How do I / we get round the hunger pangs? :-(

Ambermarigold

We ate what we thought to be a healthy and sustaing meal last night: Wholemeal brown rice, assorted roast vegetables, salmon steak and a little sweet chilli sauce on the side. And yet within 40 minutes of eating we were peckish and within the hour too hungry to ignore things so heloing ourselves to toasted teacakes!

What are we doing wrong?

I know that some days I burn more calories / use more energy than the next, because my mobility gives me good days and bad days. So, I would understand if this hunger coralated with when I had done more walking or used my exercise bike, but it doesn't seem that way to my husnand and I. We were both so hungry. It's demorolising after having put in so much effort to cook good, healthy food and use ingrediants that should break down/ and burn more slowly. We avoid processed foods and try and use the most basic option so they provide more energy.

Help please. Suggestions anyone?

Thanks. x

Salkeela

Here are my suggestions:

1. Recognise "weak" times of day and plan for them.

2. Drink loads of liquids - for me it is always a hot drink: tea, coffee, Bambu (coffee substitute)....

3. Do things to distract over "weak" times - on nights I go out to dog obedience, I eat dinner, go out and forget all about food.

4. Drink a glass of water before your meal - seems to help bulk the meal out a bit to me.

5. Move to a different room with a different focus after eating.

6. Don't buy foods that you can't resist. I love cinnamon bagels, but I only buy as many as the family will devour in one go....so none hanging around the house to tempt me.

7. Take up a competitive board game. A game of Carcassonne with the girls means I forget about food.....

8. Keep nothing sweet in the house. I don't buy biscuits (ok ok, if you're American, those are "cookies" ) cakes, buns, desserts or any of that stuff. Sometimes my daughters want sweet things, so they make it from basic ingredients, and that tends to be at weekends when there are plenty of other mouths to munch them up!

9. Re-evaluate your eating pattern. Perhaps you could cope better with lower calories early in the day so you can save some for a decent plate size of food in the evening?

10. Don't ever give in together. It is for you to be strong for him, and him to be strong for you. Hubby and I dieted together last year and this became a firm rule..... Sometimes I ate a little extra, sometimes he did, but we never joined in to keep the other company.

Hope those random thoughts help a bit! Good luck - it only gets easier I think.

Ambermarigold

My word.... what a wise woman you are!!!

Those are excellent tips and I can see a few things we could do with changing. My worst times are about 10.30 - 11.30 am around 4 - 6pm and 8 - 9.30pm and during the night if I wake. As you can see, there are a number of problem areas. But at home we also eat sensible food, cooked from scratch most of the time and use foods said to take longer for the body to burn. Sowe assume by that, that it will take longer for us to feel hungry again. But that doesn't seem to always work.

As for the .....'oh go on then, I'll join you then' scenario, we fall into that regularly. Hubby has an even sweeter tooth than me and a lot less will - power!!! So he buys treats in or leaves wrappers (like a kid) in the car which tempt me. Though we are both trying harder at the moment. Tonight though, pudding after the meal was only because I didn't want to sit and watch him eat what I also enjoy.

I'm going to ponder your clever suggestions! Thanks for taking the time to reply :flowerforyou: xx