Tips to Decrease Snacking, Grazing, etc. #2

2) The second thing is use a bag of marbles or poker chips, you get the idea.  Every time you walk through the kitchen to grab something, and you have the familiar urge, grab a marble or poker chip and drop it in a glass bowl.  The goal is to increase awareness of the “urge” and pause. You look at your bowl of marbles and decide if you want to see your success over urges pile up over the day (marbles), or your
feelings of failure, frustration, guilt and shame.  

You can also add more accountability, so if you choose to ignore the marble and eat something anyway, you must put another object in another bowl, like the poker chips.  And no you can't use m&m's, skittles, or chocolate chips instead of marbles!    

At the end of the day you can visibly see how often you conquered your urges, which can be very encouraging and/or give you more incentive the next day to get more marbles in that bowl!!  

Part of why this works is because it engages multiple senses.  Touch - smooth, cool marble, or textured poker chip; Hearing - You get to hear that marble or chip drop into a glass bowl and that is a rewarding sound; Sight - You get to see the objects increasing in your bowl and the pleasurable sight and color of fresh fruit; Taste - You get to taste "nature's candy" and enjoy your increasing control over your urges; Smell  - uhhh, does fruit smell? How about light a candle!

Give this a try!  It helps!