A friend of mine stopped their addiction by developing the habit of putting junk food in the freezer. The freezer makes it taste better but forces you to wait out the craving because it has to get cold.

• don’t buy the junk.
• don’t snack, you’re not 6 months old to need to eat at 3 hours interval.
• during the transition period try to find alternatives like carrot sticks or whatever.
• don’t eat at TV or equivalent, eat only at the dinning table when you decide and without distractions.

Good luck

Talk to a therapist. Work out what’s really bothering you, or at least how to be more mindful.

You have what is called an “addiction”. An addiction is a self-destructive behavior you can’t control. Or rather, that you can control but not with the normal ease at which you normally control your own actions.

There’s two ways out of an addiction. One is far more effective than the other.

The method that’s more effective short term, but less effective long term, is willpower. Just force yourself to hold off on those treats. Wait five minutes, then dig in. Next time, try waiting six minutes. Just brute force your way out of the behavior.

The method that is less immediately effective, but far more effective long term, is to heal your psychological trauma so that moment-to-moment consciousness is not painful. This will remove the base motivation for pleasure-seeking, making that junk food mildly attractive, but nothing more.

In my own experience with addiction, brute forcing an addiction merely leads to another addiction forming. The only lasting addiction relief I’ve gotten in my life is from deep psychotherapeutic work, with men’s groups, with zen training, with individual therapy, and with native american healing ceremonies.

If your addiction were to alcohol or crack or something else that debilitated you, I’d recommend starting with the brute force method just to get breathing room. But a junk food addiction is more subtle, and doesn’t immediately debilitate you, so my recommendation is to go for the trauma healing strategy.

However, if your job is at all in danger, then I recommend the brute force method to begin with, because the inflammation caused by junk food will affect your job performance and if there’s any danger of losing your job then you need to take immediate action to protect it.

I said this in another comment, get a water bottle. Our bodies use hunger knowing real food has water in it. But if the water isn’t working out for you, try switching the snacks to something that might be up your alley. Instead of a chip dip or cheese, try salsa. Someone suggested carrot or celery sticks, get a jar of peanut butter just to dip them in. Carrots and peanut butter is amazing. And to make meal time better, start cooking yourself. Watch a ton of cooking videos on YouTube and try making some easy recipes.

Don’t have it in the house. Don’t buy it. Don’t even go down those aisles in the store.

Like others have said one of the easiest things to do is simply don’t buy the junk.

Personally I found that the real game changer is finding a healthy snacking alternative. For me this is almonds and dried apricots. They’re still quite a ‘dense’ energy snack but it scratches the sweet tooth itch and is much more filling. Plus you get the added protein, fats & micro nutrients that you would usually miss in processed items.

Try out some different alternatives (my wife loves to snack on dates and Greek yoghurt for example) and try mainly just to focus on finding something you enjoy so you can swap the habit.

Good luck!

1. Make sure you don’t have any mental disorders that you aren’t aware of. Watch actual doctors (like Dr. K) on YouTube to figure this out. You’d be surprised how subtly a disorder can impact the rest of your life.

2. Do something more fulfilling. A decent chunk of the stuff you watch isn’t helpful and doesn’t satisfy you, so it’s probably better to watch some really good movies/videos/shows so that you give it your full attention. If that doesn’t work, find hobbies that do capture your attention.

I was able to curb my nervous/bored eating and drinking with bitters and sours. Instead of reaching for food I now reach for some tea (with just lemon), coffee (decaf black), a glass of water with lemon, or just suck on a lime wedge. The lime thing is mostly to curb alcohol cravings.

PS: My wife’s answer was Kombucha. Everybody is different.

Don’t go shopping when hungry.

Try to replace what you currently eat with something else that is snacky but healthy like carrots, nuts or grapes.

Everyone is saying don’t but snack foods, which is one step. But if you don’t have some form of healthy snacks on hand, you’re just going to revert back to it. I suggest dehydrating fruits and having nuts and seeds available so you can still snack but not feel bad about it.

1. Stop buying it. Starve yourself of it by just not having it around.
2. Keep a tall glass or bottle of warm water with you when you’re junking on content. Keep sipping it. Slowly. Over time you’ll finish the bottle and get up to pee. That’s there number 3 comes in.
3. Recognize another harmful pattern here. Is your approach to watching content affecting your mood or causing you to spiral into junk food addiction? Maybe cut down on the YouTube videos. Or if you enjoy them a lot, combine them with some other activity you can do with your hands - drawing, writing, lifting weights, anything. Basically understand that your hands are idle while your brain is engaged and that’s causing you to reach for that packet of food.
4. Recognize that junk food is an addiction. Deal with it as you would an alcohol or nicotine addiction. You can go cold turkey or taper down. But you have to commit. You have to hold yourself accountable. But do not let yourself get bogged down by failure. Addiction is difficult to deal with. Deal with it anyway.

Make a shopping list and be strict with yourself about what you add to it. Then restrict yourself from buying anything not on the list so that you stick to it. Best way (that I know) to be deliberate about what food comes home with you.