Evenings are tough . I have been drinking copious amounts of herbal tea in the evening and cucumber slices and celery sticks with a tbsp of Walden Farms dressing to dip helps to satisfy my urge to crunmch and chew.
If I am really hungry (stomach hungry not head hungry) I will have a fourth IP - a dark chocolate pudding will often do the trick for me.

I'm having a similar issue but in the afternoons. 1 pm - 5 pm is the long drawn out stretch for me during the day. If I'm not really busy with work I want to EAT EAT EAT. I'm not even hungry I just have that inner brat (nice one, slipfree) bugging me to eat something sweet. I've found myself eating my snack just an hour after lunch out of boredom.

I think I'm going to start leaving my snack at home and bringing a lower carb drink packet for an afternoon pick me up only if I REALLY need it so I can break the habit of reaching for the snacks during my afternoon slump.

Or you could just bring a bag of lettuce to work to munch on! I kept a bowl of lettuce at my desk all through P1 just so I had something in the afternoons when the snack monster hit me too hard. Maybe a dressing to dip it in if you wanted.

Also, be sure to drink ALOT of water in the afternoon. Not only does it help the "hungries", the weight loss is usually a lot better at weigh-in.
If it is really bad I grab a Jello brand sugar-free jello tub topped with WF marshmallow crème and that does it for me.

Hi -

That has always been my biggest problem too. Do you know Bethenny "Skinny Girl?" One of the things I learned from one of her books was that when you eat something you've been craving, the first bite is fabulous, the second bite, very good, but by the fourth bite - are you still really tasting it or just automatically putting it into your mouth? She has a point. So when going to the movies or watching TV I sometimes cut up celery into bite sized pieces, then mindlessly eat that. I see from the posts that celery does not have universal approval? I finally give up the addictive stuff and now have to worry about CELERY?! Soo not fair...

There is nothing wrong with celery... I don't recall any posts that are negative about it. It is an IP approved select veggie. However, it does count as part of your 2 cups plus 2 cups per day. So, just save a half cup or so of your daily veggie allotment and MUNCH AWAY!

Thanks, Laurie. I probably ate a lot more than 2 cups the other day. That may explain why I didn't get into ketosis yet!

You need 2 cups at lunch and 2 at dinner, so four for the day. You would have to eat A LOT of celery to keep you out of ketosis, but definitely important to stick to the four cups total and follow protocol. I suggest setting aside a portion of your allowed veggies for your celery munching.

I am still curious where you saw unfavorable comments about eating celery!

I think some people thought it was "free" like lettuce. So e coaches say it is. Some say the same about cucumber. But really the only free thing is lettuce.

Exactly!

So not really unfavorable comments about celery... Just that it must be counted, which is something different.

Funny though, I just looked it up and there are less carbs in celery than romaine.

Doubt anyone is going to eat enough of either to affect ketosis... However, there are more vitamins, minerals and fiber in romaine so eating more has more benefit. I am sure there are "hidden" reasons IP has made specific selections for do and do not eat, limits they set, etc. Which is why it is ultimately best to just follow protocol without a lot of analysis of the components!

I for one am not much of a celery eater! (Wonder why there is no "dancing celery" cartoon?)

Yes, I thought it was free. I don't like celery so much as the putting bite sized, crunchy pieces in my mouth and crunching away. I'll see if I can make it work with some lettuce. Thanks for the info!