I do this too. “first you have to feed the horses a snack” or “you need to lay out clothes for tonight first” for instance. Then I try to choose something that takes a while to prepare, to put it off a little sooner.
The entire thing is a literal mental game like being at mile 23 of a full 26.2 runners marathon. You’re pretty much trying to discipline your brain as if it’s a very disobedient child that is throwing a tantrum. Your brain will send out signals that it’s time to eat but you have to be the boss and say “hell no!” 😅 Drinking a cold cup of water does wonders. When you finally decide to eat you also have to tell your brain that You’re full. You don’t have to eat the entire portion if you’re stuffed like a turkey. I don’t even check my ZERO fasting app as much anymore because it triggers a response of me thinking about that meal at 5:37 and so forth lol.
I recommend reading Atomic Habits by James Clear if you haven’t already. He touches on this topic, or perhaps a topic adjacent to what you are doing, as making habits unattractive.
The entire book is very useful for those of us on a weight loss journey who need to champion the little things to make things happen. Something you’ve started to do with your “but first” trick. Good work!
This is excellent. I am doing this exact thing with my SodaStream. Around lunch time I’ll get jumpin’ stoopid hungry so I’ll go make a liter of seltzer and make it some random flavor I have (I’ve got about ten or so at any one time). That usually helps a lot to make me forget and keep working until later that night.