One of my biggest struggles with losing weight and maintaining that weight loss is that I simply adore food. You know how some people have a real sweet tooth, others have an affinity for fried foods, some crave salty snacks and still others never met a piece of chocolate they didn’t like? My problem is that I fit easily into all of those groups. I love all kinds of food. It’s a terrible curse.

Besides loving food in general, though, I love the act of eating. I love picking out something to eat. I don’t love preparing it so much, but I love the smell of the food as it’s cooking, and I  love to eat it once it’s prepared. I love putting food to my lips and feeling it in my mouth before swallowing it down. I love feeling my stomach fill up and having something to do with my mouth – besides talk.

Do any of you experience similar cravings? Not a craving for a particular food but a craving for eating. I’m sure I’m not alone in this.

As you might imagine, all this love of food and eating can make losing weight and maintaining a healthy weight difficult. I’ve done what I can to minimize the detriment this love affair could have on my weight loss goals, and I hope some of you will benefit from my trials and findings as well.

Since I love to eat, it’s often difficult to resist eating even though I may not really be hungry. There are two basic options: 1) Don’t eat, and 2) Eat. When I feel like I want to eat even though I know it’s not meal time or even my regular snack times, I check with myself and see which I’m really up for. There’s a 50/50 split on which I choose. Here are some ideas to get you through, whether you go with 1 or 2.

Don’t Eat

• Brush your teeth – The fresh minty taste will linger in your mouth and curb your appetite for food… at least for a little while.
• Chew gum – I find that often when I feel the urge to eat even though I’m not hungry, I really just want to do something with my mouth. Fruity gum also helps to ease my cravings for sweets.
• Slice fruits / chop veggies – Sometimes, just the act of preparing food is enough for me. It always takes some time to cut up a watermelon or chop up a head of cauliflower – that time is often enough for me to get over feeling bored and wanting to cure that boredom by eating.
• Drink water – I’m sure you’ve heard it dozens of times before, but it really does help in a lot of ways. One of the most helpful things is that it gives your hands and mouth something to do and fills your stomach. If you still want to eat 10 minutes after downing 16-ounces of water, maybe you really are hungry.

• Go to bed – If it’s late and I start feeling like I want some food, I often just go to bed. If I’m not quite tired yet, I’ll read a book in bed. Even though I still may want something, I won’t get out of my nice warm bed for it!

Eat

• Snack healthy – If you must eat, eat something healthy and low-calorie. Since this is all about wanting to eat even though you’re not really hungry, you need to be especially careful about what you eat. Some ideas:

• Eat the fruits and vegetables you chopped up earlier with some low-fat dip (if you must) – A lot of small things means a lot of little bites, both satisfying your urge to put food in your mouth and giving you a ton of opportunities to put the food away without eating the whole thing. I like to store my chopped produce in plastic containers so I can have as much or as little as I want without feeling like I have to finish it or it’ll go to waste.
• Eat a broth-y (not creamy) soup – It’ll take some time to make, and it takes time to eat, so that should appease your urges.
• Eat salad – Salad is great because it has a satisfying crunch and if you choose the right dressing, very few calories.

If any of you have any brilliant ideas, I’d love to hear them!

This entry was posted on Monday, May 4th, 2009 at 7:53 am and is filed under Personal Stories, Weight Loss. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.