I have been thinking a lot lately about all the habits in my life that in a way aided my food addiction and really bad eating habits. Now obviously the ultimate activity was eating for the joy of eating but now that I think about it, there are a lot of activities that I participate in that were in a way always affecting my eating habits.

So I decided to make this post in order to list those activities and remember. In a way this is just a personal way to gauge what activities are bad for my new lifestyle as well as to keep in mind that I did pair these activities with food so that in the future when I do participate in them, I have that mental note.

Can anyone else think of any activities that were partnered with excessive eating and in general a sedentary lifestyle?

For me the primary ones were:

1. Video games. There were days were I would sit for HOURS and play online video games on my computer chair. In the mean time I would order large amounts of take out twice. Once for lunch, once for dinner. Sometimes I would also snack in between. Pair this with sitting in a chair all day, I started packing on pounds.

2. Same routine as video games but with TV and movies. I cannot watch TV or a movie without eating something. Popcorn, dinner, Snacks, beer, large coke. All kinds of unhealthy stuff. Now I am trying to re-train myself to not watch TV while I eat.

3. Pub crawling, going out excessively in the evenings with friends. Now this is an activity that almost everyone partakes in to some extent. Going out is just a natural social process but it was what I associated going out with which was damaging. VERY heavy drinking, decadent dinners, midnight mcdonald and snack runs. Typical college lifestyle only supercharged and would happen at least 3 times a week and included LOTS of eating.

4. I know I kind of mentioned this in my other post but drinking beer/alcohol EXTREMELY often. I lived in Montreal for a while, big drinking city, big college city. People in Montreal LOVE to drink. 2 beers with lunch, 5-7 happy hours, long nights of binge drinking. Buying packs upon packs of beer any and every time you went to a friend's house. It was very rare that there would be an occasion without drinks. As of now, after my weight loss surgery, this is something that I will hugely reform. I will not partake in 95 percent of the drinking that I used to anymore.

Anyone have any they would like to share?

Edited November 9, 201510 yr by Ray92

Great thread! Thanks to all for your transparency on this topic.

I wasn't a great over-eater -- just enough of an over-eater to gradually gain more and more weight. And, believe me, when you move less and less (as you get older) and you keep eating just a little more than you need you can pile on the pounds plenty fast enough.

But back to the OP topic ....

I travel a lot on business, and my work is very stressful (fun, but stressful). I loved nights alone in hotel rooms -- eating comfort food AND dessert. Burgers AND chocolate cake. Salmon, potatoes AND carrot cake. Steak AND ice cream.

There's a real common thread here I recognize about eating alone and unobserved. Breaking rules. Behaving as though there are no consequences.

It could have been worse, I suppose. No drugs. No alcohol to excess. No unsafe sex.

Just chocolate cake and carrot cake.