instead of eating, draw, etc.
Snacks that last
Try chewing gum or sucking on sugar free hard candy. I ordered sugar and aspartame-free gum from here. I decided not to get the kind with aspartame in it because it's bad for you and can stall your weight loss.
I have yet to find hard candy that doesn't use sugar alcohols but it's better to have one or two hard candies that will last you a while than eating one sugar free soft candy after another. Chocolate is the worst, I inhale it and can barely control myself if at all.
Also, get candy you don't like that much. I'm not a big fan of hard candy to begin with and even less, fruit flavored hard candy so I will try getting that next time, that way I won't eat too many of them.
Drink water
The fuller you feel, the less you'll want to eat, well, even if you want to eat you won't be able to because you'll be so full. Try drinking half a liter before and after each bite. You won't be eating much. Just don't drink too much (12 liters in one day), that can be fatal because it upsets the sodium balance in the blood.
Substitutes for your addictions
Pudding and dairy substitute
Sugar free pudding mixes are loaded with starch and fillers and also contain aspartame so they should be avoided. You can make your own low carb pudding, click here for the recipe.
For a non-dairy pudding, you could use a recipe for basic mayonnaise and just make it sweet. It might sound gross to you but think about it, what is mayonnaise really, it's just egg and oil mostly and the other ingredients can be customized (vinegar substituted with lemon juice or cream of tartar, etc.). Homemade mayo has a texture much like pudding and that's how I came up with this idea. Click here for mayo recipe and variations.
Low carb, low calorie snacks
Sugar free popsicles, storebought or homemade
Sugar free flavor ice
Decaf coffee
Sugar free jello
Homemade sugar free slush or smoothie
