Methods to avoid unwanted snacking

ARE you trying to lose weight and constantly considering chewing your left arm off?

And are you eating less food overall, but can’t knock that sweet tooth out, even after you’ve hidden the chocolate and put locks on the lolly jar?

You are not alone! Just about everyone I see who is training hard and wanting to lose weight doesn’t eat nearly enough “volume” of food to sustain their energy levels and keep hunger at bay, but eats far too many calories from energy dense snacks.

How many times have you said “I’ll just have a smaller portion tonight”, after starving yourself all day, only to devour the litre of ice cream and ½ a block of chocolate before bed?

It’s all a balancing act. You need to eat enough volume of food to make you feel full and satisfied (which prevents the unwanted snacking), but without blowing the calorie budget to Mt Isa.

Here are my hot tips to keeping the flesh on your left arm this week:

1. Increase your portion of non-starchy vegetables and fill up as much as you can on these

2. Increase the portion sizes of your main meals just slightly if you are still feeling hungry and finding the lolly jar is getting raided far too much 3. Double your water intake 4. Keep a food diary and track the trends

5. Include well-timed high protein snacks to increase your feeling of fullness

Here are some recovery tips:

1. 15-20g protein and 20-30g carbs within 20 minutes of finishing exercise is ideal for reducing the recovery time – e.g. low-fat flavoured milk, banana and drinking yoghurt OR any fruit with a protein shake

2. Consume a main meal within 1½ hours of finishing your event – preferably higher in carbohydrate and some protein

3. Sipping on electrolytebased sports drink over the hours to follow your event

4. Consume as much fluid as possible before going to sleep