I'm starting week 2 of Phase 1 and have been trying to be VERY good, but I picked my head up from work about 10 minutes ago and realized I had missed my morning snack. This probably isn't as bad as missing a meal, but how strict do I have to be about snacks? That asked, I'm eating more often than I did in the past and at the end of week 1 had lost 2½ pounds. YAY! I'd appreciate a bit of advice from the "pros on the beach" about how rigidly I have to adhere to an "eating timetable." Thanks.

Marion in Savannah

Below is the Daily Dish from 9/12/2004. I think it is very important in Phase 1 but I have done okay occasionally missing a snack on phase 2.

Strategic Snacking

It's important in Phase 1 to eat snacks between meals. Snacking on foods like low-fat cheeses, cold veggies, or nuts prevents drops in blood sugar, which leads to cravings. Once these cravings occur, people tend to overindulge in high-glycemic, high-calorie foods to satisfy them. According to Dr. Agatston, it takes far fewer calories to preempt a craving than to satisfy one. Eat a healthy snack one to two hours after your meals, or one hour before your cravings usually occur, and your blood sugar levels will remain steady. Once the "detox" process is complete and your cravings are under control, you may not need to eat as frequently.

I was wondering about this too... I always seem like im eating
thanks for the info

I definitely would try your hardest to eat your snacks. If you forget, just eat it then.

Marion - congrats!

Personally, if I wasn't hungry, I didn't eat the snacks, but found that on P1 I generally needed to eat something every 4 hours. In P2 I usually only had 1 snack a day (if that). I also often skipped my sweet treat as I'm not really a sweets person. If I skipped snacks because I was too busy, then got hungry before my next meal, I would get a really bad headache. I found that string cheese was the best snack to get rid of headaches quickly (I know that seems weird, but it worked for me). I also didn't worry too much about my nut intake, so if nuts were the only thing available and I was caught unawars, I'd eat nuts.

Hope that helps -

Thanks for the info! Last week I would not have missed the snack because I was starting to get hungry around 10:30 or so, but today no hunger, so no snack. I'll be a good girl and have my afternoon snack, though! Thanks again.

I ususally do not have a morning snack, because I eat breakfast at work and lunch is four hours later. I will have a snack around 3 - 3:30, though, because I don't get home from work until around 6 thanks to traffic. If I don't have something in the afternoon, I am starving by the time I start cooking dinner!

The way I see it, if you are not hungry at snacktime, then two things are happening: your body is just about finished with the detox process and you are eating more filling, healthy meals at proper intervals.