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?
hab·er·dash·er·y 