The very first time I did Weight Watchers was a few programs ago, back in 2008. I had tremendous success, but there were a good many times that I was hungry. I have this specific memory of myself sitting alone in my apartment in my first year teaching STARVING and resorting to eat a container of raw mushrooms because they were “free.” During this program, many fruits had points as did a number of vegetables (peas, corn), eggs, and yogurt. Granted, cake and breads didn’t have as many as they do now, but all in all, I would take Freestyle over anything that came before. The number of zero points foods makes all the difference! I’ve not had a single, sad, mushroom moment since switching to the newest program. I have 3 big snack-y moments of the day.
The first comes mid-morning…sometime around 10am. Since I am at school at this time, a piece of fruit or hard-boiled egg works well to tide me over until lunch at 11:30.
Another trigger time for me is after coming home from work. I get home between 3:30 and 4 and generally start on dinner shortly after. Yesterday, I discovered an awesome snack: Turkey and Pickle roll-ups. As primarily a salty snacker, chips and salsa or cheese and crackers are my usual craving. The turkey/pickle combination satisfies my salty craving while offering enough protein to tide me over until dinner without further snacking.
We don’t do dessert with dinner 99% of the time. If I get hungry later in the evening, I have a couple suggestions. The first is to simply try a cup of hot tea – the more flavor the better. My favorite lately has been Celestial Seasonings Caramel Apple Dream. If you are an evening-bowl-of-cereal kind of person, I suggest trying a bowl of nonfat greek yogurt with berries. If you like it to be sweeter, add some stevia. If you want some crunch, try adding a little bit of granola or muesli. You’ll wind up with a 0-3 point snack that you can eat with a spoon and will leave you even more satisfied than if you had that bowl of cereal.
Please share! What are your snacking triggers? What have you found that works well?