I am eating too much junk and processed food while watching movies and youtube videos. I want to stop as it affects my health. Any suggestions.
Stop buying it. That’s how we slowed down / stopped.
This is the way. It’s easier to have will power at the grocery store. Stop buying that crap and you’ll have a harder time binging.
It’s also buying the right stuff.
Veggies and protein take a long time to digest. So you feel full longer.
Junk food is way more calories and easily digestible, so you eat more of it.
Soda is an extreme example. You can take in 500 calories in fluids and your stomach feels completely empty.
A serving of kidney beans will stay in your stomach most of a day. Throw some hot sauce on them and you’ve got a cheap easy snack that will keep you feeling full all day.
People always want to focus on calories, but not all calories are created equally. You need to pick stuff that’s also slow to digest or your body is going to keep telling you that you’re hungry.
Especially when changing your eating habits
Also, using a shopping service like Instacart helps me avoid impulse purchases. I make my list, put it into the cart, and don’t add anything not on the list.
It does cost more, but I actually spend less per trip because I can take my time to comparison shop and look for items on sale. “Do I need beans, or do I have some in the cupboard?” “Oh, they have that seasonal cookie I love, I should grab a box whil they are available.” If I’m not at the store, I don’t have that problem. I justify it to myself by the time saved times my normal wage being far more than I spend on the delivery fees. Reducing the bad snacks in the house is just another perk.
I really like the idea of shopping services, but going to the store with a paper list feels like less work than messing around with the shitty apps, answering the shopper’s “is this substitution okay?”, and then interacting with the shopper when they deliver.
Laziness takes many forms. 😬
For me, just going to the grocery store after a full meal eliminates virtually all of my impulse buys. I typically go out to eat during that shopping trip, so it’s less effective for OP’s concern, but if they took the extra step to cook a healthy meal at home first I think it would be a helpful stopgap.
Also eat before going grocery shopping. It helps with the impulse.
And once you’ve stopped, listen out for the voice that says “just this once, as a treat, I’ve been good” because that voice lies
(You’ve not been good)
Agreed. Perhaps buy/prepare healthier options and have them conveniently available. Like popping your own popcorn for example vs getting microwave popcorn. I have an air popper. After popping some I add olive oil and salt. Store it in a ziplock for the wk. or I’ll buy Skinny Pop, ingredients are the same: popcorn, oil, salt…I really like popcorn.
+1
I’m a little overweight and I avoid buying any kind of chips and snacks because I know I have almost zero willpower.
Also, eating a bit less than usual on each meal, like knowing when you’re feeding and when you’re just eating for pleasure.
Maybe I won’t lose any weight but I hope to gain as less as possible.
- Stop buying it. Starve yourself of it by just not having it around.
- Keep a tall glass or bottle of warm water with you when you’re junking on content. Keep sipping it. Slowly. Over time you’ll finish the bottle and get up to pee. That’s there number 3 comes in.
- Recognize another harmful pattern here. Is your approach to watching content affecting your mood or causing you to spiral into junk food addiction? Maybe cut down on the YouTube videos. Or if you enjoy them a lot, combine them with some other activity you can do with your hands - drawing, writing, lifting weights, anything. Basically understand that your hands are idle while your brain is engaged and that’s causing you to reach for that packet of food.
- Recognize that junk food is an addiction. Deal with it as you would an alcohol or nicotine addiction. You can go cold turkey or taper down. But you have to commit. You have to hold yourself accountable. But do not let yourself get bogged down by failure. Addiction is difficult to deal with. Deal with it anyway.
I find your third point interesting. I read something a while back that suggested some cigarette smokers got started or hooked because of a compulsive need to have hands and/or mouth preoccupied, particularly in stressful situations. I think it was called something like digital-oral fixation? Anyways, I wonder if that’s one of the reasons behind constant snacking. Maybe a stress response paired with a compulsive disorder…
It’s actually incredibly common. Think about all the people who bite on the end of their pen or always have a drink (like a water bottle or coffee) to hand
Everyone is saying don’t but snack foods, which is one step. But if you don’t have some form of healthy snacks on hand, you’re just going to revert back to it. I suggest dehydrating fruits and having nuts and seeds available so you can still snack but not feel bad about it.
I’ve replaced most of my sweet snacks with things like cheese or pumpkin seeds or cashews. It’s made a huge difference.
If I really want something sweet, like you mentioned, I usually have dehydrated fruit or Greek yogurt with fruit.
Definitely took time and effort to find healthier snacks but it’s been worth it.
Dried fruit and nuts are all super calorie-rich options.
Fresh fruit will be healthier. It’s still possible to overdo it, just more difficult.
For something basically impossible to eat many calories with, vegetables kick butt. Cherry tomatoes, carrot sticks, cucumbers, and so on are the way to go.
Nuts have hella calories though, you shouldn’t go too crazy snacking on them
TruFru raspberries taste like frozen treats, and they are, but they’re mostly just whole rasperries.
Don’t have it in the house. Don’t buy it. Don’t even go down those aisles in the store.
This is the only way. I lack all self control to not eat junk food and sweets. I never buy them for this reason. Only eat dessert and junk food if I’m out or it is provided for me somewhere else.
Like others have said one of the easiest things to do is simply don’t buy the junk.
Personally I found that the real game changer is finding a healthy snacking alternative. For me this is almonds and dried apricots. They’re still quite a ‘dense’ energy snack but it scratches the sweet tooth itch and is much more filling. Plus you get the added protein, fats & micro nutrients that you would usually miss in processed items.
Try out some different alternatives (my wife loves to snack on dates and Greek yoghurt for example) and try mainly just to focus on finding something you enjoy so you can swap the habit.
Good luck!
Lots of stop buying it comments in here. How about: Stop watching so many videos? The best way to stop eating is to occupy your mind and hands. Got any hobbies? Get one that involves using your hands and concentration. You must find something that you personally enjoy. You can’t eat if you’re busy concentrating on something you like doing while occupying your hands! Bonus points if it’s something physical that helps get you in shape.
Also, it might take time.
For completely different reasons I started to draw, like 5 minutes a day (that was tougher than most things I have done, weirdly) and keeping at it for a couple of months.
Thats the way to go from one(less good) thing to another, reliably doing it every day, and quickly (well they say 90 days) it becomes an easy and pleasant thing you like to do.
Did it with jogging too, took longer (as I wasnt in shape for it, had crap shoes, back and muscles) but eventually it became a nice thing to do too.
And it all ads up, helping. I mean life is hard.
Pro tip, one day check out keto, and the idea about stopping eating all kind of sugar (potatoes, candy, snacks, processed food…). Don’t rush it but know that it’s really good for both your physical health(who would have thought eh) but also for your mental health, it’s quite the thing. So maybe one day eh!
Last words; everyone can do it, it just takes time. If you dont have the mental, just take it slower and it’ll come around.
I suggest board games. Helped me quit video games. And if you think that takes off physical activity, well…takes 1 season and one movie to catch up with me on it but Firefly is the best board game (hell…set of board games even) I have and is a lot of work to set up and build for play.
I just want you to consider one more aspect of it. I’ve seen this discussed and backed up with scientific articles but I’m too lazy to find and include them in my post. Basically, all your cravings originate from your gut and your gut is ruled by the bacteria that have made your gut their home over the years. You’ve colonized your gut with a particular set of bacteria by giving them what you eat.
Now, if you change that food pattern, these bacteria, that control the gut, will make your body release chemicals that will make you crave for food that will keep them alive. Realise this and act accordingly. Being conscious about it has helped me overcome many food related ‘addictions’ i had like that of soda, of wafers. I still fall prey when I consume sweets continuously for a few days during festivities. Everytime it is the same struggle against the cravings, but I realise I’m just fighting against the settlers in my gut, brave it for a few days and notice my cravings become dull over time. Probiotics like kimchi, saurkraut, kefir, kombucha etc. help to some extent but ultimately it is more of a mind game.
Make what you will from my advice, but it does work for me. I wish you all the best in your fight against your gut settlers.
don’t buy it. ever. and if people bring it over make them take it back. make grocery lists before going to the store with healthy snacks you like on it or meal plan filling meals. and eat before you go to the store so you shop with your head, not your stomach lolol.
and if people bring it over make them take it back
Forgot to mention it in my post, but absolutely this too. People loooove pawning off junk food to friends. It’s an easy gift.
Make a shopping list and be strict with yourself about what you add to it. Then restrict yourself from buying anything not on the list so that you stick to it. Best way (that I know) to be deliberate about what food comes home with you.
You could try to start replacing individual things with better alternatives. Its much harder to just suddenly change your diet
This is my trick. Keep lots of fruits and healthy crackers around, especially ones that are easy to eat - grapes, berries, apples, etc.
Stop buying it.
It’s a lot easier to stop yourself from eating a bag of chips while watching YouTube if it’s not just sitting there in your pantry and you have to go to the store to buy it.
You just have to resist the urge to get the junk food during your grocery trips, not every hour you’re at home and bored.
Exactly what I came here to say.
Just stop buying that kind of food if you can’t control your consumption of it. If that’s too extreme for you, buy less of it, and when you do eat some, put one serving in a bowl and eat it out of the bowl. When the serving is gone, no more, no refills, you’re done snacking on that food.
This is ultimately about your willpower.
Replace it with normal food (during meals).
Basically we all need to learn how to hack ourselves.
Whatever that may look like for you is fine, so long as the hacks don’t cause secondary problems then whatever works works.
Your Ritual = sit, watch, snack on crap, repeat until ??
So maybe try and replace each bit, one at a time, and see what you can bear to white knuckle long enough for it to transform into an enjoyable habit:
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Sit -> walk on treadmill / exercise bike / whatever while you watch, or go outside for a walk while you listen to podcasts etc
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Watch -> listening to podcasts and music or video audio frees up your eyes to be doing a crazy or hobby while you listen. This also means your hands will be occupied and not snacking.
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Snack -> swap in fresh sweet crunchy veg (carrots, sweet bell pepper etc) or popcorn (no butter ya sneaky bugger) etc
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Repeat until ??? -> Portion control. You don’t take the whole bag of chips out of the kitchen, you take out a small bowl full and that’s your limit
Pick whichever one you want.
Change is hard. We kinda hate it. But it’s worth it.
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Drinking lots of water or brushing your teeth might help you resist the urge.
I read somewhere that often when we are feeling slightly hungry we are actually thirsty and our body knows there is moisture in healthier foods. But we tend to aim for salty dried out snacks that really have no benefit. So I suggest getting a large water bottle and make the effort to drink when feeling hungry. That’s what I do.
