Variable Reward

I have to say that one thing that has really helped me in this last endeavor, (which is at least my 7th time working at staying at a maintenance weight following a significant loss), is to eliminate variable rewards.  You can google the heck out of all the scientific studies done on the “Chronic exposure to a gambling-like schedule of reward,” but the cliff notes version is that when you go to the fridge and cupboards randomly, looking for a food reward (snack), imagine yourself standing in front of the fridge as though it is a slot machine, and you just pulled the lever, and the dials are turning.  The science backs me up here.  That behavior, (as though a random food choice is a slot machine that may or may not pay out), is addictive for the brain.  

The key word here is random.  If, instead, each day I plan what I am going to eat, (and sure, I plan for snacks, and even have a few back-up plans for alternatives if something in my day changes, if this happens I can eat that instead, so that my brain will still interpret this as a fixed plan, versus a variable), then I am eliminating variable reward. 

I have planned what I am going to eat (each morning) long enough now that my brain has stopped offering me the thoughts of a myriad of possibilities of other things I may want to eat (overeat) because that is no longer the normal behavior from me it has come to expect.  However, if I embark on just a few random choices, I will reactive the possibility to my brain that a variable reward is an option.  I prefer my life when I am not constantly resisting the possibility of that option, that of a variable reward.  

Not an option.