Hi all

I am doing my second go round of IP (planned phase off for first round to travel but am inspired by those who travel and stay OP!) and have been doing well - getting in my packs, water, protein and veggies and losing ~1.5 lbs / week. I am about 4 lbs from my original goal and I am considering revising it.

For the past week or so, I have had intense cravings to snack in the evening. I am not hungry, just craving something sweet to eat (I eat my IP snack in the mid-afternoon otherwise I just can't make it to dinner).

Anyone else experience this? I know some people say having a cup of tea helps so will try that. I usually want something crunchy and sweet though - like a cookie! It is driving me crazy!

I'm sitting here trying to exercise my willpower by not grabbing a spoon and the jar of peanut butter. Glad I'm not alone in the craving department. Maybe I will go and make that cup of recommended tea.

Brush your teeth, take a long hot bath, read the boards, read a book, drink hot tea - anything to distract yourself. If all else fails, go to bed early!

Sometimes you just have to white knuckle through it and it really sucks!

Could you find something different in the afternoon so you could have a treat at night? I split my lunch up often or sometimes it just takes me a while to eat it. I'll have the tea in the afternoon if I get hungry and save my snack unless I know dinner will be late. A handful of celery helps me too. My coach says I don't have to count the celery.

Although some coaches have "house rules" about celery, spinach and cukes, the P1 sheet clearly states those are vegetables.

However a couple of egg whites are 0/0/0 and might help with mid-afternoon hungries so that the IP snack can be in the evening. If not egg whites, I suggest using a pudding packet, shaken with 8 oz water and then in the blender with ice and perhaps some spinach or lettuce. When I make these, it fills two 24 oz Tervis Tumblers. You could have half in the afternoon and half in the evening..

The biggest thing for me has been to learn to resist urges to snack. Cravings aren't true hunger but rather they are my mind working against me. Sometimes it helps to verbally tell them "no". I liken it to the "inner child" having a hissy fit. And the inner two-year-old doesn't get to be in charge of the food!

I save part of my vegetables for seaweed chips. I buy them at grocery stores and Asian markets. They give me the chip crunch and flavor. You could also try kale chips.

I don't see seaweed on the current P1 sheet (although I think it may have been on one of the old ones), so I'd be leery of it.

Also, I don't know what brand of chips you are getting, but the ingredient list for the first one that came up in a google search was:

Seaweed Chip (Dried Seaweed, Brown Rice Flour, Rice Flour, Gluten Free Tamari Soy Sauce [Water, Soybeans, Salt, Alcohol], Corn Starch, Dried Cane Syrup Solids, Sesame Seeds, Sesame Oil, Granulated Garlic, Granulated Onion, Natural Flavor), Seasoning: Korean BBQ Seasoning (Sugar, Natural BBQ Flavor [Spice, Autolyzed Yeast Extract, Natural Flavor, Salt, Sugar, Soy Sauce {Soybeans, Salt}, Maltodextrin, Sesame Oil, Molasses], Molasses Powder [Molasses, Maltodextrin], Tamari Powder [Tamari {Soybeans, Salt}, Maltodextrin, Salt], Sea Salt, Vinegar Powder [Maltodextrin, White Distilled Vinegar Solids], Onion Powder, Garlic Powder, Spices, Natural Flavor), Canola Oil. Gluten free.

A whole bunch of non-P1 stuff in there!

You might try making kale chips instead - they are delicious!

Thanks to everyone for their great suggestions and support. I will try to snack on something different in the afternoons and / or have tea then so that I can have my snack in the afternoon. And work on telling my inner 2 year old that they are not the boss of food!

Funny, I call the cravings monster-my inner brat. I do not listen to the inner brat because she wants things that made me fat!

You could try 5 calories jello (0 carbs and 0 sugar) usually it does it for me! I keep a couple on flavour on hand for those moments so I won't be tempted to cheat ;-)

I freeze the RTD mango drink into three popcicles and if I get hungry in the evening I have one of those it doesn't count as a packet and it is so good!!!

I've done that with the dark chocolate puddings! My own special fudgesicle. It doesn't freeze quite right but if I hold it over a bowl, it's still like ice cream. Good enough for me! I count mine as my evening snack though because I eat it all....it's good!

Pickles calm my sweet cravings.

I also like to keep roasted cabbage chips on hand. Cut into bite sized pieces, toss with olive oil and salt and roast at 350 for 15 minutes. Similar to kale chips with a slightly sweeter flavor.

The cheese curls are a big snack so you could probably use some in the pm and some in the evening?

Smart woman...great saying! Another part of the beauty of IP ..or any ketogenic diet..is an opportunity to try to reform your craves and wants. Even artificial sweeteners are known to wake up the sugar monster.

Th biggest factor of maintenance success is being able to control that ...So re-wiring your brain at the same time you rewire your physical being during the early phases of this diet...is not a bad thing to consider!

Reading how people tame or work to tame that in maintenance reminds us we are a checkout line away from candy bars... and a holiday away from baking and cooking things that are ultimately going to make the path forward harder.

Instead, I developed and refined some hobbies that are not food related to replace cake decorating, Christmas cookie baking marathons and other forays into the kitchen that took longer than 15 minutes (!!) to help me stay on track.