Everyday Systems

Hello everyone, I'm sure something like this has been asked before, but I am just wondering what experiences you have had with the urge to snack between meals dissipating overtime or do they never really go away. I know this is mind over matter, or mind over food. Just wondering if it gets easier over time. I have never been much of a snacker, but now that I am following this plan it seems like I just crave what I can't have when I'm not supposed to have it.

I have been just letting it pass and not giving in, knowing that it will be fine, and/or switching my activity as this often happens when I am doing some type of office or mentally straining work instead of some type of physically active work. So getting up and moving around a little bit seems to help the urge go awayand I know it's all in my head! Even changing environment helps, like moving from my home office to my kitchen table, or walking outside to get the mail and chatting with the neighbor for a minute. Distraction seems to be the best medicine for me for now anyway. I know I'm not really needing anything I'm just wanting a little something. It's head hunger not tummy hunger. I am feeding myself well three times a day balanced meals mostly whole foods most of time which I know goes a long way in being satisfied between meals physically oh, it's the mentally that's the problem! Thanks in advance for your input!

I have very little urge to snack on MOST days. On some days, I still have those urges and have to apply willpower. If the urge is persistent, I have milk, coffee, tea, or a diet soda.

After several years in, in my case, I would say it comes and goes. Though when I was a working teacher, the urge to snack in the afternoons, in the hours between the end of classes and dinner that used to be the start of the sweets-eating that often went on until bedtime, just about never went away. It didn't happen, for the most part, when I was on break, so I think it was situational pairing. For a long time, I sipped a decaf mocha. Eventually, I just learned to outlast the urges and rejoice at dinner! Totally worth it.

I call the afternoon time the "witching hours, " even though they are in daylight! I read about other people feeling the same all over the net.

Then again, there are people here for whom it pretty much dissipates as a problem after awhile.

Anyway, I hope it won't derail you! When you think of your options, even some effort is probably better than reinforcing the giving-in habit and being sorry later.

Be sure you give yourself tons of credit for every time you don't give in to fake hunger! That's partly how your brain knows what you want.

It never ceases to amaze me when I sit down for a great dinner, after thinking I was "so" hungry, and realize that I just need a normal amount of delicious food and the hunger is a distant memory that I wonder if I actually felt the hunger so strongly or if I only imagined it.

I have the exact same problem. It's not so much hunger as it is a psychological need. I had been used to snacking or grazing all day long.

Gabby - one good month of NoS under your belt and you will have made HUGE strides in breaking the habit of unconsciously eating snacks. That's what it was like for me. Grazing was my main thing. I never really ate planned MEALS before NoS.

No, I didn't eat planned meals, either, most of the time. I am trying to cook again, so there's leftovers, and other nights I will make a big salad with chicken or some other protein. I'm looking forward to one month on No S!

I always used to have snacks bc I thought I couldn't last without them but on no s I was really surprised i could survive without them I did start eating larger meals since no s. It took a while to figure out how much food I needed to get to the next meal. Though mostly I'm not physically hungry for snacks, i very often do have 'head cravings' (like you said when you complete a certain activity and almost always when i feel stressed or frustrated). Then I usually have tea or a diet soda (max. 1 per day for me) and try to distract myself. Food was (is still actually) also a means I used to reward myself but now I try to do that with other things. Like reading a book in my break makes me feel relaxed and happy plus distracts me from thinking about food!

I especially get hungry when I have to do things i don't feel like doing

I'm still at that stage where I think about food all day. I need to use some more distractions. So far I spend time napping or playing solitaire. I'm also trying to cook again.

I hate to discourage anyone but even ten years in I am grappling with this. I just find it so hard to find activities that seem as rewarding as food, or if not food, reading about satiety, or traditional societies and their eating, etc. All of which is almost the same thing. And it seems it is exactly because there is so much that would be good for me to do to support my life that I find unpleasant. Organizing, cleaning, some of the more dull aspects of interests I have. Poor me! Which reminds me: I have a rule right now that I have to spend one hour a day of doing what I deem "dreaded tasks. " I may have gotten that idea here.

I still want snacks sometimes but I think I am really having to accept that it isn't food I want, and it isn't simple withdrawal anymore, either. I have read that being addicted to ultraprocessed foods can mess with your brain such that it can actually be hard to get a sense of fulfillment from other sources. Yikes! But here we are. I can either bemoan it or get on with it. I try to inspire myself by reminding myself there are people dealing with much more debilitating situations, and they just have to get through a day at a time.

Ok, I give myself permission to browse and write for another 14 minutes on this site (I hadn't been here in quite awhile until yesterday, I think) and then it's off to a dreaded task!