Hi!

I've been struggling with head hunger for the past few weeks. I was banded 6/14 and had my first fill a few weeks ago. I only feel modest restriction.

Right now, I'm battling old habits and need to fight back hard! It's that 5-11 p.m. block of time when, in retrospect, I realize I must have been eating pretty much non-stop. I find myself grazing, eating and mad at myself for it.

I'm a teacher, and do great with eating during the day (protein shakes, Water, string cheese), but come home exhausted and sometimes famished.

How have you successfully battled your old eating habit demons? I need to start a basic plan of exercise and literally lay out what I can eat for Snacks. I'd love to hear what has worked for you- I have 15 years of bad habits to undo and relearn good habits.

Thanks!

Along with scheduling your snacks, schedule your TIME. Account for every minute if you have to, because idle time is when you would be doing the mindless eating. If you can, get out of the house:go to the library, walk the mall, go to a gym, the movies etc.

If staying at home and grading papers is your lot, no reason to associate that with food. Hold something in your non-writing hand to keep that hand out of trouble (like a stress ball).

Keep track of all of your calories in a special notebook and give yourself a star for each day you spend under your target calorie count. Accumulate stars for non food treats like manicures or new books or new smaller clothing.

good luck!

I keep a diet book... food & Exercise one and I record my calories in that. as for that block of time... Its like we always complain that we dont have enough time, we're too busy etc etc... and then we're stuck with this block of time at the end of the day that we cant do anything with! Youre not supposed to exercise 3 hours before you sleep, if you drink Water 3 hours before you go to bed you'll be up peeing all night and the block usually revolves around the final meal of the day.

I would get a book... If your bored... Or If you have stuff to do but find your eating during it. I would definatly suggest what Annie said with the Stress ball... Its like we're quitting smoking... we need to keep our hands busy in order to break the habit.

I love your idea Annie! Stickers! I never thought I would get so excited about stickers! I just read it and my mum bought be a thingie of stickers (shes a strange lady...) I laughed at her for it.... but I just looked at my calorie book and I gave myself a sticker for each day I was at or bellow my calorie limit... I got really suprisingly happy about doing that!

I sometimes Knit... and I dont sit infront of the TV to do it because if you do that your getting the subliminal advertising for food in the background...

Best of luck =)

I keep myself on a schedule each day (meals, exercise, etc.)and try to stay as busy as possible. If I'm not doing anything, I get bored, I wander to the kitchen, and then it goes downhill; or I just start to think about food, but this was really only in the beginning.

I can't say head hunger is a huge issue nowadays.

I try to stay crazy busy when I get home with projects around the house - cleaning up, reorganizing closets - anything to keep me from wanting to hit the kitchen. I also keep sugar free hawaiian punch handy because I will mix that with some Water and drink and that satisfies any sweet tooth issues.

Whenever I think I'm hungry, I ride it out by telling myself "if I'm still hungry in 30 minutes, I'll have a small piece of string cheese". Sometimes I'm still hungry but oftentimes, I'm not.