I own a cafe, we serve lots of nice healthy things, like gorgeous salads, veggie sandwiches & other things. We also have a splended pastry case of goodies we make everyday & an (evil) pan of bacon waiting to be snacked on.

So before I started loosing weight, when I needed something to eat, I'd just grab something out of the pastry case, or grab a piece of bacon or a slice of french bread. Now that I'm being good, it's not as easy to just grab and eat, most of the "good" stuff takes some prep and time to eat it, and I just don't have that time until late in the day.

So I'm finding that I'm ravenous by the time I get home & that I'm not eating all my points. This morning I took a step in the right direction and ate a Fiber1 bar on my way in. But I still got home & even with eating some food, I still have 18.5 points left for the evening. Yesterday I didn't tally up my points until I was an hour away from going to bed & found that I still had 13 points left. I made ate some almonds, then a fiber 1 bar and I was still short.

Anybody have any suggestions?

Do you have time to prepare foods once a week that you can bring in to eat? A large pot of soup on Sunday that can stretch the whole week? Or double up what you make for dinner & bring half of it for lunch the next day? Also, are you making sure to eat breakfast?

I've never been a big breakfast eater, eating the fiber1 bar for me was a big step. But I'm trying to work things out better. Its just until 5:30/6pm each day it's go go go for me.

Breakfast is important, and good for you trying to get something in by eating that FiberOne bar. Anything is better than nothing, but you'd be lots happier if you could incorporate some protein in there too! Do you think you could take some time Sunday evening to hardboil five eggs and peel them? Then you can keep them in the fridge and grab one along with your fiber one bar, that would be a pretty complete on-the-go breakfast that would keep you for a while and use a few points.

If the problem is that you're not finding time to eat in the afternoons, well, there's not much solution there except to make the time. Value yourself enough to find time to fuel your body. It takes maybe 10 minutes, could be even less depending on what you bring. Bring things that are quick and easy - a salad, a sandwich, tuna with crackers, that sort of thing, and find 10 minutes. You need to be eating your points, and you need to have time to refuel your body midway through the day.

The other thing - I just saw your post in the Tracking thread. When you do get home, and if you're starving, why do you eat so light? A piece of bread with pb and jam, 1/2c of milk, and a small salad isn't much to make up for the whole day of not eating. Why not dig your heels into something hearty and more filling? (And therefore more points?)

Good luck, this first figuring things out phase is tough!

I have to second Suite on both breakfast & making time. And maybe things have been go go go, but it might be time to slow it down (just a tad!) for your health as well.

Definitely work on getting in a little more breakfast. On the go things like a fiber one bar, hard boiled egg, and slices of fruit in a baggy will help to get those points up in the morning without forcing you to sit down.