Week 2 on IP and I'm often hungry!!
 

Is it normal to still feel so hungry???...I am in the middle of my second week and I often feel like I need to eat something. The up side is yes I have lost some pounds and inches and that feels pretty good but the hunger pains are frequent. I can't wait till supper every day because I know I can have a full protein in the form of real food. Is anyone else feeling hunger pains and what do you do?...I drink plenty of water and just keep telling myself it will pass...I'm starting to cave (scary thoughts of eating something not on the plan) Help!:?:

when that happens eat a pickle, lettuce or even add another packet to your day that is non restricted.

Can I eat a few pickles?...I guess I am really missing REAL food. It's a good thing I love pickles...

Yes girlfriend, you can eat pickles!!!!!!

You do know that some days you can split your protein (meat) between lunch and dinner with your 2 cups of veggies. It is not recommended but you can do it occasionally. You can have a few pickles, when I get the munchies I will get 2-3 sweet baby gerkhins (Mt. Olive has some made with splenda) or a few pickled okra. I chew a lot of gum also, some people say not to chew the gum because it makes you hungry but it does the opposite for me :)

I really support the pickles! I was hungry for weeks on this diet because I was a huge snacker before. Trust me, it eventually does go away! I too looked forward to dinner all day long, just dreaming of some real food! Have some more salad too, which helped me a lot. It gets better! Good luck!

Thanks ladies!!! I'm glad to hear it does get easier...I was about to give up...but I'm too darn stubborn. With Christmas just around the corner I realize there are going to be Sooo.. Many.... Temptations....I think I need to stock up on pickles lol!

Just be careful about the excess salt with dill pickles. I usually keep celery sticks and cucumbers as well as dill pickles to munch on when i get hungry.
It is ok to have dill pickles, but to eat alot of them would have more salt than the celery or cucumbers.

By the way wuv2bloved you look AMAZING!!! I just had to tell you that.

Could I not just reduce some of my sea salt intake to balance it out?...

if you have a tendency to retain water I wouldn't eat a lot of pickles. I would do the cucumbers or celery. I eat a cucumber EVERYDAY for lunch, then around 3-4 I will have 2-3 baby Gerkhins(in splenda). The sea salt is different than the sodium in the pickles. And thank You :)

I was hungry right up until day 10. In fact, I think day 10 was the hardest. The hunger will start getting a lot better any time now. Plus, the pounds will really start melting away, which makes the hunger more tolerable.

I have been snacking on cucumbers as well. I think I do have a tendency of retaining water based on my weight when I was pregnant back in the day. My ankles swelled big time...I'm not big on splenda, however, I do use stevia on a regular basis. I treated myself to a hot organic cocoa with stevia the other evening when it was so cold out, it was almost like having a dessert..:).

Then I would stick to the cucumbers and stay away from the pickles because of the sodium

I chew a lot of gum too. An IP friend of mine told me about gum sweetened with Xylitol. I found it at my local health food store and it tastes great. :)