Experts!!!! What are good head hunger fighters??!?!?!

hi all!!!

sneaking over the wall again!!  i figure you guys have all done some awesome work in fighting head hunger and grazing and i'd love some tips.  should i just yell "no!!" when i start eating for no hunger reason????  smack my forehead when i start grazing??  these seem kinda dumb, but i'm just at the stage (almost 4 mos) where it's easier to do and i don't want to continue old, crappy habits!

any feedback welcome! 

There are people here who can give you better advice than I can, but I'll take a stab at it....

-Set a certain amount of meals per day & stick to that amount.  No snacks, no bites, no "just a little taste"..... nothing but meals.  Period.  I stick to 3 meals a day.  Decide whether you need 3 or 4 to get in your required intake and let that be it.

-Don't keep things in the house that are tempting for you--things that control you, instead of you controlling them.  For me it's cashews & pork rinds.  I can't have "just a bite."  I eat them until I get on the verge of sickness.  I don't have that same issue with cheese, almonds or beef jerky, so I keep those around instead.  High quality, high taste, high protein foods.

-Drink water.  All the time.  I don't care if it's 2 gallons a day.  The more you're focusing on drinking, the less likely you are to think about eating.  Make it an obsession to get as many fluids in as possible.  This helps keep your sleeve full also.

-Substitute low or zero calorie beverages as snacks.  Coffee, SF lemonade, tea.  Something hot or cold will refresh & satisfy you without having to worry about calories.

These are just a few things that have worked for me.  Maybe they'll work for you too.

Half the battle is making the decision to not set yourself for failure.  You know your weaknesses.  The more of those you can eliminate from the equation, the more likely you are to be successful.

I think the more specific you are about why you are wanting to eat when you are not hungry the better you can fight it.

for me there are easily dozens of reasons why. 

habit
poor planning
just not paying attention
some need I am not facing:  I'm needing something else - what  is it? a hobby? more love? more fun?
feelings I dont' want to face - someone I need to confront, worry that seems unending
the need to RELAX , especially at the end of a work day

sometimes we just want to eat because it tastes good or we enjoy that particular food.




 

Are you taking an acid blocker?  I stopped mine at 4 months out and ate everything in sight for awhile, even though I knew I shouldn't be hungry.  Then I realized it was stomach acid that made me want to eat and feel hungry all the time.  It went away after I started taking my Nexium again.  I take it in the morning to ward off acid hunger for the whole day.

Well, I haven't wanted to overeat since I had a fight with my boss on Sunday ... but I wouldn't recommend that method :-)
--Dorothy

Here's a mish-mash of stuff I've posted on this topic.. sorry for the lack of editing and repetition but I'm short on time:

I can relate a lot to what you are saying as I have had a lot of the same experiences. I have not had my hunger or cravings to eat go away, and I want to eat quite frequently. I've struggled with sticking to the recommended amount of calories and not grazing, and I crave fatty foods like full fat cheese and nuts, which spikes my calorie levels.

  You may already have tried these things but here are a few things that might help:

- Avoid carbs except those from green veggies (including fruits which are high in sugar and would have been virtually non-existent in some portions of the world in paleo times) as they will make your hunger increase.These can set you up for cravings and blood sugar swings that will keep you hungry regardless of what you eat with them.

- Get back on a PPI as acid can mimic hunger -If you aren't taking a PPI, start one. If you are taking one, check with your doctor if you can take 2 a day (one in the morning, one at night). If you already take one every day consider taking a stronger one (protonix is supposed to be one of the best).

- Add in exercise and maybe accept that dieting alone won't be the answer for you.. exercise can make you feel good and have those great hormones w/o the damage of eating to cope

- Make sure you are taking supplements to help you with what you are missing from your diet (even non-VSG folks often have to do this because of poor food supply)

- Supplement with chromium, l-carnitine and l-glutamine which help with cravings

- Make sure you are medicated if necessary for any thyroid issues, if applicable

- Consider therapy to look at why you might be eating aside from physical reasons

- Consider doing a candida diet - candida overgrowth can rob your body of nutrients and cause continual cravings (I can recommend a good one)

- Add probiotics to your supplement regimen

- Keep food with you at all times in a small cooler so when you do feel like eating, you can eat the protein your body needs. If you choose good foods, you CAN nourish your body with a VSG. However it may not satisfy your cravings which may be a combination of emotional, physical and hormonal cues.

- To help you stay hydrated, to distinguish hunger from thirst (just in case it is thirst) and to keep from wanting to eat all the time, drink some sort of tea between meals (green also helps with weight loss for a double whammy)

- Make sure you are eating dense REAL protein FIRST, by itself, and that you cook yourself. For example if you are eating a mushy meat like hamburger, you might be able to eat more. If you combine the meat with a sauce it becomes more "slidery". If you eat a hamburger patty from a fast food joint, they may have additives that cause you not to be as full as long or have other issues. If you are eating things like cheese or soy nuts, etc. for your protein instead of REAL home-cooked meat (chicken, pork, fish, beef) you may not feel full as long.

 - If you are still feeling hungry between meals, snack on veggies (cooked or raw or what ever works for you) for a low cal way of filling you up, and getting some good nutrients in you

- Consider looking at my profile for some recipe ideas for recipes that you can eat more frequently to deal with your hunger with less damage to your calorie count.

- Figuring out what emotions you are feeling and trying to deal with those in other ways besides eating helps.  So for example if you are bored, try to find something to do especially something with your hands.  If you are lonely call a friend or go for a walk if you can.

Hope that helps...

A few articles I posted on this topic:

http://www.obesityhelp.com/forums/VSG/4284762/8-Ways-to-Stay -Full-Longer/
http://www.obesityhelp.com/forums/VSG/4284937/9-Reasons-Your-Body-Thinks-Its-Hungry/

thank you!  all that info rocks.  i should have searched!!!!  i'm still of the pick-people's-brains school though (social workers are just, well, social! LOL)  but i'll look at the articles  right now!  thanks again!

On May 3, 2011 at 10:20 AM Pacific Time, anninva wrote:thank you!  all that info rocks.  i should have searched!!!!  i'm still of the pick-people's-brains school though (social workers are just, well, social! LOL)  but i'll look at the articles  right now!  thanks again! 

 **********

Actually it really helps ME to re-post this often.  When ever I see someone dealing with this problem, I re-post my list, but it reminds me of the things I need to be doing so it helps ME too! :)

One of my big issues is that I haven't been able to drink plain water really since surgery. I get so sick of other drinks and then I just never want to drink.  I just found out that a certain brand that has minerals added to it (Safeway brand Refreshe water) works for my tummy and so now I am drinking 16oz between each meal which really helps.

I also have been slacking off on taking my hunger-beating supplements (chromium is a must have for me) and my probiotics, so this reminded me to get this set up again.  I do most of those other things but there are certain ones that aren't a habit yet and I need reminding about (water and supplements) so thank YOU for asking the question.

  This is one I'm always wanting to talk about because it's a huge problem for me.  Also I forgot to mention with head hunger figuring out what emotions you are feeling and trying to deal with those in other ways helps.  So for example if you are bored, try to find something to do especially something with your hands.  If you are lonely call a friend or go for a walk if you can.  

Well this is everybody's nemesis and if the answer is found, patent it.

I have been lucky to have less of this than many but am waiting for the rude awakening that may come any day.

The others have great suggestions but here is mine. Keep a good quality protein powder or drink available. when you have head hunger, make it the rule that you have to drink a half serving of a protein drink to satisfy it. or have a sugar free pudding cup that has some protein powder mixed into it. If you really balk at drinking this, then that tells you what you have is really head hunger and not real hunger. if the protein is more appealing then drink it, you may need the protein. Doesn't have to be a full serving.

My other go to food when i had a nibbly issue was grapes. they were sweet as candy to me in wl phase and even now are a good grab snack if dinner is delayed by husband's schedule and i want something. few calories, filling and sweet. hard to blow a diet with them and nice ones are available year round. Ditto frozen blueberries that are good to eat frozen.

the other thing is to have a list of stuff to do besides eat. Do a manicure,pedicure at home, knit, blab on the internet, play internet games, call somebody, add to you OH blog, think about what you are doing that might be a trigger for the head hunger, read other people's inspirational blog pages, read a trashy novel, play angry birds or do a nintendo brain age II or play x box kinect motion sports, walk the dog, pull a few weeds, clean out one cupboard, look at old fat pictures, put on a weight belt or something to remind you what it felt like to be heavier, learn a new game you can play along, play internet scrabble or scrabble on a disc. head hunger is often born of habit of eating at certain times or eating in response to certain triggers or events. just have to relearn those. I have relearned that i can watch a movie just fine without eating anyting during. no need. the movie is enough. ditto tv.  thing about where these habits come from and use the awareness to overcome.

Diane

First, I get the food out of sight. Then I drink something. That works about 90% of the time. Sometimes I have it anyway if I figure that I can do that and not go over my calorie count for the day.