I've figured out one of my main problems and obstacles to health.  Now I'm trying to figure out a root cause and solution.

Food is a friend.

When I get frustrated or angry, I eat.  When I'm pushing the buttons on the vending machine I'm pissed at myself for it, but that honey bun will make me feel better.  However, like a drug addict, I know that's a lie.  While I'm eating it I'm cussing myself out inside because I know it's self-destructive behavior.

Also, I dearly love my wife, but our sex life isn't all I'd like it to be due to some health problems she has.  That leaves me with this pent-up urge for pleasure.  One thing I learned is that food is the perfectr lover - it never says no.

So, I'm self-aware enough to know these eating habits are bad for me and that the comfort food promises is actually a curse.   Even knowing this, I feel like I'm trapped in this pattern.

I have to find a way to end this cycle.

You`re open and honest with yourself that's good. When you have an urge for evil snacks, drop and give me 25!! Doing this, or something similarly unpleasant, until the urges aren`t so important anymore might do the trick. Good luck.

"Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things." (Philippians 3:19, NIV)

Train yourself to fast and pray.  The more you set your mind on spiritual goals the less you will over indulge the flesh.

I feel your pain...or pleasure...

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start eating food you don't like and then you won't consider food a friend

I learned to like the feeling of an empty stomach.  When my stomach is growling........I like it.

Whenever you are about to eat anything between meals, drink 4 glasses of water first.  If you can still at it after that, have at it.

I tried a diet of protein powder and vegetable shakes for 4 weeks. After those 4 weeks, I love vegetables and eat them by the plateful.
Get your body used to eating good food and you will learn to enjoy eating good food.

You need to understand that you eat to live, not live to eat.


Once I got over the fact that food is just there to fill our stomachs and give us nurients, I overcame my bad diet.

I eat the blandest, tasteless food (most of the time) and guess what, Im now in the best shape of my life. Ive dropped 65lbs. Im not fat at all anymore but now im going on a cutting phase at 200lbs. Going to lose another 20 then bulk up to 200 again.

You just have to look at food for what it is, food. Dont use it as a crutch or treat.

The good advice is strong in this thread.

More tips, please.  I'm not fat, but it's for damn sure I cannot let a bag of Doritos rest in the house.  I am the destroyer of Doritos, pretzels, and Cheetos, and I do so love liquor.
A half gallon of Canadian whiskey will last me 3 or 4 days.  Maybe I'm an alcoholic.  A week goes by with no booze, I'm fine, but when I indulge I don't do it lightly.

Lil help?

Here is the answer you may not want, but are looking for.  THROW AWAY (OR GIVE AWAY) AAAAAALLLLLLLLL YOUR BAD FOOD!!!!  Stock your fridge and pantry with healthy foods....when you get hungry you will go look for food, and when no bad food is there you will have to eat healthy food.  If healthy food does not seem appetizing or you cant bring yourself to eat it.  Then wait.  Get hungry enough you will be loving those green beans



As per OPs question.  YOU have to decide that you want to change, then do it.  It's a very simple thing.  You don't want to eat bad food, stop and talk to yourself.  No excuses, no reasoning, no exceptions.  Every time you think of an excuse....NO there is no excuse.  Nothing can make you do this except yourself.

so does the cat in your avatar!

What I was going to say.  Fill up with water, it'll stave off hunger pangs for a short peroid of time at least.  Plus if you're like most people, you probably don't drink enough water anyway.



Holy balls, that just makes me want to cry...food is one of the great pleasures in life.  OP: You can still have tasty food, you just need to eat less of it, and for the love of God lay off that vending machine shit, it contains precisely nothing of value to the human body.  Learn to cook...you can make far tastier and healthier treats than you can buy.  When you cook for yourself (assuming you have the time) you can exercise a far greather degree of control over your caloric intake.  Packaged food, fast food, even most restaurant food is just chock full of salt, fat, sugar and additives to make it taste better and/or last longer on the shelf.

Finally, when you feel the need for some comfort, exercise.  Go for a walk or run or bike ride, lift some weights, anything that gets your heart rate up and keeps oit there for at least 20 min.  When I'm feeling lazy, I just try and remindmyself that I ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS feel better after a workout.

eat real food

cut out all proccesed crap

drink lotsa water

Ehhhh...I don't like that idea at all.

It gets much easer after just a month or so

I don't WANT it to get easier.  I like to eat good food.  I don't want to NOT like it.

I agree...it's entirely possible to eat healthfully and still enjoy your food.  In my case, it helps that I'm not a picky eater and I also enjoy cooking and experimenting.  I generally don't buy a whole lot of junk...what's difficult is passing up the stuff that gets put in front of you anyway, like at work, at parties or picnics, etc.  And I won't even get started on the "time of the month"...

Whats wrong with it?

Well it may not be the case for you but thats exactly why people become overweight. They like to eat food and like what they eat. That can become a big problem, especially if they are new to dieting and have been eating unhealthy foods like fast food and junk food. Its hard to trasnsition from a bad diet you have been on for years to healthy food. It look me a while.


I dont mean I eat cardboard, I eat steak, Chicken, fish, salads, eggs, and greens. Compared to a double quarter pounder or chicken fried steak, its bland.

I used to have one of the worst diets known to mankind, fast food and soda every day, all kinds of junk highly proccessed carbs and fats, you name it I ate it. The only things that kept me from being 300 pounds is being a cheapskate(I ate off the dollar minues), and lots of manual labor at home. Now I eat clean and have never been more satisfied. When you cut out all the crap Its stupid how much food you get to eat. Im not talking salads at every meal ether. Good lean meat,whole grains,fruits and veggies,cheese,nuts,etc. After a while the things your eating now will seem gross.

Poor planning on my part left me without my cooler full of food the other day, I was driving through town, looking at all the reasturants, and none of them seemed even a little bit appatizing(other than pizza hut). I finally went to a grocery store and picked up some fruit,milk, and peanuts, something that I would have never done a couple years ago.

Eating correctly is addicting, your mind is the biggest enemy, if you really get IN you will never look back

There's an evolutionary thing there, when you're stressed, you release cortisol.  That makes your brain want to eat, and your belly want to store it as fat.

That made sense 20,000 years ago, when stressful situations usually involved burning calories - fighting, running, killing, etc..  These days, when we sit at a desk and stress all day over numbers, it works against us.

I know a person in your same situation.  She is a huge stress-ball, and her way of dealing with it is eating.  And she weighs about three times as much as she should... I'm not exaggerating.

Start finding ways to reduce stress, to deal with stress better, and other ways to deal with stress.  Even simple things... like the next time you're stressed, do some pushups.  And if you can't get a handle on it by yourself, try some stress-management help.

Here are a few things that have made a HUGE difference in how my family eats:

1.  We eat three-course meals.  By having small portions, and a break in between, your body has more time to realize that it's full.  We end up eating less because of it.  Our third course rarely gets finished.
2.  We haven't tried to stop eating what we like.  We just started adding some healthier stuff - the first course is always vegetables, and the second course sometimes is as well.
3.  I don't let my family buy snacks or junk food.  If I find some, I throw it away.  If we buy it, we're just going to eat it - and that includes me.



You're cooking it wrong.  

As one example, when I saw how Alton Brown makes his eggs, I didn't have to change what I put in them at all... just how I cook them.  And oh... I am seriously drooling right now thinking about them.  As for steak, I have a relative from the midwest.  If you put sauce on her steak, she is offended... it means that the steak wasn't good enough.  And I'm telling you... no sauce CAN improve her steak, it can only take away from it.  It is that freaking good.  It's all in how you cook it.

I think everyone is going at it in the wrong direction.  

The problem here is that we need to assign a cost to eating this food.  Instead of avoiding the food, avoiding taste, avoiding pleasure, etc.  We could just make a plan like each Oreo has a 15 pushups, or 20 situps, or 25 lunges.  

Now, the OP could get in shape by eating damn oreos all day.  If the OP had 10 oreos and did 150 push-ups each day, I bet he would get toned up.  I bet he would want to do other exercises on his own too.  Now, he can have his cake and eat it too.

I would never eat an oreo again!