In thinking back over what things have helped me the most so far, I come up with two primary tools. They just happen to be in alignment with what we are talking about here.
Like the others have mentioned, mindful eating tops the list. For me that means no distractions; nothing with a screen, no books, no talking on the phone or anything else that will take my attention away. Early on I made a ritual out of it. I like to set a nice place at a table, use decent dishes and silverware, and make sure I'm eating good quality food. It helps if I can be a little on the hungry side also, my mother always used to say "appetite is the best sauce". I don't do this 100% of the time but as long as I can have one, or better yet, two meals like this in a day it's all good. If I pay attention when I am eating I feel like I have gotten enough. If I don't, sometimes it feels like I just went through the day and didn't eat when the reality is I just didn't pay attention when I was eating.
The other thing that has been
super important for me is tracking. I don't do a traditional paper journal, instead I use the computer. I am a self-confessed data geek so it just works best for my natural tendencies. I first have to know what the problem is before I can fix it. Tracking was the tool that let me do course corrections on the fly. Analyzing what I had been doing for the previous few days and seeing what the outcomes were let me skip past plateaus more often than not. Just seeing how things would balance out during the day would help me make better choices for the next day.
Thinking about what Papa said, the habits are really tough. I have seen some research lately about habits and behavior that has come out lately that has contradicted some of my previous beliefs. I used to think that I could replace a bad habit with a good one but found that rarely works out. Some of the newer studies back that up. They're finding that even when we adopt new good habits the old habits remain. It seems that can be helpful to at least partly overlap a bad habit and a good habit. I remember years and years ago when I quit smoking something that helped me a lot was taking up the habit of tootsie pops. That way I took the habit apart a piece at a time instead of all at once. Keeping the oral fixation for a while as I was getting off the nicotine, then tapering off the candy. That might not be the best example here, but it is one that came to mind.
Maybe it might help with the unconscious eating around others if you had something else to do with your hands. I remember when I was young and my mother (back to mom) would be on some diet or other she would use knitting to keep her hands busy and away from snacking, she also then would not want to handle her nice yarn with greasy hands.. Gemme has some good ideas too. Maybe having something like a pack of cards handy where you could keep a little running game of solitaire going would serve the same purpose. Something that would keep your hands actively engaged, and also be something where you wouldn't want to go back to with dirty fingers. It wouldn't be so engaging as to take you away from conversation but would give you something to fiddle with.
Thoughts for now, keep up the great work!
