Today has been "one of those" days where all I can think about is food! The problem is I am unable to exercise right now under dr's orders and so my activity level is way down.

I knew deep down I couldn't be "that" hungry as I had eaten a filling breakfast and a light snack. Then I had a sensible and filling lunch.

The "Hungry Monster" was right there though!

So I knew I had to find something to occupy my mind. I went upstairs to straighten up and remembered an afghan I had started crocheting a while back. I got it out, re-read the pattern and started working on it.

That worked like a charm! Two hours had gone by when I noticed it was almost time for the kids to be home from school! YEAH I didn't let the Hungry Monster get me!

I will probably have MANY crochet projects finished by the time I hit goal, LOL!

What do you do to occupy your mind when the "Hungry Monster" hits?

Marie

Yea!! You got yourself busy! If I can't find anything to keep me busy I try to keep water by me to drink and just gulp it down lol. I know it doesn't sound like it would work but it does AND I get way more water in lol. I also get on here and post and look around and that will keep my attention for a bit lol. Hope you have a good Thursday tomorrow

Lately, I've been making braided rugs. It's really fun, you get an awesome product at the end, and it keeps your hands busy, between the braiding and sewing. It's mindless enough that I can do it while I watch tv- instead of reaching for popcorn or potato chips! If anyone is interested, I'm doing a step by step for a DIY section in a local art magazine- I can post the instructions here!

Varsity I would! That would be fun

I love Weight Watchers, and I think it's a great way to lose weight and learn good, healthy PERMANENT habits, but this is one of the things I find hard too, and mainly because when I'm on the program, all I do is think about food. I plan all my meals. If I want to eat something later in the day and I don't know it's nutritional value, I have to plan it all out.

It seems like I'm constantly obsessing over every morsel of food. Which, on one hand is good, but on the other hand makes it hard to keep from wanting to eat everything.

I've been particularly hungry this week, and I'm trying to keep my mind off of it.

I leave the house if need be and if I am able. I find going to the mall takes my mind off things--or going to local resale. I have taken long drives before too. Anything but eat when I know I don't need to.

I cross stitch and the time seems to fly when I do that and it helps me tremendously to keep my mind off of food! Other than that, sometimes I will just leave the house and go for a walk for an hour. It's hard when I am at work though because there are some days where it is really really boring and then I get to thinking about food!

Although I've only been on the program for 3½ weeks, the thing I have found is that I kind of obsess over food daily. I plan menus for my family, find new and healthy recipes (I LOVE to cook), check sales in the local grocery circulars, find coupons to save money, and journal everything I eat. Thus, I am thinking about food all the time. I think it's because I'm new to the program, but right now my life seems to revolve around what to (or not to) eat. I think that once I get into a groove, I will feel more comfortable with this new way of life and not think so much about food. However, that's what got me into this size pants in the first place, right?

To answer your question about avoiding the hungry monster, I clean something! Being slightly OCD is a good thing when you are trying to change your eating habits.

As a veteran Weight Watcher, this has been a problem with me forever and it seems to be more frequent during emotional times in my life. In fact, it happened yesterday after dinner. I didn't have points left, and more important than that, I was not hungry! But, I was thinking about food. I decided that sleep was what I needed, and went to bed.

This morning I am glad that I did!
Judy

Keeping busy is so important during those times. I am so new to my WW re-join and have been constantly thinking about food and planning everything out in my head, so food has been constantly on my mind! I am not working right now so everything foodwise is just THERE. Ugh! So this week I am doing Spring cleaning - literally one drawer at a time. Three piles: garbage/good will/keep. I play upbeat music and it takes my mind off of other "stuff". I plan on going through the many totes of kids clothes too and do a good clean out.

The first couple of weeks on weight watchers I was completely obsessed with food. Now I clean and organize. I purchased a label maker as my "happy" for losing 10 pounds and now I have started organizing everything in my house. I feel such a sense of accomplishment and have donated many items I no longer use but others would want.

I also went through my pantry and packed up all the unhealthy food items and sent them to my very skinny sons apartment for him and all his equally skinny roommates. Most of the unhealthy food items were purchased for him to eat while at home from school but I kept eating from them. This has really helped and I have made an effort not to bring anything bad into the house.

I have made a shelf in my fridge for washed fruits, yogurt, pudding, jello and other things that my husband and I can grab and eat without guilt whenever I am really hungry. This has has been very useful when if it had not been staring me in the face I probably would have eaten something bad for me.

I am new and thought I would add one that works for me. I buy the turkey peperoni and cook it in the microwave until it gets crunchy. Then I blot each piece with a paper towel and because its so spicy it makes me drink a ton of water. Its low in calories and helps me for hours. Just a thought.....

I was thinking about this yesterday. I realize that to be successful long-term at weight reduction, I need to make food less a part of my life. I tried listening to my ipod while I cleaned up around the house. It really helped "drown" out the food thoughts.

actually I was doing the same thing as you, especially enjoying the menu planning, checking out recipes and calculating the points, blogging, reading... And I think it really helped. I had a week where I was sick, then a birthday (yes with cake) then I missed some WW meetings because of being sick and then my husband was away and I had no babysitter and so on... Somewhere along the way I seem to have lost that small obsession like you described and along with it some motivation. I am trying to return to that way of thinking! because since I lost it and also missed those meetings I have only lost about .5 of a kilo in almost 4 weeks. Well its good I didnt put more weight ON.... but I havent been enough on top of things with what I eat, adding stuff here and there and not really counting up the points accurately enough.

So when I get hungry, I am trying to send myself back to my WW stuff to re-read motivational things, plan my week menus in advance, remotivate myself. I also paint (I am a mural artist by profession) so I will pick up a paint brush and paint and the time flies. It feels good to get to lunchtime and not have given in to snack beforehand!

If all else fails and I cant get rid of feeling hungry I go for the fruitbowl.