Same place same time?

Every summer I help out with a softball league by working in their snack bar. While working there I can  have any of the snacks free of charge. Sweet! Only now when I go in there I automatically think, ok what do I want to eat? I feel like I need to eat something.

This same thing happens when I go to my in-laws house. They have a snack cupboard and when I first started going over there I was told that I didn't have to ask, just eat whatever I wanted. And oftentimes one of my sisters-in-law would be eating something, so I'd just snack along with them. Now as soon as I go over to my in-laws house I automatically head to the kitchen and check out the snack cupboard. I'm not even usually hungry!

I call this habitual eating. Eating simply because it is a habit. It's usually connected with a time of day (for example, dinner every day at 5, even if I had a snack at 4:30) or a place (such as the snack bar or my in-laws kitchen).

Last night I was working at the snack bar asking myself  the same old question, what should I eat. I reached for a licorice rope when it hit me, I wasn't hungry. I really didn't want to eat anything. So what did I do? Nothing! I didn't eat a thing. I'll be honest, I was pretty proud of myself. Now when I go to my in-laws and I find myself in the kitchen I head to the cabinet with the dishes in it and get myself a cup of water.