Mouth pleasure - A Mental Game

Hi all,

A quick search didn’t bring much up here. Over on the big G there are lots of results and I’ll touch of a few here but let me get my question out first:

What are some of the mind games you play with yourselves to stop eating when you want some mouth pleasure?

I try to eat well. I do go off the rails probably once a week with some beers and some less than ideal food, but on the whole it’s not that bad. I’ve been doing that for a few years, training has been not ideal and life stressful in many ways, which has something to do with why I’m stuck at around +20% BF (most of the riding around here is flat, power matters more than power to weight :slight_smile: ) although lately and in recovery from a recent surgery things are trending down again. However the bigger issue is psychological, simple mouth pleasure! Irrespective of how full I am and how much water I drink (I drink A LOT, I have a 20oz Yeti rambler at my desks at home and at work and go through that 6-8 times a day). I eat lots of whole foods, salads, chicken breast, the odd hummus wrap, that sort of stuff. And I will feel full! But I still want to eat!

Two anecdotes: yesterday I had overnight oats with blueberries for breakfast, followed by a banana, later some chicken and steamed broccoli for lunch. I felt full for the rest of the day, but ugh… I just wanted something in my mouth.

Overnight oats for brekkie again this morning, held off the banana until about 30 minutes ago. I did my morning Carter workout fasted, did my physio therapy session fasted also, had the oats around 10 and the banana at 12. I’m full, genuinely full. Not overly bloated, but not hungry. However I want to eat! :frowning:

It’s easier to deal with when in the office, but working from home due to BCP makes it more difficult. Having kids and thusly lots of temptation all around doesn’t help either.

I’m sure I’m not the only one with that “problem”. What do y’all do?

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A well placed small mirror near the fridge - look yourself in the eye when you’re about to stuff that chocolate bar or cake may be enough to break the cycle

Or a picture of yourself out of shape (if one exists) maybe a deterrent

Do you have family members who can be supportive but challenging - asking questions such as “is that 10th doughnut helping you move towards your cycling and fitness / health goals?”

Take food you know is very tempting out of the equation by not buying it in the first place

Find foods that could be equally (or nearly) as satisfying but are a lot healthier in the longer run (fruit instead of cake as an example)

These are just a few ideas - not sure which if any will work well but best of luck :+1:t2::+1:t2:

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Those are some great suggestions. Sadly no one in my family is on that train, my kids are too young to care and my wife has no interest. In fact those three are the greatest temptation. I’ve had many days when I stuck diligently to my plans and calories only for the wife to suggest to head to our favourite Indian restaurant after work… :grin:

It could also be that you’re not eating enough, the listed meals certainly wouldn’t be me to get through a day/workout. If that’s the case, you’ll always be wanting to eat!

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Eat whole foods
Learn to eat to satiate and don’t count calories
Don’t do fasted training
If you need a snack, grab some fruit
Don’t have crap food in the house
The above applies to my children too. Children should be learning healthy eating habbits, not eating crap

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For me, when i was still single and living on my own, the easiest solution was just not to buy it. Now, a couple of years later and married, its a bit harder. What also helped for me was chewing gum. Just keeps me busy and can’t eat anything else while chewing. Don’t do that anymore tho.

What i do now is just constantly ask myself, do i really need to eat this. And that has worked for me. Just a constant reminder that i don’t actually need it. But it’s hard work and as a sweet tooth and a sucker for candy i sometimes just have to give in. But it’s still under control.

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I chew a lot of gum in the office…good point.

Those meals weren’t meant to last all day, but merely a few hours. And I feel genuinely full after them, but have a craving for food still. I consciously ate a lot more slowly for lunch today, which did help a bit. I guess it’s mind over matter. I know I should be applying the same discipline and diligence to diet as to a TR workout.

A good start is to use a phrase like “mouth pleasure”. I’ve lost my appetite already

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You might want to try fasting for a few days*. You eat no solid food but drink lots of water and still get electrolytes through broth and take some vitamins. I did this using the Pruvit 60 hour Keto Reboot Kit. It had all the stuff I needed to eat pre-measured and ready to go. It also includes ketones that you drink so you get into ketosis the easy way, instead of suffering through the brain fog until your body kicks over to generating its own ketones.

For me, someone who hasn’t struggled with my weight much but has been slowly creeping up there, I was shocked by how much of what I thought were hunger signals was actually just psychological. I kept finding myself opening the pantry door even though I was not physically hungry.

It was the best thing I have ever done for my weight. I lost about 35 lbs over a few months due to mentally resetting and clearly seeing what real hunger was compared to habitual eating. I didn’t do any calorie counting, I just was much better about listening to my body instead of my brain.

And I was amazed how well I could workout during the fast. Ketones are awesome fuel for endurance rides. Too bad they are so expensive.

  • I am not a doctor and you should consult yours before starting any weight loss or exercise regimen.
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I wasn’t sure what to expect when I clicked on this post. :flushed:

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Yes, done that before and will likely be doing that again soon. Maybe not in the mids of a SSB plan, but there will be a point when I water fast for a few days again. Same story here, I find myself opening the pantry door out of boredom more than out of hunger.

To be fair, the I’m not the one who coined that term. I picked this up on a Joe Rogan podcast years ago, I believe with Peter Attia on intermittent fasting, resetting eating habits. I hadn’t thought of this in any NSFW way when I posted yesterday, but I can see how that can happen.

Personally I like coffee/tea if I’m having one of those boredom-eating days (I do a lot of schooling from home, so I like to procrastineat :roll_eyes: )
Sometimes going outside or for a 5 minute walk helps too. I think it’s easier to build a new habit/mental association in place of simply removing an old one.

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