Hello everyone! I am on day 2. Yippee! Yesterday (day1) I was overwhelmingly hungry. Can we have ANYTHING between meals at all? I was starving around 3:00 and could not stand it any longer so I had some stalks of celery. Then I was wondering if there is any "free" foods that we can have at any time of the day. Did I need to count the celery as part of my 2 cups of dinner veggies? I think I would be OK during the day if there was SOMETHING I can at least chew on. Maybe this hunger thing will go away eventually. I always have been a volume eater, unfortunately. Thank you!
When I am real hungry I will eat 2 whites from 2 hardboiled eggs. or some cut up veggies with walden farms dip or dressing..and yes it counts as part of the daily veggie count. a rare treat is a dill pickle.
keep cut up veggies at reach for times like this. Also Lettuce is UNLIMITED so you can eat as much of it as you want when you want. If you are getting hungry in the afternoons you can also switch your night time snack to afternoon and it wouldn't be a problem
You can have unlimited lettuce (romaine, boston/butter, iceberg) throughout the day - and in the beginning my coach said if I was REALLY hungry or struggling I could have a hard boiled egg between meals.
You should be eating 4 cups of the selected veggies each day - if you find you are hungry in between meals, you may want to break that up - 1 cup at lunch, 1 cup between lunch and dinner, 2 cups at dinner....or 1 cup with breakfast to beef it up a little, 1 cup with lunch, 1 cup at dinner and 1 cup as a snack. As long as you get the right amount of veggies in every day it doesn't matter WHEN during the day you eat them!
In addition to what the others have said, my coach told me that, for the 1st week only, I can have up to 5 IP packets. So maybe you can have one of those when you get hungry mid afternoon!
I like to chop up veggies and put them into baggies of 1 cup servings. that way I can grab one for a quick snack or when I go to eat a meal they are already measured.
Oh - and one thing I found, when you get hungry between meals, try drinking water first - a lot of times we think we are hungry but we're really thirsty. Or we need a mental distraction because we're not TRULY hungry just bored. Try the glass of water first, if that doesn't curb it then try the gum. If all else fails have a lettuce salad!
I had 4 packets each day for the whole first week and still lost 7.25 pounds. I just needed that to kind of phase in the diet.
Also, I think dill pickles are a good snack - pretty much just cumcumbers and vinegar with a few spices. I love Claussen Kosher Dills and keep some handy in the fridge. If I just can't wait 'til my next meal or snack, I have 1 or 2 of those to tide me over.