Healthy Tips for Hunger Management Throughout the Day

Hooray!! My 100th post!! I thought about doing something cool – but I don’t have anything to give away…so I’ll save it for another day. In the meantime I thought I would share some healthy tips for hunger management.

As a weight conscious bride to be, I constantly think about what I put into my mouth. I gave up sweets and packaged snacks for Lent in hopes that I can gain some self control of my eating habits. I know that after reading my post about apples covered in Snickers, I started eyeing the jar of Reese’s behind me on the counter. In case you feel the same way, here are some healthy tips for hunger management.

Tips for Hunger Management in the Morning

1. Rise and Dine Never miss breakfast; waiting till noon for your first meal can turn hunger pangs into irresistible cravings.
2. If It Ain’t Yolk, Don’t Fix It Eating eggs in the morning can help you fight flab.
3. Drench Your Thirst German researchers found that people who drank 17 ounces of water boosted their resting calorie-burning rate by about 30 percent for 90 minutes. Why? Partly because your body burns extra calories to heat the water to body temperature. More is better: drinking eight 8-ounce glasses of ice water daily can zap an extra 70 calories (and save you lots more if you’re replacing sweetened juice or beer).
4. Get Thick, Stay Thin In a study, subjects who drank a shake pumped with extra air ate less at a meal hours later than did those who drank smaller-looking shakes, even though both contained the same calories.
5. Milk Calcium for All It’s Worth Have milk or yogurt in the morning with your breakfast and then enjoy another dairy food at lunch.

Healthy Tips for Hunger Management in the Afternoon

6. Eat Déjà Food Eating the same healthy, balanced meal every day (such as a grilled chicken breast) can help prevent overeating. Too much variety in meals can lead you to keep eating to experience the taste, not to satisfy the hunger, says Hollie Raynor, Ph.D., of Brown University’s Weight Control and Diabetes Research Center.
7. Wet Your Appetite Foods with high water content fill you up easily. And they naturally pack fewer calories for their volume, says Rolls. Toss together a salad of lettuce, cucumbers, celery, and tomatoes. Or a fruit cup with watermelon, strawberries, and orange slices.
8. Buy a Pure Bread Skip those boring white slices. Fixing your sandwich on bread made with flaxseed may help keep you slim by lowering your blood sugar levels, and it may also lower your cholesterol, according to some studies.
9. Find Joy in Almonds Peckish before dinner? Eat a handful of almonds to ward off hunger between meals.
10. Use Stalling Tactics When a late-afternoon food craving hits, grab a magazine, take a walk, or surf the Net—any little distraction that will temporarily take your mind off your craving will do the job.
11. Test a Model Tea A small Swiss study found that people who took green-tea-extract supplements (consuming about the amount found in an eight-ounce cup) three times daily burned 4 percent more calories over 24 hours—which could add up to losing a few pounds in a year. Researchers believe nutrients called catechins may speed fat burning.

Healthy Tips for Hunger Management in the Early Evening

12. Get a P.B. Shot Spread a tablespoon of peanut butter on whole-wheat bread, a cracker, or a celery stick.
13. Forget the Seconds Coming At dinner serve your portions, then immediately put the extra food in the refrigerator or freezer before you sit down to eat, advises Raynor. Making it just a little harder to get second helpings can really curb overeating.
14. Don’t Skip the Spuds Eating a few boiled potatoes will keep you fuller longer after dinner than just about any other food.
15. Fight Fat With Fire Capsaicin, the hot substance in peppers, may help burn fat and curb hunger, according to studies. Plus, hot peppers can add flavor without fat.
16. Eat Pudding, Lose Padding Buy a six-pack of low-fat pudding in the dairy aisle.
17. Pinpoint Your Sin Foods If you simply must have some junk food in the house, go ahead. But choose only one.
18. Still Awake? People who ate cereal 90 minutes after dinner consumed 225 fewer calories for the rest of the night than those who didn’t, according to a Wayne State University study.
19. You Snooze, You Lose Slumber is slimming.

(Source: aarpmagazine.org Written by Ted Spiker, a contributing editor to Men’s Health)