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Weight loss chat

A space to talk openly about weight loss journeys and challenges. Mumsnet hasn't checked the qualifications of anyone posting here. You may wish to speak to a medical professional before starting any diet.

Ideas for what to do instead of eating! And changing mindset/habit

12 replies

MNnicknameforCVthreads · 01/10/2020 19:42

I need some ideas about what to do (especially when at home, and especially in the evenings) instead of eating.

There surfing the net and telly, but I’ve always “treated” myself in the evenings (chocolates, crisps etc) and after years of getting away with it, the weight is now piling on.

OP posts:
PamsterWheel · 01/10/2020 20:12

Yoga
You tube workout
Meditation
Knitting/crotcheting/sewing
Drawing/Painting
Journalling
Planning the holiday of a lifetime
Reading
OU course
Any number of free courses online
Baths, face packs, manicure/pedicure
Research a topic of interest

(I really should take my own advice!)

PamsterWheel · 01/10/2020 20:14

Pinterest boards
Learn an instrument
Write short stories
Crosswords
Suduko

lacylass · 01/10/2020 20:29

We do 'pick' at night but...

We have stopped eating before lunch time, just hot drinks.

The lunchtime meal is usually a breakfast, overnight oats, porridge, shredded wheat with fresh berries, nuts yoghurt and almond milk.
We eat meat, fish, salad, veggie curries, chilli for tea, usually with couscous or rice. No bread or potato.

Evening time, when we are tired and less focussed we eat popcorn, tiny chocolate 'bites', pretzels or olives. Sometimes liquorice sweets or wine gums. Small amounts just enough to not have to deny.

DP has lost nearly three stone since April, me a stone.

It is going so well and has become normal, we have taken a whole meal out of everyday and occasionally can still have a takeaway or a cake without it making a difference.

BusySittingDown · 01/10/2020 20:35

Something that keeps your hands busy as pp mentioned.

Have an options hot chocolate instead. They are just under 40 calories and quite filling. If you drink tea maybe try a Yorkshire Tea biscuit brew - it's just black tea with a flavouring. It tastes like malted milk biscuits dipped in your brew so you get a biscuit taste without having to have one.

MNnicknameforCVthreads · 01/10/2020 20:54

Thanks, some good ideas there.

OP posts:
LeGrandBleu · 01/10/2020 21:06

Don't replace an habit with another. Try to cut is all together because otherwise the habit is still there and you just change its characteristic and one day, the healthy habit will fail and you will be back to the unhealthy one. The same with there "healthy snack" to eat in front of tv because how long are you going to last with a celery stick or popcorn. One day, no doubt about that, it won't be a celery stick but a salty/sweet junk food because you will still be used to nibbling.

Decide that you will only eat ever at the dinning or kitchen table. Not in from of the Tv or while reading book/ internet. Eating is eating not munching without consciousness.

I am French, and we tend to only eat seated and never in the lounge or bedrooms (nor in the car, while walking, not on a bus,...) .
Treat as a noun has a very different meaning than the verb. You treat an illness, but your "treat" - the bad food that gives you pleasure is the opposite and is something deserved, I believe it only exist in the English language.

Go back to watching TV without putting something in your mouth. It will feel weird for a week, but if you manage to do it, you will be free for life.

Be conscious that you have been manipulated/educated into this behaviour. All the ads that shows happy people biting into a magnum/chocolate/whatever crap , condition you to associate two activities.

Also maybe stop buying what in France is considered children or party food. We don't eat crips on a daily or weekly basis. Chocolate bars are for kids not adults.

Every time someone mentions the French Paradox - we eat fat yet are slim - I want to point that it is not what happens at meals but in between or after that is the main difference. We don't snack. It is very frowned upon.

I know it is hard, because it is embedded since childhood. The snacking, the reward from food but this munching is only beneficial to the product manager who will reach his target bonus every time your hand picks a packet form the shelf. These foods, crisps and chocolate , are been designed in a lab to reach the perfect texture and taste that sends your brain banana. In nature, you don't have the combination of fat+sweet or fat+salt or fat+salt+sweet. Have you ever tried hot chips without salt. How many will you eat?
And the worst, is seeing all these mothers praising the melty puffs or veggies baby crips they give as great finger food to babies. How to hook a person to crap food for life .

Buy some nice new pillows, a rug, an ottoman to put your feet on, (maybe even a poster of the Tour Eiffel as a French reminder ) and make your living room a nice room you have no intention of soiling with crumbs or food stain or bad smell from greasy takeaways.

And before doing that, grab a plastic bag and empty your cupboards/drawers of all the cochonneries you have.

GetRid · 01/10/2020 21:12

Excellent advice from @LeGrandBleu

It's true. The habit of snacking is the issue, try to break it.

Have you tried eating your evening meal later, so that you're not hungry when it comes to watching TV?

lacylass · 01/10/2020 21:38

I think it is very much about what works for you, denying yourself will only make you want it more.

Identifying key changes that work for you is the key. We certainly don't feel we are 'dieting' or denying ourselves anything. We've worked out what fits our lifestyle....and lots of weight loss later, it's working.

LeGrandBleu · 01/10/2020 22:58

From what you describe @lacylass you are having 3 meals a day but just shifted the clock forward. So you have breakfast/brunch as lunch, then a main meal at dinner time and a snacking meal after dinner made of a mix of savoury (pretzel and olives) and sweet (chocolate and lollies) .

If that snacking is important to you and works for you because you are basically doing a form of fasting by adopting a 10 hour feeding window between 12-22 , great. You have found something that works for you.

But changing a lifestyle to make possible to incorporate a bad habit, the night snacking I mean, not the occasional cake or takeaway, don't you question the need of that snack, so important that you would feel you are denying yourself something if you don't have it. Could you go a week without it? I can't go a week without coffee, and I am the first to admit I have a coffee addiction. So a snack addiction is just another form of addiction.

I am not criticising you, just trying to understand the origin of that. I now live in Australia, and after so many years, still don't get some of the food behaviours here. And I guess, any Aussie in France would question many of ours. Bloody cheese after a meal every night?

Eviebeans · 02/10/2020 07:23

Hi I tried meditation for weight loss 30 day challenge and found it really helpful - a way to think about "emotional" eating and change it. I have lost 2 stone since mid April.

SchrodingersImmigrant · 02/10/2020 12:22

I have a timed pre planned snack. No grazing. It really stops me from "hmm. Maybe a bit of this and that".

lacylass · 02/10/2020 13:16

No definitely only two meals a day..a tiny bitesize chocolate sweet doesn't count as a meal, neither does two olives.

Yes, I can go without the snack at night, but why would I? I've lost a stone and have maintained my weight of 7st12lb over the last few weeks as has my DP with his 3 stone loss.

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