arghh! Can't stop wanting my snacks!

ladybird23

Full Member
I'm having a real problem keeping to 15 syns. I don't do too badly until the afternoon. (By this time I've normally had about 6 syns). When I have a cuppa in the afternoon I just want biscuits with it. Having a cup of tea with a carrot or a piece of ham doesn't do the trick for me! Then I always get really hungry about 5pm - but I'm really not finding any of the superfree or free foods do anything to fill me up. Before SW I would have had a packet of crisps and a hunk of cheese. So I resort to something with about 6 syns. My evening meal usually take up at least another 3 syns and then I'm starving again about 9.30pm. The problem I have is that the foods that satisfy my appetite are all syns - eating lots of veg or fruit doesn't make me any less hungry at all. Even a jacket potato with lots of stuff on top doesn't work for me unless its got loads of butter on it. I keep reading how people are amazed that they're not hungry on SW, but I spend at least half of my day climbing the walls with hunger. I'm getting really disheartened as I was so determined to make this work and I start every day with good intentions, but it never ends up like that at the end of the day. Any suggestions?
:ashamed0005:
 
What kind of things do you use your syns on? I find this time of day I can be peckish, but I've usually got some HEX B (Ryvita) and Hex A cheese to eat. I don't use many syns until the evening time, I might have 3 or 4 during the day, and then I can have a treat at night.

What do you have normally for breakfast and lunch? It's not ideal that you're so hungry all the time, just wondering if your meals are big enough? I eat small-ish breakfast, but have fruit then within a couple of hours. Lunch can be pretty filling- a jacket with beans, or scrambled eggs for example. Then my coffee and snack at 4ish, a good dinner around 7, maybe a yogurt after that... so I am grazing away all day. I'm sometimes hungry, but never starving the way you describe.
 
Well, today I've had a slice of toast with olive oil spread, 2 poached eggs and 2 slices of gammon ham. For lunch I had 2 rollmop herrings with a tomato, onion & cucumber salad, 2 small slices of bread with spread, a banana. Then I was so hungry I had a 2 bar kitkat and a fruit shortbread biscuit. Tonight I'm having smoked haddock with mashed potatoes (which will have a tspn of spread or butter in) and some veg, followed by a reduced fat mousse and probably two pieces of fruit. With the extra slice of bread and the spread and everything else that's probably already taken me up to about 15 and I'll no doubt be starving around 9.30! I've even tried going to bed a 9pm - but then I wake up at 3.30am - starving! (And this is a good day)
 
. . . My evening meal usually take up at least another 3 syns and then I'm starving again about 9.30pm. The problem I have is that the foods that satisfy my appetite are all syns - eating lots of veg or fruit doesn't make me any less hungry at all. Even a jacket potato with lots of stuff on top doesn't work for me unless its got loads of butter on it. I keep reading how people are amazed that they're not hungry on SW, but I spend at least half of my day climbing the walls with hunger. . .

If you are starving a couple of hours after your dinner, then your dinner wasn't big enough. Are you really hungry, or do you want something to eat? It's not the same thing. We all get those after dinner munchies - around 9 p.m. I would do anything for some chocolate, and would have it if there was any in the house, which there isn't, but that isn't hunger, that's my chocolate addiction talking!

The foods that satisfy your appetite are all syns and fruit and vegetables don't make you any less hungry - are you really saying that if you ate a big plate of - just as an example - sweet potato wedges, you wouldn't feel less hungry after that?

If you had a jacket potato without butter, it wouldn't be any less filling than one with butter - butter doesn't fill you up, it has no bulk. So I wonder why you think it makes a difference? Butter certainly makes the potato taste nicer, I agree, but adding it won't really make you less hungry.

I think that you are not making the distinction between appetite and hunger on the one hand, and fancies and cravings on the other. It's a battle a lot of us fight!
 
Well, today I've had a slice of toast with olive oil spread, 2 poached eggs and 2 slices of gammon ham. For lunch I had 2 rollmop herrings with a tomato, onion & cucumber salad, 2 small slices of bread with spread, a banana. Then I was so hungry I had a 2 bar kitkat and a fruit shortbread biscuit. Tonight I'm having smoked haddock with mashed potatoes (which will have a tspn of spread or butter in) and some veg, followed by a reduced fat mousse and probably two pieces of fruit. With the extra slice of bread and the spread and everything else that's probably already taken me up to about 15 and I'll no doubt be starving around 9.30! I've even tried going to bed a 9pm - but then I wake up at 3.30am - starving! (And this is a good day)

I notice that you didn't have any superfree with your breakfast, which would have helped. If your lunch left you still hungry, then maybe it should have been a bigger lunch?

You are using quite a few syns on spread - personally I wouldn't waste my syns on it. It's personal preference of course, but toast with poached eggs doesn't to my mind really need spread at all, and I wouldn't bother with it in the mashed potato either. If you ditched the spread then you would have some syns left for the evening. Just an idea.
 
I'm sure a lot of what you say is right Anna - I'm fighting myself a lot of the time. I'm sure a jacket potato with no butter would fill me up - but I certainly wouldn't like it or get any enjoyment from it, I've thrown away too many half eaten jacket spuds because I'm just not enjoying them. And I suppose if I just kept eating veggies until I was stuffed that would work - but I don't want to! No enjoyment and satisfaction from food equals a very miserable and irritable me. The SW plan obviously works for a lot of people I'm not denying that, but I like my food to be exactly what it's supposed to be - if it should have cream then that's what I want - not yoghurt or creme fraiche. Mashed potatoes have to have butter. Stir fry's have to be cooked in wok oil, not that spray stuff which has ruined some very well-loved and carefully seasoned frying pans. I think I'm almost daring SW not to work on me! Still, onwards and upwards, I'm not giving up on myself yet.
 
Just an observation...... You say you was 'so hungry that you ate a kitkat and a fruit shortbread' In all honesty, that is not going to fill you up, so were hungry or did you just fancy it? ;) To be perfectly truthful, I bet we could all eat things like that inbetween meals and say 'we were hungry' but that's not going to get the job done! You need to change your mind set and choose other foods if you are genuinely hungry....theres so many to choose from.
Your lunch doesn't sound very filling so I'm not surprised if you were hungry.
If you were full after your lunch and then was genuinely hungry later on, have another small meal....it doesn't have to be a snack or as already suggested, have a larger lunch.
Seriously, there is no need to be hungry on this plan :)
 
I'm sure a lot of what you say is right Anna - I'm fighting myself a lot of the time. I'm sure a jacket potato with no butter would fill me up - but I certainly wouldn't like it or get any enjoyment from it, I've thrown away too many half eaten jacket spuds because I'm just not enjoying them. And I suppose if I just kept eating veggies until I was stuffed that would work - but I don't want to! No enjoyment and satisfaction from food equals a very miserable and irritable me. The SW plan obviously works for a lot of people I'm not denying that, but I like my food to be exactly what it's supposed to be - if it should have cream then that's what I want - not yoghurt or creme fraiche. Mashed potatoes have to have butter. Stir fry's have to be cooked in wok oil, not that spray stuff which has ruined some very well-loved and carefully seasoned frying pans. I think I'm almost daring SW not to work on me! Still, onwards and upwards, I'm not giving up on myself yet.

I totally agree with you. I personally use my syns on stuff like this and as you rightly say, you have to do what's right for you. But in that case, there has to be some other sacrifice, ie not eating other high synned stuff aswell, otherwise we would all just be eating the way we did before and that's what got most of us into this mess in the first place. ;)
 
I'm sure a lot of what you say is right Anna - I'm fighting myself a lot of the time. I'm sure a jacket potato with no butter would fill me up - but I certainly wouldn't like it or get any enjoyment from it, I've thrown away too many half eaten jacket spuds because I'm just not enjoying them. And I suppose if I just kept eating veggies until I was stuffed that would work - but I don't want to! No enjoyment and satisfaction from food equals a very miserable and irritable me. The SW plan obviously works for a lot of people I'm not denying that, but I like my food to be exactly what it's supposed to be - if it should have cream then that's what I want - not yoghurt or creme fraiche. Mashed potatoes have to have butter. Stir fry's have to be cooked in wok oil, not that spray stuff which has ruined some very well-loved and carefully seasoned frying pans. I think I'm almost daring SW not to work on me! Still, onwards and upwards, I'm not giving up on myself yet.

I agree with you about Frylight - invention of the devil!! Threw away my first can of it and never bought it again.

As for everything else - I am sorry, but if you don't want to change anything, then nothing will change. It's hard, I know, but it's the truth.
 
I sometimes try to keep my HExB for the afternoon, and then when I'm peckish I have my 2 x Choc and Fudge alpen lights which equal 1 HEx. Might not work for anyone but I enjoy them more than biscuits and they definitely hit the spot.
 
Oh thank you Anna - I thought it was just me and that dreadful oil spray! You are all absolutely right - I keep telling myself that if it was all that easy with no or very little effort required, than I wouldn't be this fat in the first place! Lack of willpower is a real bummer. And I was perfectly happy after the kitkat and the biscuit - my other alternatives were some Telaggio or Gorgonzola cheese with crackers, or a huge packet of buttered popcorn. I dream of these foods! I think I'll try having a bigger lunch and seeing if I can change my routine in the afternoons a bit - all about bad habits I guess. Thanks everyone.
 
Why not switch to calorie counting? A calorie deficit is a calorie deficit at the end of the day, regardless of what plan you follow. If you enjoy certain foods that aren't really permissible on SW then you're going to end up feeling deprived.
 
Also, fat promotes a feeling of satiety so there is some logic behind a buttery baked potato hitting the spot better than a plain one.
 
Before I started sw I was literally eating all day because I am still breast feeding my baby and it gives me seemingly unquenchable hunger. For me therefore the difference I have found with sw is the size of meals I have. If I was not having large main meals I could not do this. I wonder if you had larger main meals would it make a difference for you as maybe you are not truly full after your meal and therefore are needing the snacks more?
 
You could try saving your syns throughout the day- what about some Philadelphia light on a Baked potato? That way when you get the munchies at 9pm you will have syns left to have chocolate or crisps or whatever you fancy? Also I find keeping a food diary helps- sounds ridiculous but I'm less likely to eat it if I have to write it down lol

But I think really most people would prefer butter on a baked potato and chocolate biscuits etc it just depends how much you want to lose weight!
Remember nothing tastes as good as skinny feels :) ...or so I've heard!
 
Hello. This is a really interesting thread with some excellent suggestions and ideas. I totally agree with the food diary making you very aware of what you are eating and I know that it often means I change my choices. I have tried different diets over the last few years but I have never kept a food diary until now. It certainly makes me stop and think.
 
I quite like butter buds on my jacket potato as a butter substitute. I appreciate, its not to everyones taste.

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It can take 30 days to break a habit (apparently) and a further 30 to reinforce it. You don't say how long you have been following SW but habits are hard to break whether they are eating habits or biting our nails. Also I agree that sometimes there are no substitutions. I too don't use fry light and I HEX or syn EVOO instead. That's about enjoying my food but I also recognise that I can't do that and then eat a bag of minstrels.

I found over time I preferred to have the taste of the oil on a large dinner then cut back and be able to "pick". But that took time. Finding alternatives and swaps has actually been quite fun at times, like discovering the recipe on here for home made cheese. There is always SOMETHING to try.

Keep going. You will find your way :)
 
It can take 30 days to break a habit (apparently) and a further 30 to reinforce it. You don't say how long you have been following SW but habits are hard to break

Yes, this was what I was trying to find out too Sam, but my question got overlooked :eek:

I am wondering if this poster is very early in the plan, which I suspect they are. I was also trying work out exactly which plan they are on so maybe a switch to Red or Green might work better so they can have the extra HEX's and more of what they prefer Meat/rice,pasta to fill up on??
 
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