Today was a real challenge in the area of hunger. I found that I had to constantly redirect myself away from temptation. I work in an office full of food loving women like myself, and temptation looms on almost every desk- even the vacant one being used as a "snack" desk with nary a healthy choice around.

I drank a butt load of water to try and fill the growling space in between meals. I got up and walked outside on break. I surfed the internet for gross post mortem pictures to remind myself why I am doing this (morbid but effective).

What creative and innovative ways have you found work for you in redirecting you from misbehaving?

Not creative or innovative! I snack.

This in your post really stood out to me: "I drank a butt load of water to try and fill the growling space in between meals."

If you have a growling space in between meals, consider making room for a snack. I cannot limit myself to 3 meals a day. Between lunch and dinner especially, I become *ravenous* and would eat anything put in front of me w/out hesitation. Even just a boiled egg, a bit of string cheese, some hummus, anything with some protein will calm that growly hunger beast and let me relax about snacks and stuff.

So consider maybe realocating some of your daily calories so that you don't feel quite so growly and hungry between meals. It works for me.

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Lets see...
- I snack like PhotoChick
- I chew gum. A lot. It really helps with the sweet tooth.
- I leave the room.
- I don't put away the food/cook the food if it will be a problem (this is a decision that is made per meal )
- I avoid the room/restaurant/whatever

hmmm....what else?

Maybe on the snack desk at your office put a bowl of tangerines and apples.

I snack too - I usually plan for 2-3 snacks a day.

If I know I'll be really tempted I put gum in my mouth. Sometimes I'll take a deep breath and walk away from the temptation. Also, I write down everything I eat - planned or unplanned. Sometimes, it's just not worth it to have to write it down and count the calories.

Everyone gave great ideas. I needed to read this thread because I love to snack.. so thanks for posting it

Pretty much what everyone else posted by chewing gum, planning for a snack, etc. I also find that if I'm hungry in between snack and next meal I will usually set a timer or keep track of the time and wait 10-15 minutes. If I'm still hungry after that I will have me another 100 calorie snack. If not I wait until the next meal and I'm usually good.

Oh, I hear you on the snack desk. I work in a public library and I think sometimes that place is held together by fat and sugar. It's crazy the amount of junk food constantly sitting on the counter in the workroom, about five feet away from the desk where I have to spend at least five hours a day.

Yesterday was a tough one for me because there were donuts. I refer to donuts lovingly as 'my kryptonite'. But instead of eating a donut I went across the street to Starbucks and got a huge iced coffee. 25 calories plus the little bit of half and half I put in to lighten it up, and somehow that fills me up enough that I can stop obsessing about the junk food. Don't get me wrong; it was still hard to keep my hand out of the donut box (they were the size of my head!), but I just kept thinking about getting on the scale this morning and I avoided the temptation.

So I guess my answer is to drink coffee (tea works too). That doesn't work for everyone, I know. But I also add up calories in my head and think about where I am in my weight loss and whether those *particular* calories are really worth it. I have several trips coming up in the next couple months and I know there will be days when I go off plan a little, so I guess I'm saving my extra calories for those days.

Well for me, what just happened is that I was about to eat but decided to use the washroom first. While washing my hands I looked in the mirror and my belly looked gross. I lost my appetite

I agree with healthy snacks. I also try to brush my teeth or chew sugarfree minty gum. It keeps your mouth so clean you don't want to mess it up. Plus very few things taste good right after fresh mint.

-- Sugarfree, minty gum is definitely helpful. Sometimes even after a full meal, especially if I ate quickly because I was hungry, I find myself just wanting something to chew on. Or, I want to have something to chew on when I'm bored or irritated with the bit of work I need to be doing. Gum works for all this. Apparently chewing gum also burns a tiny quantity of calories.

-- Green tea or chai tea brewed from teabags, no sugar or milk or anything. Sipping on something warm is really soothing to me, especially in the morning. Green tea has antioxidants and may be a metabolism booster.

-- I also agree that a few small meals versus three big meals per day is helpful. I take healthy snacks with me to work--oatmeal in the morning, fruit in the afternoon, it varies. I try to get plenty of protein in my meals and snacks, I really think that helps.

-- If the work environment pushes food on you, why not see what you could do to change it? Maybe start a healthy snacks fund. Or relocate the snacks to a location away from you. Or make a pact with some coworkers to take a 10-minute afternoon walk together instead of snacking. Raising the awareness of healthy behavior in the office is a loving thing to do for both you and your coworkers.

You all gave great suggestions! Thank you ALL for responding

Here's what I did today and it totally worked:

I'm a huge coffee lover and alot of my morning points were coming from coffee. I can't stand artificial sweetener- it's like someone sprayed windex in my mouth. Well my girlfriend at work gave me a packet of stevia to try in my coffee- Hot damn- 0 points coffee!!! It took a minute to get used to, because it is alot sweeter than sugar and not quite the same taste, but it didn't taste bad at all- and 0 calories/carbs!!!!! That helped curb my appetite quite a bit and also allowed me to add more snacks and still stay within plan. I went out at lunch a bought a box of packets for desk and home !

Also, The infernal snack desk has been moved out of my aisle and into another, and it is now stocked with "everything" pretzel chips (2pts per serv.) The girls and I are hitting Trader Joes on Friday to stock more healthy options. Once they found out I was doing weight watchers, they all kicked into support mode

Thank you all again! Coming here is really helping me stay inspired and motivated.

This is a great thread to read through. Temptation is all around us, all the time! I work in a preschool, and there are constant snacks, constant baking with the kids, constant food!! If I haven't carefuly planned my food for the day, it's so easy for me to just eat what's around.

Not that I'm good at doing this (as you can see from my ticker I've only lost 5 pounds so far), but I have learned planning is the most important thing. Now if I could just do it!

I keep diet pepsi in the fridge at work.. so I can grab one when I get overwhelming munchies.

I'd have to say virtually ALL my crazy, over the top, gotta have it or i'm going to die snack attacks have NOTHING to do with hunger! Just last night I finished a nice biggish dinner (a salad, a clear soup, some chicken, veg, brown rice etc.) had a nice cup of tea and closed the kitchen for the night. About 11 minutes later ALL I could think of was "toast with gobs of butter, peanut butter and jam" and it would not let go of me!!! I actually went and got bread out of the freezer!!! I ended up eating half a pack of sugar free gum as it kind of ruins your tastebuds for anything else right after LOL but it was a weird feeling to be sure!!!

Today the Chocolate craving hit like a freight train driven by a crack head. No matter how full I got on other things, it gnawed at me that I hadn't had chocolate since Sunday.

Well bless my friend Betsy at work- she tossed me a bag of weight watchers chocolate toffee candy and said "Happy Mother's Day". It's like smallish Heath bars that are 1 point a peice. Who can't spare one point for a quick chocolate fix? Super sweet, too, enough so to remind you that it's decadent so you don't over do it