For those of us sharing our home with others, it’s hard to forsake snack food when people all around us are eating freely of it. If you are always encountering snack food, you’ll be thrown right back into conflicts with food.
I would have loved to keep all snack foods out of the house. But since I had a family, I had to find ways to adapt to the presence of snack foods. Most importantly, I keep them off the counter tops and relegated to one cupboard. I try not to open that cupboard except with the intent of clearing out and throwing away old snacks. I avoid looking at them or bumping into them. If they’re out of sight, they’re out of mind. It’s not easy, but it is possible to peacefully coexist with troublesome foods.
Food invasions are a regular part of family life. One child brings home a case of candy that they are required to sell for a school fundraiser. Another child needs to bring tortilla chips to a gathering, and half a bag comes home along with other leftover treats. The neighbor drops off a plate of cookies. Your mother brings leftover chocolate cake from her women’s club. Food invasions get wildly out of control during the holidays. A difficult food invasion can completely undermine your self-control.
Put those invading foods in the snack cupboard for a short period of time. But then, do not hesitate to throw them out. Frugality serves no good purpose with problem foods. The longer they hang around, the more you start to think the only way to get rid of them is to eat them. If the food hasn’t been eaten within the span of one week, normal eaters in the family will never get around to it. Eventually, the overeaters will devour it in a weak moment or to finally rid themselves of the temptation. It’s far better to throw out the invading food than to eat it. You could give it away, but to whom? Definitely not to a fellow overeater! Normal eaters won’t accept it, because they know it’ll just sit on their counter. The only reasonable option is to bring the food to a group gathering or to a large family of skinny people.
The fruit-filled desserts, which I spoke of earlier, are not kept in the snack cupboard. I don’t like to mix those acceptable desserts with the troublesome snack foods. They’ll stay fresher tasting in the refrigerator. And freshness, by the way, is important. Overeaters will eat something for fear it won’t taste fresh tomorrow.
When you intentionally buy some snack food for your family, it’s best to stay focussed on the usual choices. For your children, buy one standard cookie that they like and they feel good about offering to their friends. Don’t purchase the latest cookie to hit the market. You will be interested in trying it, and they’ll probably eat more than they normally would. If you keep salty snack food on hand, store one type of chip or cracker that everyone likes. Find out what your family members really want in the snack cupboard. Then stick to it. Do not vary it. The variety of foods we face today is a major problem for the overeater.
