Ask a Literary Lady: How Do I Stop Snacking While Reading?

Dear Literary Lady,
I grew up reading a lot and eating snacks while I read. Now that I’m an adult, whenever I get really into reading a book, I crave snacks to eat along with it, but I no longer have the metabolism of a 10-year-old. How do I kick the reading and snacking habit?
–M.S., NYC
Dear M.S.,
The incomparable Mark Twain once said, “Habit is habit, and not to be flung out the window by any man, but coaxed downstairs a step at a time.” Try coaxing your habit of reading and eating down these 10 steps, and see which ones work for you!
I know some of these sound crazy, but it never hurts to be a little creative when kicking a bad habit.
1. Brush your teeth right before you read. With a minty fresh taste in your mouth, you may be less inclined to snack.
2. Change your reading location. When you’re at home on your couch, it’s easy to drift over to the pantry and the fridge. When you’re in a park, a library, or a treehouse, scavenging for food takes a lot more work.
3. Now that it’s summer, wear a lot of nice white clothing. You’ll be so afraid of getting it dirty that any desire to eat absent-mindedly while reading will subside.
4. Read while lying down, instead of sitting up. Eating while lying down is pretty uncomfortable, and you won’t feel like sitting up every few minutes just to eat a chip without choking.
5. Only allow yourself to snack on foods that take work to eat—foods that need to be cracked open, or peeled, or cut up for your consumption. Having to do all that extra work might be enough of a turnoff that you’ll decide to forgo your snack. Who wants to hack open a coconut halfway through enjoying a novel?
6. Pretend you’re reading the last remaining copy of the novel in the entire world, and you can’t get it dirty with crumbs or chocolatey fingerprints.
7. Read out loud to someone, or even just to yourself. Sure, you might drive the people around you crazy, but reading aloud makes it hard to chew and swallow at the same time.
8. Associate reading with a new physical sensation other than the taste and smell of food. Listen to music, light scented candles, or soak in the bathtub while reading.
9. Actually, try reading in the bathtub. It’s very difficult to eat in the tub. Just thinking about what happens when you drop a sandwich in the water kind of makes you lose your appetite.
10. If all else fails, take my mother’s advice: Eat everything with chopsticks. You’ll find you eat a lot less when forced to pick up every bite the hard way. In fact, you’ll probably give up on eating entirely and go back to your book after several attempts to maneuver every morsel.
Hope some of these harebrained ideas help! Whatever you do, please be patient with yourself. Habits always take a lot of time and a little heartache to break!
Best of luck,
Literary Lady