Major sweet tooth

I have sugar free hot chocolate with 2x Equal tablets in it. It's like 12 calories and really does help with sweet cravings (especially if you brush your teeth and go straight to sleep after so you can't eat anything else )

I like chocolate chips (sweetened with Xylitol) with macadamia nuts and shredded coconut. Sometimes a chai tea with coconut cream hits the spot.

I had some malted milk balls!
I went on an 1 1/2 hour bike ride against the wind so I had plenty of calories left after I ate steak, veggies and hummus.

When I first changed the way I ate I found that I tended to miss old habits. I used to always eat something sweet at around 5 pm, when the first stressful part of the day was over, I was hungry, and I was comforting myself for the fact I'd be at work for several more hours. When I decided to eat only at mealtimes and cut out mid-day snacking, I still wanted food at that time and missed it. I brought other food to munch on (raw veggies) and mostly reminded myself I was not really hungry (I'd eaten plenty that day and would have a good dinner that evening) and once I got out of the habit I was fine. It didn't take that long.

So you can break the habit.

That said, I have found that including a little something sweet after dinner is a good habit for me to keep. Eating right after dinner I don't have any temptation to overeat, and it gives me a reason to save my calories and resist whatever stupid sweets or other food outside my plan might show up at work (unless it's really special and worth fitting in). I break this habit every once in a while -- a bit of cheese instead of something sweet works as a nice alternative, or some fruit with yogurt -- but I don't think there's anything wrong with fitting in a dessert to your calories if you want to. It might even make your plan feel more sustainable to you.

More than sweets what I love is trying local restaurants, and so when I was on lower calories I still found a way to fit that in weekly (I did that instead of fitting in sweets early on). But it's really the same principle--you have to think about what kind of eating plan you will want to live with longterm.

Leighjr wrote: »

I think part of the problem is I was raised being hold to eat everything on my plate as it cost money and didn't spring money for me to waste by not eating all etc etc

Me too. An important thing to learn is to control what's on your plate. Don't put more on than you intend to eat (and for me this means putting on what a reasonable serving is based on the calories I want, not based on what looks good--you will learn you don't need as much as you think). Don't grab a bag of peanuts and expect to stop. It's normal to find that hard. Measure out your serving of peanuts (whatever you choose) and put that on a plate (or just put the rest away, since I probably wouldn't eat peanuts on a plate. ;-) Eat that, don't get more.

With restaurant food it's harder, but just decide that you will eat 1/2 (or whatever) and the rest is leftovers for later. Do that before you start eating; makes it easier to stick to.

With the coffee maybe start subbing cream for sugar or just cut back the sugar.

Try diet soda?

Vanilla almond milk warmed with cinnamon and agave, banana sauteed in honey and cinnamon, homemade banana ice cream (freeze banana chunks, run in a blender or food processor with your choice of sweetener/nut butter/etc, until smooth), frozen grapes, flavored Greek yogurt. Get on Pinterest, there are tons of ideas.