Thirty days ago I decided to set myself a 'no snacking challenge'. The challenge was to last 30 days, so today is my final day, and I wanted to share a few things with you all.
I haven't posted about my efforts of not snacking since day 14, and to be honest, there's not that much to say. The first week was when I was adjusting to not being able to snack. I was surprised how difficult it was to not be able to go and grab a biscuit or something when I was feeling hungry. Even when I wasn't hungry, I discovered that snacking was just something of convenience - there is food nearby, I'll have some.
The second week was a tougher week, and my craving for snacking got worse. It seemed that the resistance I was putting up against snacking just made the craving worse, but I persevered and got through it.
Now onto the last two weeks, weeks 3 and 4. I was expecting week 3 to be harder than week 2 and then for week 4 to get gradually easier. Instead, week 3 wasn't that hard at all, and I never really had snacking on my mind. Week 4 has been the same, only at a couple of points did it get difficult, but for the week as a whole it was relatively easy.
Something that I did notice in the last two weeks was my tendency to snack has become a lot easier to keep control of. I was pleasantly surprised to find this out.
I can remember at the end of third week, I wasn't even paying attention to the challenge, as the habit to not snack seemed to have already taken form, and in truth I think I had actually forgot about the challenge, as it didn't seem as much of a challenge - it had become more of the norm.
In fact, I was actually writing a different post for today, when I remembered that it was the end of my no snacking challenge. So I had to put the post I was writing for today aside, that will now be tomorrows, and had to write the final chapter of this no snacking series.
It has definitely changed the way I eat. I don't really have the urge to snack as much, of course there are times when I do get the urge, but this challenge has actually made me take sort of a disliking to snacking. I know it sounds weird, as snacking on tasty things is great, and thirty days ago I wouldn't have thought I would end up with a view like this towards snacking. I think it's because I know what snacking can do and what the downsides to it are, coupled with my new habit of not snacking anyway, what has caused this mindset.
I'm sure there will be points when I do snack, but I can't really see myself going back to snacking as often, it's not really my nature. Once I get something programmed into me, I find it hard not to keep it up.
If anyone reading this is wanting to limit their snack intake, then I would strongly urge you to give this challenge a try. I can't guarantee it will work for you, but if you're strict with yourself and keep it up for the thirty days, I'm pretty confident you'll get into the habit of avoiding snacks. Once the habit's obtained, things become a lot easier.