MountainMama2004's Journal, 20 February 2009

One thing I did a while back (don't do it much now, though) is to cut up carrots into little disks (coins), and keep them in an air-tight container in the refrigerator. When I felt like snacking (or in your case, when it's time to snack), I would take them out and "nosh" on them, instead of popcorn or chips. The chewing sensation was nearly the same, so my urge to snack was usually abated. It would be useful, for someone who's at a desk most of the day, to get some kind of timer that runs for 2 hours, or so. When you've finished eating breakfast, turn it on .. and when it goes off, get a snack. Once you're finished, turn it on again. In this way, you eat breakfast; snack; eat lunch; snack; eat dinner; and snack once more before bed. You'd be eating every two hours, and wouldn't be eating anything after about 6PM. What do you think? 

That sounds like a plan - I could use my Outlook to remind me to snack also since that seems to be an important part of weight loss. I nearly forgot to eat lunch - just not hungry any more. I have a mindset - Stop pretending to be hungry just to eat - only eat when body says "FEED ME". So I grabbed a progresso lite soup and 2 white cheddar rice cakes <my favorite lunch> and am munching on that now and will have an apple for snack....Time to set up Outlook. Tomorrow I'll start with the desk muncies - carrots and cauliflower and broccoli <I love all three raw or cooked). Thanks for the Fantastic Idea!  

Great .. I never even thought about using Outlook .. and here I'm an IT expert (don't tell anyone, they'll take away my membership card) .. :-) I know what you mean about not feeling like eating some time, but one thing you have to keep in mind .. you only lose weight when your body is burning calories. If you don't have a really active lifestyle (which I don't, really), one of the things that burns calories is .. eating. Your body burns calories just be 'existing', but if you don't eat enough food, your body goes into 'starvation mode'. When it does that, it reduces the number of calories that it burns just to 'exist'. That's why you have to keep eating .. a little bit at a time .. all the time.