Is your sister supportive of you trying to eat healthier and not eating the binge foods that are bad for you? Sorry to say this, but she should not be baking three pans of brownies, unless of course she is baking them for some out of the house occasion. It is so hard to diet and eat healthy in general, let alone when it is right there in your home.

Maybe you could have a talk with your family about your needs at this time of your life and they will be more willing to help. Brownies are one of my binge foods, and it only takes me eating one and then I am eating half the pan. I can no longer have junk food in my home. Not easy, but I want to be thin and healthy more than I want to eat.

Well to be fair, she is baking them for her 2 children, 9 and 2. They absolutely love brownies, and I think they should be able to have them. It's not that my family isn't supportive. They are. We eat pretty heathy in my house to be honest. Junk food is just something we don't buy.This was just for the kids one time. I just need ideas on how to stay away from these brownies while they are here ( and believe me, they won't be here long).

I have junk food around all the time at my husband. Of course, I don't consider brownies junk food, lol. My husband buys it by the truck load and there are only the 2 of us, plus all our animals which can eat only certain things. My solution is moderation. Take a brownie, depending on size, and cut into 3rds, and have a sliver of it every few hours. Only allow yourself 1 brownie per day. After you eat all these bites from the one brownie, believe you me you will feel like you had enough. Junk food will always be around us to tempt us, but nothing beats feeling and looking healthy. Good luck to you.

Is there something else in your list of foods that you allow yourself that would help to satisfy the craving?

I agree with rose that moderation is a good thing. Sometimes though, I know I will NOT moderate myself so I have to find something that I can have more than a small taste of.

For example, when I'm feeling a sweets binge coming on, I'll have a big bowl of plain nonfat greek yogurt with berries or cherries. I also have a bottle of Chocolate Extract that I'll sometimes use to make Chocolate Milk or flavor other desserts.

Since I track calories as I have my meals, I would see about how many calories is in a small piece of brownie and for me personally, I would probably take a tablespoon or two of Fage Greek Yogurt, stir in a small pinch of stevia and make it an event where you enjoy every single bite, ever so slowly.... and then, that's it! I think if you keep your eye on your daily calorie allotment, you will do well even with a brownie.

The problem that comes up for me is that I have a sugar addiction. I could never eat just one brownie spread out through a day. I am envious of those of you who can.

When I have company, I have dessert in the house, but I send them home with it or give it to someone else. Right now I am in a good state of mind, so I have some stuff in the house for my grandchildren and I do not feel the need to eat it, but that can turn in a minute!! So most of the time, I keep nothing around. But I do enjoy a piece of fruit. Or I get out of the kitchen and go into another part of the house.

Thanks everyone for the advice. I want to skip the brownies altogether. I do have berries in the house. That is always satisfying to me. Also, as I'm typing this, HALF of the brownies are GONE already. I know where they are, and I can easily not go near them, so I think half the battle is over already. The real test will be if I wake up in the middle of the night, and I have an urge to go to the kitchen to eat something. My test will be: can I just reach for a shake, and not reach for a brownie or pasta.

You can make your own healtjier version and they freeze well too so you are not tempted to eat all 12 of them at once. Take a moist-style chocolate cake mix and beat in a regular size can of pumpkin(that's all just dry mix and pumpkin-it will be VERY thick) bake in a sprayed muffin tin at 350 (325 for dark pan) for about 20 minutes. You will have to check the calories as I do WW and count points but they should be around 175-200 calories each. These are amazingly moist and yummy. (you can also do a spice cake mix)

Remington, I will have to try that receipe. That sounds so easy and yummy. Thank-you. Pumpkin is also good for us.

Hello
My health is #1 in my book. Just because I know someone that says they care. will I came to realize the get togethers the partys... are fun with _______friend/family member that I feel close to.
I came to relize just because people feel they care/love you really don't if they do not care about your health your life... I have clean my enviorment of good intention but contribute to death of me. people.
Now I bake too. Recipe require 1 cup of sugar. I use less than 1/2 of splinda sub sugar. if reciepe requires oil or better or 2 eggs. I use far less oil. the only oil I use is olive oil. and instead of 2 eggs I use 1.
So recipe alter but taste 98 % the same with 1/2 the cal.'s

I have always used less sugar egg oil in recipe all my life. GrandMa taught us well.

when she not looking take 4 of fat bars and frezze. LOL when she out steal 4 more brownies and frezze. she should know to teach her children how to shop cook n eat. Baby only wants sugar because it was introduced to sugar.

Oh will just my throughts.

So the brownies....they weren't just regular brownies, they were chocolate chip GHIRARDELLI brownies. I love ghirardelli chocolate. Ok, so anyway, I tried a piece. A very small piece. I did not like it. It tasted like an overly dense piece of fudge, and I don't like fudge.
As for my family not being supportive because they make things that are not "diet friendly", frankly that's not the way it is in my home. There are so many healthy things to eat in my house, it's just a matter of chosing correctly.

You've got a great attitude Yvette! IMO with your attitude and approach you're going to have great & long term success.

I do agree with you about supportiveness of friends and family. Everyone else's world shouldn't have to change just because I am changing the way I eat. What I eat is my choice.

BTW - I have seen some recipes online for brownies made from black beans. Never tried it since brownies isn't one of those gotta have foods for me. Also, Trader Joe's makes a box mix called "Reduced Guilt Brownies". Obviously neither one is "healthy" food - but calories/fat/sugar is probably a bit lower.

I've used myfitnesspal.com to track my calories in and out. It really helps to see how many fat/sugar/calories are in each food - the flip side is you can input different exercises and see how many calories that expends. I'm not using it right now so I need to get back on it. Your post inspires me to start that up again too. then I need to get moving again too. Hang in there!

Terry, I have a Fitbit, and I can go onto the fitbit website and use their tracking system. The fitbit keeps track of how many calories I burn in a day, and from that, it tells me how many calories I can consume in that day. I love that because it helps me make better choices. I never made bad choices, but for example: in the morning I used to like a cup of orange juice. Putting that into my food tracker used up so many of my calories for my days, that I cut out my orange juice. Now I drink tomato juice if I want a juice.

Oh, and on Father's day....I was very proud of myself. I went over my sister's house for a bbq. Most everything was very fattening. I brought 2 slim-fast shakes with me and I didn't crave any of the food sitting in front of me. Though I did eat veggies from the veggie tray.

Thanks. I did learn about the OJ - I don't drink it but your idea is great -- I'll try tomato. Glad to hear that the BBQ went well. I did a 30 minute workout today just right from my computer. It felts good to do something again. Tomorrow I have my first personal trainer work out and today I tracked my calories. I'm staying at my mom's and she had ice cream today -- twice. I felt satisfied with watermelon. So it was a good day.