Loooong afternoons......
 

Im on day 7 and Im finding that the stretch between lunch and dinner 12-6:30. Is just to long....by about 4 i am starving!!!! My coach says to save the snack for after dinner..and i do love ending the day with a hot chocolate drink, but do you think i should have the snack earlier...any advice?

I have my snack earlier in the day too because of my schedule.

There are a some other things you can try.

1. You are allowed 2 egg whites as a freebie each day. You might want to try having 2 hard boiled egg whites for a mid afternoon snack.

2. Split your IP snack- 1/2 mid afternoon and 1/2 at night

3. bake muffins from a non-restricted packet and split that up between lunch and mid afternoon.

I'm not on IP, but my metabolism works like this: Morning, fairly hungry. Lunch VERY hungry, between lunch and dinner VERY hungry. Dinner, not very hungry, after dinner, never hungry.

If I were to feed my body the way it would prefer to be fed, I would eat a medium meal at 8 am, a HUGE meal at noon and a big meal at 4 pm and nothing else the rest of the day as my metabolism slows down and I wind down.

Society, though, has us eating dinner so late which goes against a lot of our natural rhythms. So, many of us get hungry between 3 pm and dinner time at 5 -7 pm. If you can't move your dinner time up, then eat a healthy snack then to tide you over and then nothing after dinner.

But, that's following more intuitive eating - not a restrictive program, so I don't know what your IP sisters will say about it, but those are my thoughts.

My coach always told me not to eat past 8pm. My snack has always been in the afternoon. I have a hard enough time going from breakfast to lunch and lunch to dinner is also a killer. I am usually pretty full after dinner and don't need a snack then.

I have my snack between 3-4pm. Try that today and see if you feel better. Switch your evening IP drink with hot tea (there are chocolate teas out there that aren't bad-I think Numi makes them).

I actually split breakfast, which moves lunch later
My spinach/dk choc/coffee smoothie is HUGE!

I will split my snack into 3 portions (usually choc shake poured into 3 small pyrex dishes and put in the freezer) and eat as needed. There are days when I am hungrier than others. I save one for bedtime.

I also have my snack in the afternoon. If I am still hungry, I have 2 scrambled egg whites and a large lettuce salad with WF dressing. I sometimes split my dinner protein also, and have 2-3 oz at lunch and save 5 oz for dinner. That has really helped!

Today I made the pudding muffins. I get 3 muffins for one pack of chocolate pudding. This can be 3 snacks throughout the day. I have one with a coffee or tea when I'm hungry.

I have my restricted bar mid afternoon. That is the most difficult time of the day for me. I'm fine with not eating after dinner. If I want something sweet I have a cup of tea (which I never liked but learned to enjoy once I started IP)
I also "fry" my egg whites and it is wonderful!

all great ideas. I sometimes have my snack in the afternoon and sometimes the evening. This time of year I love herbal tea in the evening, celestial seasonings has a Thai coconut tea that is great.

Thanks.. Everyone..i didnt know about the freebie egg whites, my coach never mentioned that.Splitting up the protein may be the fix I need. I will give it a try

I'm not IP either but I can definitely speak to trouble with the time between lunch and dinner. I don't think it helps that I work a desk job and am just watching the clock tick by. I usually always have snacks for that time or else I'm starving by dinner and just scarf my food down without actually enjoying it.

I hope you find the right balance that works for you, good luck!

Thanks, my coach never mentioned the egg whites either. I'm on day 3 and starving, but I'm definitely not cheating.

I am in the exact same situation as many of you! I get home from work around 3pm and am so hungry that many days I just say heck with it! I will eat off program and not care! All sensible solutions go out the door and I will eat anything I can find. I hate it, because I can mostly be OK the rest of the day.

I too suffer between lunch and dinner. This is what I do. I eat my bar at 11. Veggie at 12:30-1, then eat my salad at 2:30-3pm. I have lost 60 lbs in 20 weeks so it has not effected my weight loss. This helps me get to dinner which I eat at 5 - 5:15 then I eat my snack at 8pm since my coach also told me not to eat after 8. Good luck. :)

Hello,

I always had my snack around 3 pm.

You should be eating every 3 -4 hours. I eat my packet (shake) and lettuce at lunch, and then my 2 cups of veggies mid-afternoon.

I also eat 2 egg whites mid-morning - I get hungry around 10 - 10:30. I actually find that I have better losses with the additional protein.

I eat my snack around 9 and go to bed around 9:30.

Lately (past week or 2) I've been wicked hungry. I'm just chugging the hot water - it satisfies the hungry's (most of the time).

I actually eat 4 packages a day (3 unrestricted) and 1 glass of protein shake extra for this very reason. I was too hungry otherwise coming from Medifast's 5+1 diet where I was never hungry. I added 1hr of exercise (just toning) to make up for what I eat more. I felt it needs to be sustainable for me and when I am hungry I cannot think, which is what I have to do for my work. But I do not see any coaches so there is nobody complaining.

How did you make the muffins? I've tried searching for this in the fun with IP packets and food stickies but I didn't find it...

I break my food consumption into 5 meals, or rather 3 meals plus 2 snacks, rather than 3 meals and 1 snack.

I have an IP meal for breakfast (usually omelet because they're my fav)
Then around lunch I have a big salad.
Then in the afternoon, when I start getting hungry, I have an IP. Soup or drink.
Then dinner.
Then finally, my evening snack IP.

It seems to help that late afternoon craving.
Hope this helps!

Smart! I like the sound of that. How do you make it? You dont taste the spinach at all, right?

Ali

1-2 c raw packed spinach
mix up dk chocolate pudding packet using 8 oz cold decaf coffee instead of water
Blend until spinach is liquified
I add 6-9 coffee ice cubes & blend again.

It makes 2, 24-oz Tervis Tumblers.

This is my breakfast 4-5 days/week. Nope. I don't taste the spinach. A while back LizRR said you could do it with lettuce but I could taste the lettuce (I use romaine). I like it with spinach better

IP PUdding muffin
 

2 egg whites
1 packet (I use banana, lemon, or maple oatmeal for sweet and potato or a cream soup for savory)
1 tsp baking powder
1 c shredded zucchini (optional)
spices to taste

Mix egg whites till frothy but not peaked. add packet, egg white, (& I add some gently sauteed zucchini). Allow to rest 5 mins so baking powder takes effect. Bake in 350 oven. Mine is 15-20 mins (I have a weird oven...nothing is ever the same). Be sure to grease the nonstick muffin pan REALLY well!

You can also make a pancake from this recipe.

I ALWAYS had my snack in the afternoon and 2 cups of hot herbal tea at night. There is no way I could have gone more than 4 hours between meals: Breakfast@8am, Lunch@12pm, Snack@4pm, Dinner@8pm.
As a recovering late night snacker it also helped fit my goal of killing that habit of eating after dinner.

I also split up my 4cups veggies: 1c @ Breakfast, 1c @ Lunch, 2c @ Dinner....needed to 'frontload' my day (usually in the form of a delicious spinach smoothie!). If I needed 'extra' I added iceberg lettuce - but Spinach blends down the best.

If because of running the kids around I don't eat till after 7:00 I have my snack around 4:30. If I am eating before that but starving I have 2 egg whites!

I do what LizRR does, except I sometimes add 2 hb egg whites mid-morning, because I eat breakfast at 6am.

thanks Lisa! I made these tonight - not bad. I did one package lemon and one package banana with some cinnamon. It made 6 total so I will eat the other 3 tomorrow.

My coach gave me the "maintenance plan" info so I could see where I was going. She instructed me that I will be aiming to "eat like a king at breakfast, a prince at lunch, and a pauper for supper". I liked that analogy. However, I'm starving by supper too, so the queen in me demands more food! LOL
I do make a big spicy veggie soup and always have a juice jug full of soup in the fridge. It helps me get in my veggies, and if I need a snack, I grab that. It's hot -- spicy and temperature -- so takes a bit more time to eat than other snacks

Splitting up packets and veggies helps a lot for me. I also put my roasted veggies on lettuce to help fill me up. I try hot drinks in the evening, decaf tea or coffee and if I am still hungry I have an extra pack.....actually most days lately I am finding I need that extra pack. I am still loosing, when my weight loss slows down then I will tighten up. Good luck everyone!

I've heard from my coach the eggs or egg whites goes towards protien for that day =s

That's what I was told, too. It's part of the protein, not "freebie".

I also tend to split up some of my real meat protein instead of having a huge hunk at diner, I'll use 2 oz in my breakfast or salad, then 6 oz for dinner. It helps sustain me a little longer, too.

Two egg whites do not have to count as part of your protein. Nutritionally speaking, they actually meet the 0/0/0 rule and add very little calorically if you use two. It is a once-per-day "freebie". And just like when you're really struggling with hunger, an extra packet is acceptable, so is a HB egg without taking anything away from your dinner protein.

There is actually a little wiggle room when it comes to the grams of protein we should consume in a day - some coaches are unnecessarily rigid, and I have come to find that it is because most of these coaches do not really understand the nutritional science behind IP.

I have found that I am starving around 3:00 each day. I have started drinking a 16oz bottle of water with a flavor packet. So far this seems to do the trick. Hopefully it will continue to work.

My coach told me it was okay to have the snack between lunch and dinner. So thats what I do. It makes the afternoon bearable and then I just go to bed earlier...