One of the most difficult aspects of weight loss is dealing with being hungry when its not time to eat. This is often referred to as having the “munchies”. The munchies can completely ruin a diet by adding extra calories. Even just a few calories here and there can add up to gaining instead of losing weight. Here are some tips to get those munchies under control:

1) Choose a 5-6 meal a day diet. This isn’t 5-6 full meals. Its 3 average to small meals and 2-3 healthy snacks. By eating less more frequently you can stave off hunger, keep your blood sugar levels and energy at an even keel, and avoid over doing it. The snacks should be healthy such as a handful of almonds, an apple with cheese, or veggies with  hummus or low calorie dip. My last snack of the day I like to have air-popped popcorn with spray butter (ie Pam) and a popcorn seasoning (it does have lots of salt so use sparingly). Popcorn has lots of fiber and is filling.

2) Know your worst times of day for munchies to attack. For me between 3-5 pm and after 8 are when I really want to eat. By knowing these times are hard, I can make plans to manage the munchies by planning a snack (see #1) or keeping busy (see #3). It also help to figure out if you’re really hungry or just bored. Eating is used to treat all sorts of moods (depression, boredom, etc) and hunger may not be involved at all.

3) Distract yourself. Many see a failure to manage weight as an inability to focus and maintain will power. But telling yourself over and over again not to eat when you want to eat won’t help. You’re still focused on eating and feeling hungry even if you are able to talk yourself out of eating. I find that my best days are usually busy ones. So distract yourself with errands, hobbies, work and other activities during your peak munchie hours.

4) Drink water or another non-calorie liquid. Water is the best as it can fill you up and has no calories or other “bad” stuff. You can have a diet soda but they have salt so limit yourself to one. You can also choose tea or coffee (watch out for the cream and sugar as you don’t want to defeat the purpose), or a broth.

5) Chew on sugar-free gum or suck on a sugar-free hard candy.  This provides the sensation of eating without all the calories.

The munchies are manageable it you know when they’re most likely to attack and have a plan to combat them. Using one or more of the options above should help you avoid giving into the muchies.

If you have other ideas for beating the munchies, please share you idea in the comment section.

My kids are very picky eaters. They won’t eat tomatoes (except spaghetti sauce and ketchup) or beans…unless I hide them in the food. This chili recipe uses pureed tomatoes and black beans which not only makes it edible by my kids, but it makes it thick and yummy.

This recipe is healthy and tastes great. Its adapted from the Chili recipe in the Abs Diet by David Zinczenko.

1 pound ground turkey or lean beef

1 sm onion chopped

2 cloves garlic minced

2 cans  (14 oz each) diced tomatos

2 cans (15 oz each) black beans rinsed and drained

2 cans (14 oz each) whole-kernel corn

1/2 cup water (you can add more depending on your desired thickness)

Spices:

2 tbsp  all-purpose whole wheat flour

1 tbsp ground flaxseed

1 tbsp chili powder (or more to taste)

1/4 tsp red pepper (cayenne) (or more to taste)

1 tsp ground cumin

In a large pot, brown the ground meat until done and drain. Add onion and garlic to the pan and cook until soft.  Puree the tomatoes and black beans together. Add the bean/tomato mixture and all the other ingrediants to the meat and onions.

Makes 8 servings (4 can be frozen for a later meal)

A great option is to serve the chili over brown rice.