For me and probably for most of us, food is often comfort. From birth, food comforted us and its carried us through life when we have struggles, heck even when we celebrate we usually eat. When we meet with friends/family, we usually eat!

So what are your plans to replace food? Will it be more crafts, for family time spend on long walks rather than in food, reading a good book rather than crunching on chips?

Lets talk about it....

For me it will be quilting, studying and sleeping, and oh yes...working so I can buy the food, books, and quilting supplies.

I'm going to try learning some new crafts and doing a lot of walking.

Quilting, reading, walking, and drinking lots of water.

Keeping busy. Walking when the weather permits. I find if I stay busy I forget to snack. I will also keep some chewing gum around. Sugarless kind. that way I can "eat" something and not really eat! :)

Get back to my crafts and sewing! When the weather permits walking around my yard. I live in the country on a road where the speed limit is 55 mph with no shoulder, so my yard will have to do.

The other night I ended up organizing the pantry /cupboards instead of reaching for food..I was so happy to have thought of that idea...it's perfect since I'm already in the kitchen, if I just pull myself away from the fridge and start reorganizing I keep my mind/hands occupied :)

If I get to the point where I have a perfectly organized cupboard I'll just start writing an inventory list of what I have...it'll help me not waste food when it expires as well :)

I just had a thought, maybe I could do the pampering challenge instead of reaching for comfort food as another option...

Cleaning, working out, posting on the puter {without food in the cubby on my desk!} bugging dh, playing with the kids... i have lots of ways, it's just implementing them......

Frugalmel - a couple of years ago, when I went on a fast for personal reasons, I begin to read up on fasting and the one thing they said was - don't chew gum. It makes soliva in our mouth and begins to get the juices flowing and creates the feeling of wanting to eat!!

I can attest to the fact that it does.

I'll be doing more crafts, gardening (hard to eat with dirty hands),walking & drinking lots of water.

I'll be doing the organizing, walking, drinking water, posting on the puter thing as well. Also, one thing I have learned in the past that REALLY helps me is to stop, listen to my body and mind. What exactly is it that is prompting me to want to eat again....? If I will do this and then just make myself "feel" the emotion that is up at the moment, I can usually avert the eating without feeling so deprived. It also gives me a real sense of power to understand what the trigger was. I also get to "deal" with the emotion and it doesn't keep coming back over and over again.