I swear, it is so much harder to lose weight when you live with someone! The last time I was on a major diet I lived alone. It was pretty easy for me to avoid temptation – I didn’t buy any food that would cause me to cheat, and I avoided the fattening snacks my company gives out by staying at my desk when the treats were announced.

I basically lived like a hermit for those three months. I never went out, and I spent my nights and weekends making low-calorie meals and treats (which, incidentally, led to the start of this blog). And it worked – I lost 25 pounds.

Now it’s different – I’ve got Dave and his son here, and even though Dave is willing to forgo hamburger buns and potatoes and pasta and eat whatever I want to eat, we still have to keep some “bad food” in the house for his son, like granola bars and bagels and pretzels and nachos. There have been several nights where I binged on granola bars because they were the only “junk food” in the house.

I know that if I want to lose weight and keep it off then I need to figure out how to eat in the real world. I need to have some self control and not eat three granola bars in a row. But I swear, food is like a drug to me! Sometimes I’m not even hungry, but I’ll walk past the kitchen and spot the granola bars (for example) and then I suddenly become some brainless monster: “MUST…EAT…GRANOLA BARS…NOW.”

I’ve always been a bit of a binge eater. Particularly on the weekend, because I’ll think “I’m gonna start a new diet on Monday, so I might as well eat this entire Entenmann’s cake now.” I’ve got friends who would keep cookies or candy at their desks and it would be there for months! I’m like “How the f* do you do that??” I just can’t. It’s not in my nature, and I don’t know if that’s something that will ever change.

So for now, the best thing for me to do keep the bad food out of my house. I’m able to control myself when Dave is around, but he’s out of the house every third day for work, and I’m just there with all that food. I’ve been thinking about making him take the bad food with him when he leaves, but I realize how ridiculous that is and what a lack of self control it shows, and I’m not quite prepared to take that step. Yet.