What do you all do to stave off hunger pangs?

[Yoghurtpots]

I'm changing my eating habits from today.

Nothing extreme. Three healthy home cooked meals a day. Cutting down on sugar. Starting moderate exercise daily.

But because previously my portions were too large and I ate a lot of chocolate and cake, this is quite a big adjustment.

I was hungry between breakfast and lunch this morning but made it through.

But now I am hungry between lunch and dinner.

Dinner is three hours away; I don't want to fail on my first day.
What are your tips please?
And will this get easier?

Have a drink of water, and keep filled up on water if you can (say 2l per day).
Often you can wait it out and it just goes away or you find something better to think about.
I did 5:2 for a year and I found that after a couple of weeks I just wasn’t noticing hunger any more.

Raw veggies on the fridge - cucumber, cherry tomatoes, celery, carrot. Fruit teas. I also make sure I have a really high protein lunch as my worst dip is about 4pm. Last week I had a two eggs omlette (microwaved so no butter or milk), ham, one slice of a small bread loaf and some greenery. Stops that blood sugar crash. So get to know the weak parts of your day and preempt them. It's easier if you eat at regular times every day, but less carbs and sugary stuff definitely helps.

Forgot to add, exercise is an excellent way to stop me wanting to eat. Even ten mins of fast stepping up and down on the bottom of my stairs if I haven't got time to get out.

Thank you Delilah that all makes a lot of sense, especially pre-empting daily weak spots , the exercise and high protein lunches as I noticed I am very tired if I eat a carb heavy meal at midday.

Pixi I have some tiny very good quality dark chocolate "coffee" beans in case of "emergencies", but they are a last resort.

nibdedibble thanks for giving me hope that the hunger pangs will diminish eventually!

Perhaps try fasting to shrink your tummy? This will help you get used to smaller portions.

Drink loads of water-around 3-4L a day
Peppermint tea
Keep busy focusing on housework or going a walk, anything to stop me thinking about food
Make sure your meals are big enough: sufficient calories and/or macros if you're being really strict.
Get rid of all the bad snacks so you can't be tempted.

If I'm absolutely ravenous and can't possibly wait I have a cup of coffee. Think that having something hot tricks me into thinking I've had something more exiting/satisfying.

This might be a load of rubbish however I watched a program about braking the snack habit and they said to sniff peppermint oil when you feel hungry to stave it off and it appeared to work in their trials.

Thank you Mamabear fasting isn't for me as I start to feel very ill with it , think it's something to do with being menopausal, but I am going to try and stop eating much earlier in the evening and have my "main" meal at lunchtime. I'm hoping that by using a smaller plate and eating smaller portions, that my stomach will shrink.

Chester can't get rid of snacks (teens in the house!) but I've bought a plastic box this weekend to house them all, stored away in a separate area, and I definitely think distraction and hot drinks will be helpful, thank you. I did wonder about essential oils so will definitely investigate that further now you've mentioned it!

Its easy in the cold dark winter to get in to a bit if a rut, and if you love food and cooking, it's easy for meals to become a bit too important in your life, so I've also bought tickets for more evenings out (involving music not food) and signed up for a weekly craft session so I'm hoping that will distract me too. Trying to get a better balance!

I drink loads of water!

Don’t forget you can have a tiny amount of what you really want, eg two squares of dark chocolate with a cup of tea. You just have to not eat the whole bar (easier said than done)

Like your NN Bringonspring! Thanks, my doctor suggested six tiny meals a day and one small piece of good quality dark chocolate. As you say, it is a risk having it in the house though so I have opted for tiny bitter chocolate/coffee beans which will hopefully do the same job in an emergency as you can't really eat more than one or two even if you wanted to.

I'm going for three small but good meals as six would mean I am around food too much!

And yes, thank you, will drink more water although I am having to get used to that and build it up over time as I've got out of the habit, the water tastes awful here and I don't like buying it in plastic bottles! I also (unhelpfully) have a bacteriologist friend who won't use a water filter as she says it's not good for water to constantly run through the impurities caught in the filter (or something like that)! Might have to steep ginger and mint and lemon in it or something to disguise the taste.

Chop up an apple with a small piece of cheese.

Also, if you feel hungry, according to a recent tv programme, wait a minute or so. If it’s a craving, then it will usually go.

Watch that tb programme with Steph and Hugh FW they had an item on stopping snacking the week before last

Thanks Wilma and StAndrewsschool (lovely part of the world) have noted!

Alot of good ideas here, so nothing much to add really except it will get easier after a while. You probably will slip back sometimes and a natural tendency is then to think 'I might as well eat even more' or 'I'm not going to do this'. It's not easy and my weaknesses with food would be cake, chocolate and biscuits and cheese. I've gradually omitted them and now are a rare treat and gradually emptied my stash of said foods! My only sweet treat is two squares dark chocolate in evening and a couple of boiled sweets, as that's my weakest time in the day. Even so I don't always want the chocolate. I've also realised going to far and allowing myself to get very hungry doesn't help. I've switched to nuts and an apple for a mid afternoon snack and no skipping meals. Overall, it's about changing your way of eating in the long term. I found it took a good few months to adjust, so don't start off with too high expectations and tweak as you go along, as one size doesn't fit all.

Thanks so much Engagedagain (congratulations btw!) I'm going to copy and paste your post in to my diet diary and read it on a difficult day; I've got a tendency to be a bit "all or nothing" generally so your advice is spot on!

I have a rule that if I'm genuinely hungry, I eat.

I tend to find that with low carbing my appetite naturally diminishes. It must work as I've lost 16lbs without going starving.

Hard boiled eggs
Apples
Cottage cheese
Apple sauce
Veg and lentil soup

These are good snacks at around 100 calories and are quite filling.

Can you tell us what you are actually eating?

@Yoghurtpots, thank you! Not sure if I said, it's about moving towards making it a way of life. I loved my milk choc snacks but have kind of got used to not having them, and instead got to enjoy dark chocolate, which I found cannot eat as much of. It's the same principle as giving up smoking or drinking. There will be times of temptation, but I daydream about food I don't want to make a habit of eating. Seems to work! one day I thought when we eat the bad stuff if it's through say boredom, it's only going to take minutes, so what happens the rest of the time? So, finding distractions is another thing. Eat slowly and enjoy what you're eating. Wanted to point out the other pp's ideas for snack foods are good, such as carrot, red pepper and celery sticks. I will nibble on them if I'm preparing them for a meal but otherwise I don't, so you got to find the right things for you. I found I was cutting down too much on carbs, so increased it at lunchtime. I was skipping lunch which didn't help. Lastly, once you start to feel healthier it should be easier to keep it up, but bear in mind it might takes months with the tweaking. Good luck!