Tips n Tricks on banishing BOREDOM eating ???

MANY of us seem to have issues with this ( read Janet's and Cheryl's threads ! ) - so I thought I'd start one dealing specifically on suggestions with how to stop unthinking munching ....

BOY have I done a lOT of THAT in my life ..... reading while eating ... watching TV while eating ...

heading straight to the fridge as soon as I kick my shoes off and get in the door after work.... GRRRR....how DO you break the HABIT ?!!!

one thing I know .. its not by trying to eat lighter than air munchies like air popped popcorn.... that only gets U thin so far ....

Eventually U gotta put a cork in it !!!!

 Ok I have an idea  !  how about  when  i think of  eating start intensive  fresh vegetable  prep a la the Chinese  kitchen  ....peeling and  chopping fresh  garlic , ginger ,  scallions , veggies just so  etc ... for just one serving  preparing the  sauce etc... by the time its prepared  its at least twenty minutes  of  occupation , the food is bulky and largely  calorie free and very tasty and nutritious

and U dont see  any  fat people  in Chinatown ! ...

I have a terrible habit of eating when Im bored.  My NUT suggested getting a glass of water then wait for 30 min to see if the urge passes.  

Ava, I plan my food on myfitnesspal in the morning and try to stick with my plan.  Of course I want to eat between meals and that's why I can't have things like open nuts in my desk drawer because I'll get in trouble just about every time. 

When I want to eat, I look at my plan and see if it's time.  Sometimes I'm really hungry and it's not meal time.  I do my organic hardboiled egg test.  If I want that egg, I'm probably hungry.  If I think cheese instead, I'm probably not.  This whole process for me is about learning to be the adult and not that abused little 7 year old that begs for food to make me feel better.  Sometimes I get the upper hand, sometimes she wins, but we're getting a much better balance on the whole thing.

I would spend all day eating popcorn if it was on my plan.  I love that hand to mouth action, but then again, that action got me to 249 pounds.  I was the only fat vegan in my town.  Nine years vegan with not a bite of sugar and rarely a bite of flour.  Still fat.  Love me some popcorn!  I just can't keep it around these days because it's very sexy food.  When I go to the movies, I just have to keep my hands in my pockets and remind myself that monday night is WW weighin and popcorn makes me fart and gain weight.

How's your rollerblading going?  You're not writing as much about your daily runs?  Are you staying active?  That's a great way to stay out of the kitchen.   I love your idea about chopping veggies.  My office is a few blocks from chinatown.  The americanized Chinese are indeed getting fat.  Those are the ones lined up at the noodle shops at lunchtime.  I'd love to be in that line!!!  Oh well.  I'd rather be thinner than in that line.  It's all a matter of priorities and I'm on a mission to get a golden apple.

Yes ! I sure didn't mean NOODLES lol ! Ohh pad thai ... made with oil , egg , greasy meat .... the oriental equivalent of a big mac ....

I'm quite sure , that like pizza in Italy if you actually ordered it in Thailand Ud get a Totally different dish. I remember when we traveled to Italy when i was a child the pizza was this tiny little round thing with a bit of tomato sauce on it , an even tinier amount of cheese and an anchovy lol !

Right now in Croatia they make NEW YORK style pizza and everyone loves it ! ( and of course everyone gets a bit fatter ..)

I live very close to the Brooklyn Chinatown ( there's one in Manhattan , one in Queens too ) ...and this one is full of " real" Chinese - goods and people .... very few noodle shops actually ,now that U mention it . I don't know what I'd do anymore without the cobbler who fixes shoes out on the sidewalk .... or the super-fresh lean and inexpensive meat and unbelievably fresh and reasonably priced vegetables in the winter .

Brooklyn is very cool that way , every five or ten blocks is a different ethnic neighborhood .. a culinary tour of a totally different culture and/or continent . Within a ten block radius of my house ( half a mile ) theres Italian , Chinese, Ashkenaz Hasidic Jewish , ( Sephardic is a bit farther ) , Arabic , Spanish , and even a bit of Polish, Norwegian, Greek and German neighborhoods sprinkled here and there Its ALL outstanding food !! ( much to my downfall ) oy!

I LOVE visiting Zach in Manhattan because I like to walk the streets of the various neighborhoods.  Never enough time to do everything that I want.

Zach used to teach high school in Thailand, so I've been twice. The Pad Thai is definitely different than in the states and is wonderful.  The teachers would take me out.  I'd have a small plate of food and they'd eat 3-4x as much and they were barely size 0.   Maybe it's all the hot hot sauces.  My mouth would burn.  South Korea was even worse.   In Thailand we'd go to restaurants on the water and look down at the fish that they were about to catch for dinner.  Everything was incredibly fresh.  When we went to China we could barely find anything to eat.  There were no fresh veggies to be found and not a sauce that I could tolerate the taste of.  We finally found an expat neighborhood with decent food.   Yup, those pizzas in Italy don't resemble the ones in the states at all.  I thought they were even better in the South of France than in Italy. 

I think some of those Hasidim in Brooklyn are my relatives.  Seriously!

 Ur family sounds so cool  Lee !  A son who taught in Thailand  ..... how awesome is THAT    .
Maybe one day Ull come  n visit  Ur cousins  and we can all take an all  day  walking tour of Brooklyn  (  or an all week one  - theres that much to see  ) .  Ure always  welcome in  MY house  

Thanks Ava!  I truly am lucky to have a cool son.  He taught in Thailand and South Korea after going to Cal, before heading to NY.  Then between his MFA in Screenwriting and MFA in Directing, he was awarded a Fulbright Grant to teach documentary film making at a Men's university in Dubai.  I didn't visit Dubai because I didn't want to give them my travel funds, at least until they're better about women's issues.  He also taught in Bolivia prior to going to Cal so I got to go there as well.  I love traveling to places where there are already people connections because I really got to see how people live there.

Brooklyn.  That would be awesome but I'm afraid that in my 2-3 day trips to NY, Zach would hardly let me out of his site for an entire day.  :)  Thank you for welcoming me to your home!!

Ava - I was doing that up until recently.  Tom still does it and I'll ask him "are you REALLY hungry?"  We just ate an hour ago... he cuts up sausage and cheese.  While that's an ok snack, its extra calories he's really not hungry for - ok - we all know THAT, right?

I've stopped the snacking - but I still have my adult beverages at night that have a lot of calories and carbs.  I also run for the fridge as soon as I walk in the door.  Its a HABIT and a bad one.  Hard to break....

I've been able to keep busy the past few weeks after work with moving, cleaning, rearranging, etc.  When that's done, I'm going to start painting Tom's place.  I've got free reign EXCEPT to take those damn deer heads and moose head off the walls.  I'm still working on it, negotiating....  I feel like I'm living in a forest sometimes...

I'm hoping my activites will keep me busier at night until the weather breaks, then I can head outdoors and start playing in the dirt. 

I also have a Nook now and need to figure out how to use it - then I can start reading again....

Jody, are you happy there at Tom's place?  Are you missing your own space?  What ever happened with your son, where did he go?  I haven't read an update lately but then again I'm not on the computer as much lately.

I hope you love your nook as much as I love my kindle!  It's so much more convenient, particularly for traveling, which you do a lot of.