I don't know about the rest, or what points range you are on, but if I ate that many points throughout the day, I would feel like I was starving at night. Also, I like to have a really nice supper when I can sit down and relax, and also have a problem with snacking in the evenings.
Soooo, to accommodate my particular eating schedule, I try to be very stingy with my points during the day. My points range right now is 18 - 23 points. A typical day for me looks like:
Breakfast:
coffee or tea (1 pt. for the skim milk that I add, probably excessive in the points because I don't actually add 1 pont worth
)
2 slices of high fibre, low fat bread 1 pt.
1 T no sugar added jam (split between the 2 slices) .5 pt.
Snack:
coffee 1 pt.
white cheddar rice cake 1 pt.
Lunch:
vegetable soup (WW garden vegetable) 0 pt.
salad 0 pt.
ff italian dressing 0 pt. (there are other dressings that are similard to the ff italian with the same nutritional content and are also 0 pt. I vary these for variety)
sometimes eat a ff pudding (Jello's instant ff puddings are lower points than the ready made ff puddings. Easy to make, also) 2 pt.
pice of fruit 1 pt.
Snack:
raw veggie sticks of some kind (or mixed)
water
Supper:
Hmmm...I've only used 5.5 - 7.5 points during the day, depending on whether I eat the pudding. That leaves me between 10.5 and 12.5 points (if I eat at the bottom of the points range) for supper and snacking at night.
I often find that, when I do the final tally of my points, I am still below the minimum points. Sooooo
I just HAVE to have those 2 or three cookies before I go to sleep.
Just make sure that you are snacking on 0 pt. foods during the day if you are feeling really hungry.
Here are a couple of other hints that I discovered to take away the hunger pangs. They are a bit lengthy because I will tell you what my symptoms were first, how I fixed the problem and some additional info that I have read since.
1. Drink water. Be sure, be sure, be sure to drink water. I started out with a problem here because I am not that crazy about drinking plain water. One Sunday, I found that I was feeling starved and wanted something like meat or cheeses to eat. The cravings were almost out of control. However, I WI on Monday, so the thought of a binge affecting my WI motivated me to not indulge. Hubby and I went for a drive and I also needed to pick up some bottled water for work. We did that, but the cravings still persisted when I got home. I decided at that point to keep myself busy (actually posting on this site) and to drink a bottle of water (4 glasses) at the same time. When the water was finished, I shut down the computer and discovered that the craving and the feeling of hunger was gone. A couple weeks later, I was reading an article on dehydration. The article talked about how being dehydrated causes cravings. Most people try to satisfy the craving by eating whatever they are craving, but because they remain dehydrated, the cravings persist, hence they begin binge eating. If you rehydrate when you feel the cravings, the feeling of hunger often leaves (unless you are truly hungry). That made a lot of sense to me, so I make it a point to drink at least 4 glasses of water before I give in to a craving...when I do that, I have not gone into the binge eating mode.
Also, one thing that I have discovered is flavored water (artificially sweetened). As I mentioned before, I don't like drinking water, but the flavored waters (fruit flavors) do 2 things for me. They allow me to satisfy my quota for drinking water everyday without making me feel like I have to, and they satisfy my sweet tooth (real problem here). I buy them in litre sizes (Canadian) and 1 bottle equals 4 glasses. I imagine your quart would be about the same size.
2. The second hint that I have for you is to make this as simple as possible. I got the recipe for the WW Garden Vegetable soup and went about buying all the ingredients, chopping them all up and making the soup. At the same time, I was mentally telling myself that making this would be a big problem for me because I wouldn't want to spend the time doing it. Sooooo, my version of garden vegetable soup is: 2 cans of tomato paste, 1 or two cans of diced tomatoes (you can also get them with herbs and spices added), 2 cans of mushrooms and any 0 point vegetables that I can find in the freezer. Add water if needed. Simmer for about 1 1/2 hours and package for lunch. I make a pot ful every Sunday afternoon or evening and have enough for lunches for the entire week and often snacks at night if I am feeling really hungry. I know that sounds boring to have vegetable soup every day for lunch, but I have found that if I augment it with a salad and vary different kinds of fruit, it is really enjoyable.
I know this has turned out to be very long, but wanted to share some of the things that it took me a couple of months to discover. Try some variations with your eating plan and develop some strategies that allow you to 'treat' yourself at times that you really enjoy eating the most. As mentioned before, mine bad time is evenings, so, by restricting my points during the day, I convince myself that the special treats are required in the evenings just to make sure that I am hitting the minimum number of points.
Good luck on your journey. You seem like you are on the right track.
Cheers,
Having a problem-Need suggestions!
