What food/liquid are you craving today?

Shaun said:
Sugar. I'm trying to get rid of my nighttime snacking habit. My diet is otherwise okay, but on an evening I snack a lot, and it tends to be biscuits and sugary snacks as I wait for the kettle to boil, wander into the kitchen for a cold drink, or respond to those little "pings" that go off in my head. I'm not hungry, just craving based on habit, so I'm trying to take the approach I did when I quit smoking, although it is a lot harder because I have to eat and cannot avoid it completely, and that tends to be the time when the "nag" can be the most compelling.

Strangley enough, as well as the psychological "pull" to eat sweet stuff that is the habit I've formed over the years, there's also a sort of physical faux-hunger that seems to appear shortly afterwards to try and push me in the direction of scoffing something sweet. I'm aware it's all in my head, but boy can it distract me from what I'm doing for a good while.

It's interesting and something I'm learning to control better as the days and weeks go on - although I do still plan to "give in to the beast" occasionally, not every day, but probably at least once a week ... :happy:
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If you eat sugary foods the blood sugar rises quickly but falls just as quickly - so perhaps that's why you get faux hunger. Try substituting grapes or possibly another fruit. Grapes are a good choice because you can eat a few at a time. I keep a bunch in the fridge and pop one now and then....
 
I've got some crunchy healthy carrot sticks in the fridge, but the only problem is they don't taste sugary ... :laugh:
 
Shaun said:
Sugar. I'm trying to get rid of my nighttime snacking habit. My diet is otherwise okay, but on an evening I snack a lot, and it tends to be biscuits and sugary snacks as I wait for the kettle to boil, wander into the kitchen for a cold drink, or respond to those little "pings" that go off in my head. I'm not hungry, just craving based on habit, so I'm trying to take the approach I did when I quit smoking, although it is a lot harder because I have to eat and cannot avoid it completely, and that tends to be the time when the "nag" can be the most compelling.

Strangley enough, as well as the psychological "pull" to eat sweet stuff that is the habit I've formed over the years, there's also a sort of physical faux-hunger that seems to appear shortly afterwards to try and push me in the direction of scoffing something sweet. I'm aware it's all in my head, but boy can it distract me from what I'm doing for a good while.

It's interesting and something I'm learning to control better as the days and weeks go on - although I do still plan to "give in to the beast" occasionally, not every day, but probably at least once a week ... :happy:
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Have you thought of buying a box of eggs (say 12) once a week, hard boiling them, cooling them off and keeping them in the fridge in their shells? When we were on our cycle tour, any that were not eaten for our evening meal were kept in the box overnight until the following day... if we woke hungry during the night (which became an increasing problem) we would eat a hard boiled egg instead. The protein in it filled you up far faster and as a result we would no longer be hungry (the yolks always forced us to drink water at the same time as well which helped) and get back to sleep far faster than if we hit the crisps or pringles. Eggs also have far fewer calories in them than 3 or 4 biscuits. I know I can't eat a single biscuit. They are like kisses and buses, they have to come in pairs, so it is 2 biscuits or 4, nothing less. <cough>

Nuts also worked and we developed a long term strategy of a handful of mixed nuts and fruit at the top of every hour plus any remaining eggs if we wanted them (invariably they were eaten before anything like warmth got to them)... it worked really well for curbing long term hunger. As did throwing an handful of nuts into the evening meal whilst it cooked - so a pasta sauce (all cooked in the same pot with the pasta and veg) would get nuts (and often dried fruit) added to it for the last 10 mins of cooking. That also helped with the snack attacks.
Right now, I am dealing with it by keeping the cookies in the freezer and having to defrost them before I can eat them - it slows you down considerably, and I am much more incline to open that container of dried cashew nuts or dried broadbeans instead.

(as an aside - I don't do mixed nuts and fruit at night because I have to dismantle my serving into separate portions of each individual type of nut and fruit and eat my least favourite first. I simply can't eat them mixed in my mouth :wacko: I know, I am weird!)

morning glory said:
If you eat sugary foods the blood sugar rises quickly but falls just as quickly - so perhaps that's why you get faux hunger. Try substituting grapes or possibly another fruit. Grapes are a good choice because you can eat a few at a time. I keep a bunch in the fridge and pop one now and then....
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Grapes are loaded with sugar though - they are probably worse because there is very little content other than water and sugar. Biscuits will at least have a few other nutrients and a tiny amount of protein in them! (I know Shaun likes nutty chocolate biscuits - so the nuts will help)

Lullabelle said:
Little boxes or raisins, sweet but not too naughty.
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See above but at least the raisins are limited to a small box of them, if you go down that route - I don't personally for financial reasons. I also don't like the fact that all dried fruit (unless you either clean it or specifically search out fruit that hasn't been) has a layer of wax or oil on it to make it look shiny and glossy and supposedly more attractive!

Once a week I weigh out a whole load of snacks (roasted chickpeas, tamari almonds, cashew nuts, peanuts (all unsalted)) and all of them are 1/2 a serving, so that I can have 2 portions. we purchased a whole load of tiny containers (49p from morrisons) and it works really well. each pot is almost full with 1/2 portion so it works out really well. Taking 2 pots feels better than 1 and allows me to chop and change my choices. I get 2 pots a day and a hot cocoa. (I'm off black coffee again, it is too acidic for me).
 
Once a week I weigh out a whole load of snacks (roasted chickpeas, tamari almonds, cashew nuts, peanuts (all unsalted)) and all of them are 1/2 a serving, so that I can have 2 portions. we purchased a whole load of tiny containers (49p from morrisons) and it works really well. each pot is almost full with 1/2 portion so it works out really well. Taking 2 pots feels better than 1 and allows me to chop and change my choices. I get 2 pots a day and a hot cocoa. (I'm off black coffee again, it is too acidic for me).
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You are such a good girl, @SatNavSaysStraightOn! I'm not. I just wing it. Luckily I'm not really interested in sweet things at all. If I crave anything, its savoury stuff. My most craved thing is oysters - low cal, full of minerals and I could eat them at least three times a day if not more. The rest of the time, I'll nibble on a rye crisp bread with caviar and eat vegetables in profusion (particularly potatoes, salsify, artichokes - both kinds, sprouts, spinach and asparagus). I'll use a few grapes as a light interlude - and so few of them that the sugar isn't an issue.
 
I could just as easily snack on wasabi peas or tamari almonds all day but have sodium issues... and at the moment my legs are still swelling up/swollen from the fall I took 4 weeks ago - is it really that long go? Even the hole in my knee still has a scab on it and is still healing! Anyhow, sodium high BP and oedema don't mix, and given that well you know about that one... so I am having to be very careful about the amount of sodium in my diet given I am sensitive to it. And I love wasabi peas and tamari almonds... so I'm looking for nice choc chip cookie/biscuit recipes at the moment.... hummm must go and actually do that cooking I was planning on rather than sitting at the pc having a quiet day like I am meant to be doing... and I have hoovering and thick layers of dusting to do and there are some chooks whining at me at the kitchen door because they are too lazy to walk down to the chook house to feed and think i will give in and feed them on the veranda for a quiet life - they are right but they can darn well wait a touch longer yet!
 
After almost three weeks on a Mediterranean diet - don't get me wrong, I love it - I am really looking forward to Sunday lunch (one week tomorrow) of roast beef, Yorkshire pudding, proper gravy and creamy mashed potatoes.
 
I absolutely agree about keeping eggs around for a nighttime snack.

cadbury egg.png
 
I'm craving for chocolate today (with nuts and fruits is the best). I can't stop myself..hard day at work today, I'm nervous..in an hour I'll have a call back casting with 20 little boys and girls...with their parents to see castings :cry:... I'll finish very late and so on all the week.
My desk is full of chocolate, pralines, chocolate truffles...I need it to survive :chocegg:
 
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