eating my weight from not smoking

Get a water bottle with a sippy-straw, or put a straw into the top of it. You get that hand-to-mouth feeling sipping it. I also chew on straws for this hand-to-mouth feeling.

Make hummus and cut up veggies into thin sticks and eat those instead of other snacks that are higher in calories. Just leave your 100 cal or so in your plan for the hummus. Cutting them thin almost gives you the same hand-to-mouth feeling.

Chew gum?

When I quit smoking (from MINIMUM a pack a day, to zero cigarette), I spent months with cinnamon sticks in my hands and mouth.

I looked silly. But smelled darn good.

But I did not care - it was so important to quit smoking, and it was so hard. I used all the tricks that I could.

That was in 2003, never touched a cigarette again.

Now back to your munching issue. I remember that I gained 5 pounds after I quit, and felt like I should go back to smoking. But facing the truth, I realized that I would not lose the weight just because I would smoke again, so the result would be: being a smoker again, with an excess 5 pounds.

My only advice is to hang in there and be PATIENT. It will go away. For many people, one of the many effects of nicotine withdrawal, so to speak, is a strange sensation in the stomach, similar to hunger. You feel empty, hungry all the time, but you can feel it minutes after having eaten a large meal. So you know it's not hunger. Try to ignore it, because like all other effects (lack of concentration, being moody, etc.) will eventually pass.

Also, if you eat more, that may be to compensate the need to have something in your hands and in your mouth like smokers do all the time. Why don't you carry those cinnamon sticks like I used to do? You can even breath through them like a cig.

Just don't light it up. ;-)

Good luck, and take care.