I am SOOOOO hungry!

busywend

Well-Known Member
I am getting hungry by 3pm every day. I just do not know what to do. I know if I use more points I will be losing it at the end of the day.

I need 0 point snacks that are easy to have at work.

HELP!!!!!!!
 

1905

Well-Known Member
Hi Busywend,

This used to happen to me, too. Here's what you need to do: Eat more for lunch and breakfast. Plan, Plan, Plan every calorie and point from the minute you get up until bed. Know when you're apt to be hungry and eat before that happens. I eat most of my calories for the day at school, and not a lot later.

That doesn't help you now though! How about some radishes? or lettuce with cucumbers, carrots, and vinegar as the dressing? How about coffee, or tea? I'm sorry I don't know about points. A handful of cereal always helps me.

or just hang on.......and tell yourself you can do anything for one hour- repeat until tomorrows points become available!
-Alyssa
 

Andy

Active Member
I also do not know the point system but still wanted to share and input:

Make sure you get fruit at lunch. More fruit and veggies and less breads (carbohydrates).

difficult child's psychiatrist explained to us that breads are a quick filler upper but also a quick emptier - doesn't stay very long. Fruit and veggies though they don't feel like they fill you up, last longer so you don't get hungry so fast.

Look at the foods you are having for lunch. Are they solid to last or fast foods that really are not helpful much longer than lunch?

Foods like oatmeal and peanut butter toast in the morning. Maybe even oatmeal or peanutbutter sandwich for lunch or budget a 2:30/3:00 healthy snack (again something that will last - a piece of fruit).
 

Andy

Active Member
I also learned years ago to have three foods atleast per meal. If you have a variety of foods, you feel full because your body is not yearning for that one item you missed.

Less food, but a variety. protien - fruit and/or veggie - bread - dairy -dessert

A balanced meal of all food groups really does serve this purpose.
 

trinityroyal

Well-Known Member
Wendy,
I don't know how the point system works either, but here are a few things that work for me. I eat my biggest meal of the day at lunch, and I always make sure to include some kind of protein (cheese, yogurt, edamame, slice of lean beef or chicken...that sort of thing). I will often chop up a chicken breast and put it in a salad.

Proteins take much longer to digest than carbs, so they stick with you through the afternoon slump. If you can't stretch it out until dinner, a small handful of almonds is a very healthful snack. Does wonderful things for your heart, as well as keeping hunger at bay.

Hope you find the solution.

Trinity
 

Wiped Out

Well-Known Member
Staff member
All good suggestions. A couple more might be to eat a Fiber One Bar-they really fill you up! Also, I used to eat a lot of the ww fruities on the way home. You can eat a whole pack for 1 pt.
 

busywend

Well-Known Member
I usually have a Lean Cuisine for lunch. I will have to pay attention to carb vs protein content to see if that makes a difference. Yesterday I had a ravioli one (carbs) but there were a lot of veggies in it, too.

I did get some almonds out of the machine. It helped for a bit. Then difficult child stressed me out so I did bad at dinner. Emotional eating!! Agh! The day before a weigh in, too.

Keep 'em coming. Any low point snacks you can tell me about would be great!
 

Marguerite

Active Member
I made my own muesli for breakfast. It's got the things in it I should eat - bran, more bran, a small amount of LSA, more bran, a few walnuts, a very small amount of dried fruit and bran. Also BROWN rice in various forms, including rolled and puffed. I can't eat oats. The recipe is available on request, including the option to vary it to your personal taste and still have it really work well to help you lose weight, not feel hungry, AND keep you moving.

It's a plain muesli, no added sugar. The only sugar is in the dried fruit, and I keep it low. Not a toasted muesli either. No added fat.

I also eat a small amount - I use a one cup ramekin as a bowl, so I'm eating less than a cup in total.

I'm finding this muesli keeps me from feeling hungry for a lot longer than any other cereal.

BUT - I also get the hungers. Sometimes mid-afternoon, sometimes late at night. Because I play around with the dried fruit allowance in the muesli, as well as the nut allowance (so I can put in the type of fruit, and type of nuts, that I LOVE without changing the proportion of fruit, or nuts) then I look forward to eating my muesli. So if I get the hungers, instead of having eaten more muesli for breakfast, I have the extra bit of muesli later, when I'm hungry.

There have been times, in past successful diets, when I could have eaten as many as six bowls of muesli in a 24 hour period.

The other thing I did - because my doctor told me I had to lose weight or I was heading for gastric bypass surgery, I ate as if I already HAD had bypass. So again, eating small amounts of GOOD food, often. A mouthful at a time, if necessary. I also kept reminding myself that I very much wanted to avoid surgery.

I've just had a day where people who hadn't seen me for a couple of months kept telling me how skinny I looked. Without exaggeration, I've had at least ten people tell me today that I look great. A few asked me with concern if I meant to lose weight.

So just to reassure you - this is working.

The other thing I'm eating when I'm ravenous - strawberries. Preferably at room temperature - they have more flavour.

Very important mid-afternoon, though - before you eat ANYTHING, have at least 500 ml water (or non-sweetened water-based drink). This means water if you can (chilled if it helps) with as few calories in it as possible. Artificially sweetened non-carbonated drink if you can't stand too much water. Because mid-afternoon craving can often be thirst in disguise, particularly if you're craving fruit, or ice cream, or similar. Promise yourself your snack afterwards, but make yourself drink the water first. You should be drinking 2 litres of water a day anyway. If you have the water first, you will be satisfied with a much smaller snack.

The other strong suggestion - avoid fat, avoid sugars (including natural sugars where possible), avoid carbs (unless they're whole food carbs such as wholegrains or vegetables). Carbs leave a taste in your mouth that quickly turns sour as the bacteria in your mouth use up the last residue. That sour aftertaste (about ten minutes after you ate something high carb) encourages you to have a little more, to briefly kill the sour taste.

Good luck. Not easy, but if you have a strategy in place to sort out the problem (so you don't have to always rely on denial and willpower) then you will win through.

Marg
 

busywend

Well-Known Member
Don't ya love it when people comment on the weight loss??!!! It always feels so good to know when people have noticed.

Please send me your snack recipe. I will try anything. I will have to figure out the points before I attempt it.

I do drink water - but some days more than others. It could be those are the days I have trouble with most. Today it is better. I had a lemon chicken with rice (lean cuisine). Yesterday was ravioli - so that carb vs protein theory seems to be working for me. I will keep track another couple days.

Snacks, snacks and more snacks!
 
M

ML

Guest
Laughing cow cheese on celery. It's just 1 point per wedge, it has protein and it fills you just enough. I find that when I eat more protein it really does stick with me longer. I expected to be hungrier then I am as I just started back on Tuesday (WW). I ate a lean hamburger pattie with tomato slices and it stayed with me till about 3:30 and the cheese spread on celery got me the rest of the way. Someone told me that they drank protein water in the car on the way home and it helped them from raiding the fridge out of ravenous hunger when they got home.
 

Marguerite

Active Member
Something else to try (in moderation) is a dab of corn relish on the laughing cow cheese on celery. Yum! But go easy on it - there is sugar in that corn relish. Also with the laughing cow cheese - they just had an ad for it on Aussie TV, "less than 4 g of fat per portion". That is actually a lot of fat, on a diet - 4 g of fat is a teaspoonful.
In Australia, we have after-school snacks of celery spread very thinly with Vegemite. You spread it on with your finger, to make sure it is as thin a smear as possible. Vegemite tastes like solid soy sauce, which is why you should always use it sparingly. It's also loaded with flavour, and salt - other reasons to go easy. But it really doesn't take much at all. It's fabulous convalescent food because it's low fat, zero sugar but high in B vitamins. English Marmite just can't substitute for us.
Vegemite spread thinly on celery should look faintly brown, not black. You spread it on the inner curve of the celery. Eat immediately, or at least within fifteen minutes, because the salt in the Vegemite will draw out the moisture from the celery.

My diet - it's based on the CSIRO Total Wellbeing Diet, very science-based. The closest equivalent to CSIRO in the US would perhaps be a combination of CDC and FDA. However, I also follow my specialist's advice to cut out sugar, cut out fat. I know from personal experience to cut back on carbs.

The CSIRO diet - it encourages lean protein (about the size of the palm of your hand) at at least two of the three main meals. It also encourages that your carbs be as wholegrain as possible. So we've switched to brown rice instead of white, for example. I try to keep to no more than half a cup of brown rice a day, and one slice of wholegrain bread a day. If you are an active, young person you could double this. Or more.
I don't count calories too much - a bowl of brown rice is allegedly more calories than the same size bowl of white rice, which doesn't make sense - your body uses less calories of the brown. So I only take notice of the calories in a big way, if the food item is NOT wholegrain.

Corn on the cob makes a great snack - yes, it's high carb, but there's so much fibre in the corn, that much of it will go straight through (and take with it any other nasty waste products). I do allow a little bit of butter on the corn - but I do it by rubbing a block of butter cold from the fridge, over the hot corn. I don't cut off a bit of butter, you use more that way.

The muesli recipe - here it is. Take note - I have used rice instead of rolled oats, because I can't eat oats. So use this recipe as you want, mix and match the ingredients to make it suit what YOU like.

Marg's Marvellous Muesli

* 350 mg packet of puffed brown rice (I use a fairly dense puffed brown rice - it is about 6-7 cups in quantity). Substitute rolled oats here if you prefer).

* 150 mg rolled rice (this is very hard to chew, I found it to be like little chunks of plastic. Feel free to substitute some other high-fibre wholegrain)

* 2 cups bran (yes, it's a lot. Choose the bran form as what you want - loose powder, little sticks, bran bubbles even. But if you choose bran bubbles, use the bubbles as part of your puffed rice allowance)

*1 cup small raisins or other sugar-free dried fruit

* 1 cup chopped walnuts

I also add (as part of the nut component, part of the bran component) LSA. This is a blend of ground linseed, sesame and almonds. It looks like loose bran (a bit) but has a nice nutty flavour.

I also add part of the dried fruit component, as other dried fruit such as paw-paw, dried strawberries, I've got some goji berries I'm going to try.

The important thing I've found is to keep the fruit and nuts chopped finely enough so it mixes through evenly. You don't need all the fruit to sink to the bottom, or to get lost on the top so all you have left to eat is the fruit-free powdery bran from the bottom.

I'm still playing with my own recipe. For example, I found a cheaper puffed brown rice - but it weighed a lot less, too. Then when I added the milk, I found the new puffed rice just turned onto a whole lot of tiny sponges and sogged up the milk. Bleah! Because the new rice weighed less, it didn't fill me up as well, either. It also meant most of the bran went to the bottom of the canister, which means it's uneven in how it tastes across the week.

I just weighed a serve - somewhere between 70 and 75 grams. That's without the milk. I use a fat-free milk but that's personal choice.

So whatever recipe you come up with - fiddle with it to make it your own. Use currants instead of the small raisins (we call ours sultanas - they're a small green seedless grape which is delicious dried) or use entirely some other fruit. I have switched from the dried paw-paw because it was too much trouble to cut up small. I've also seen packets of fruit flakes - they're made from concentrated juice and dried fruit, so they would be fairly high in natural sugars so go carefully.

I make up this muesli in a large plastic sealable container. The raw materials are kept in a special plastic bag, to stop people snacking on the nuts/dried fruit component. As I empty a packet, I put it on the shopping list so there will be some for the next batch.

I eat another serve of this muesli as a snack if I'm hungry at other times of the day.

Drinks - low-cal cordial is good. Plain water with a squeeze of lime juice is good, to quench thirst. Chilled water. I also make a form of Frappe coffee with decaf instant coffee, 500 ml water, a splash of low-fat milk and two artificial sweeteners. One of these and I'm not hungry (or thirsty) for ages. It also helps to drink it with a straw. I don't know why, but I enjoy it more that way. I keep a 2 litre bottle of water in the fridge and aim to empty it each day.

Aside from that - I snack on fresh strawberries, one punnet a day.

Good luck!

Marg
 

Marg's Man

Member
A punnet is a box that usually holds 250g (about half a pound) of fruit.

Berries of all types are packaged this way here. They used to be a sort of basket woven out of very thin strips of wood or bamboo. These days they are made of plastic mesh moulded to look like the old type.

Marg's Man
 
M

ML

Guest
I just wanted to add that the Laughing Cow cheese has a light version that is 35 calories and 2 grams of fat (or 1 ww point) in a serving.

Oh and I plan to make museli this weekend!
 

Marguerite

Active Member
Have fun with the muesli. I'm still fiddling with my recipe - I made a fresh batch this morning and added some dried strawberries. I did try the goji fruit but they're very tough to chew and I really don't like them much.

It's all a matter of personal preference. For example, you might want to try slivered almonds instead of the walnuts. Or maybe pecans instead.

One thing I strongly recommend - a really good storage container. The one I'm using, I'm not happy with. It seems to leak bran every time I shake it to make sure it's all evenly distributed.

I go off the pills in a few weeks, then I have to maintain my weight. I'm going to be relying on my muesli more than ever!

Marg
 

LittleDudesMom

Well-Known Member
Wendy,

Here's a couple observations -

Not sure what Lean Cuisine meals you are eating, but you can actually fill up longer, healthier, and yummier by making your own lunch. For example - 2 slices of whole grain bread (3 pts), 1/2 package of that thin (cheap) lunch meat (1 pt), low fat mayo or a tasty mustard (1 pt), then add to that a combo of any of the following: sundried tom, lettuce, peppercinies, pickles (dill only), reg tomato, grilled peppers, or any other veggie (0 pts). Add to that a nice serving of spicy salsa to be skooped up with 14 ff pringles (1 pt) and for dessert a ff pudding or jello. That lunch is really filling (the veggies and the whole grain bread will fill you and keep you satisfied for hours) and only has 7 points. That is probably equal to or less than a frozen lunch (I am not a fan of he prepared frozen stuff of any brand).

Another option - take a can of the Progresso Light soups (either 0 or 1 point for the whole can). Add on the side some wheat saltines or a serving of those thin pretzel crisps. That lunch is only 3 or 4 points, depending on the soup. Then you can add an apple or a banana or some almonds around three to head off the hunger.

I am a real proponent of preparing your own meals.

Another option. On Sunday afternoon grill up some chicken breasts and take them for lunch sliced on top of a nice big salad. I grill up some chicken every weekend to have during the week. Go ahead and grill up some peppers and oninos as well.

That would be my suggestion one - make and bring your own yummy, low point and satisfying lunch.

The second option would be for you to try the Core program. When I joined WW I had absolutely no desire to do Core because it seemed so limited. But easy child and started that a couple weeks ago. I love it!!! No counting, no brainer!!!!

That way you don't have to worry about the points so long as you stick with the things on the food list. I have found it very freeing. And, you get an additional 35 points a week. That translates into 5 points a day. You can use those points for things like bread for a sandwich, or a little handfull of nuts, a fiber one choc bar (one of my favs), or some ff pringles every day. Or, you can save them up for the weekend and have pizza or something.

I'm only into week three of Core but I really like it. I lost 5.4 the first week and just lost another 2.8 this week. easy child lost 2.8 this week too.

I can honestly tell you that I have not felt hungry since starting Core.

I hope some of these suggestions work for you.

Sharon
 

busywend

Well-Known Member
Thank you all for your suggestions. I am really struggling. I don't know if this is normal at this point in the WW plan or if it is the winter build up that my body is trying to go through.

Preparing my foods does seem like a better option - seems like way more food than I am getting now! I have to expand my food selection.

Great ideas! Keep them coming!

by the way - I did lose .2 this week - so at least I did not gain again!
 
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