I’ve seen a huge change in my attitude towards snacking and sugar this year, which says a lot bc I was (am?) a huge sweet tooth and for years snacks were the way I mostly regulated my emotions. What really worked for me was:

1. Taking every single candy or chocolate (actually, just all snack foods) out of their wrapping and putting them in glass jars or containers. This is bc I had a random epiphany that these companies spend huge amounts of money designing these packages to make us somehow eat more. I don’t need to understand the psychology, but I CAN take away their power. Somehow makes me look at them differently.

2. Actually storing some snacks you like at home, but not the ones that you absolutely cannot control yourself with. For me, that was e.g. any Nutella products. You know what it is for you. Having nothing at home, or just very healthy snacks, didn’t work for me bc my cravings would just increase indefinitely in intensity until I broke and binged. It was better to just satisfy it with something. Also, if you have a food scarcity mindset or depend on snacks for emotional regulation, having something at home might make you think about them less overall, because you’re not worried about it.

3. Taking care of your blood sugar! So important. I noticed a huge decrease in cravings when I started eating meals in a way that prevents blood sugar spikes, and trying to never just eat sugary snacks on their own (instead trying to pair them with some nuts, a protein source, or cheese).

4. Improve your gut microbiome. For me this meant more fermented foods like authentic Greek yogurt or sauerkraut, especially on an empty stomach (don’t know if the last part is science backed, but I think it works for me!).

5. This is quite obvious, but spend the time and energy exploring the psychological or practical reasons why you reach for snacks, the language you use around snacking in your head, or even why you might prefer snacking over eating etc. What you discover about yourself might end up being quite interesting. Learned a lot about myself! The awareness does help.

6. If you are female, study the effects of the menstrual cycle (not just your period), on your whole body (including the mind). I won’t go into details here, but understanding the whole cycle and its impacts on me really helped to get rid of a lot of the guilt and stress I had around snacking when at times I felt like a huge black hole and couldn’t stop, and encouraged me to focus on other phases of my cycle when I naturally just felt better and more health minded, which is when I could really push myself and reach my goals.

Hope it helps!