Focusing on the Snacks

Hi,

Things I've learned from trying out the "one meal and one snack per day" idea:

1. The meal is pretty easy to manage. It is the snacks that need purposeful attention and management.
2. One meal/one snack worked for a few days -- but I soon added one more high protein snack. So now it is "One Meal and Two Snacks" but some days I still only have one snack. 
3. Snack, Meal, Snack, seems to be the best order of eating. The meal in the middle of the day seems to work best for me. I use the first protein snack in the morning to get me going and the second protein snack in the evening to keep me on track before bed time.
4. I still need a "binge" or "cheat" day from time to time. These are unscheduled. I am not going to plan a binge or cheat day once a week. Having the binge day when my body needs it is more useful than trying to pre-plan when my body will need it. There is no mistaking when my body needs it. If I can go along without one for a long period of time, well why would I want to mess with that? My body does not need a binge or cheat day to be scheduled. When it arrives, it arrives all on its own.
5. After the Binge day would be an excellent day to do a 24-hour fast. It can be a real fast, meaning no food or drink, or I can drink a sensible beverage of my choice throughout the day. The fast should start immediately at the end of the binge. So if the last binge thing I ate was at, say eight p.m., then I simply don't eat again until eight p.m. the next day.  
6. An alternative to the 24-hour fast would be to have a three-snack day. All of them actual high protein. We know that a "binge" day is not going to be a high protein day... we binge on carbs: sugary, sweet, high carb items. So don't have any carbs the next day and keep the three snacks "snack-sized" and spread out to cover the whole day. 
7. Drink lots of water. Every day. Especially in the summer when it is hot. Making sure the water is ice cold when you drink it will actually help you lose weight. Your body will have to work to heat it up and you will actually burn a small amount of fat in the process.
8. If your "one meal" is as big as a Sumo Wrestler's (or contains a lot of high carb items) then you will still pack on weight. It is still important to have an estimated calorie range for the entire day and the "one meal" should be sensible. (We all know what a "sensible meal" is.)
9.  I cannot use cheese as a high protein snack. For some reason I react to cheese (any dairy products) as if they were carbs. It can set off unscheduled excessive eating. 
10. Mixed nuts or peanuts appear to do the same thing. I notice that if I have either cheese or mixed nuts in the house -- intended to be used as small high protein snacks -- the snacks get bigger and bigger as I go along and I soon am eating whole bricks of cheese or half-cans of mixed nuts at a sitting. That is not a snack. This will definitely mess up my weight loss.
11. Actual protein snacks work very well. One or two eggs (only) is a great snack for me that sticks to my ribs (so to speak) and tides me over to my actual meal time.
12. How the egg is cooked seems to make a difference in how long it tides me over: if the egg is cooked "over easy" with a liquid center, I seem to get hungry again faster. If the egg is scrambled it just seems to stick with me longer. So a really good snack for me is one or two scrambled eggs. Been thinking about hard boiled eggs, but not done them yet.
13. A can of tuna with a few walnuts is an excellent "tide me over" snack. I soon forget about food if I eat tuna. I season it with garlic powder, salt, pepper, and Italian seasonings. I also use a little coconut oil as a dressing. It is not your grandmas tuna salad but it is not bad for a snack.
14. Walnuts last in my house. Mixed nuts do not. I can manage walnuts because I don't seem to binge on them and the serving size does not change when I consume them. I really can add five or six walnuts to my tuna fish and not worry about the eating machine. Mixed nuts is another story (see #10 above.)
15. Two hot dog franks (chicken, turkey, beef, pork, any kind without nitrates really -- read the label) is a good snack. I find that I don't like to cook them in my convection oven because they seem to come out "salty." I prefer to steam or boil them on top of the stove which removes some of the saltiness. I don't eat them often because of this, but they do seem to tide me over nicely as a high protein snack when I do eat them and they add a little variety to my eating life.
16. A hamburger pattie is also a good high protein snack. I like to kind of smother it with Spicy Brown Mustard for the flavor. I don't use ketchup, not even the reduced sugar ones because they still have sugar alcohols in them which can affect the eating machine. I season the pattie according to how I feel at the moment. 
17. I have discovered that I love to sprinkle a thick coating of curry powder on a hamburger pattie and cook it in my convection oven. It tastes really good and I don't seem to need the dipping mustard with it. My favorite is the Tones brand of curry powder that I get at Sam's in a big container for a small price.
18. I don't "schedule" the snacks and meal.... I eat when I am hungry. That just seems to work for me. If I'm not hungry in the morning, I might not eat anything until much later in the day and that will usually turn into the meal. 
19. If the meal tides me over until bed time, I don't worry about the evening snack.
20. The snacks are "available" when I need them. This gives me a sense of freedom and control. I hate all that rigid timed eating stuff. If things are flexible then I can adjust things on the fly as needed for that particular day. This keeps me happy and on an even keel.
21. If I follow the plan I lose weight over night.
22. If I do not follow the plan I gain weight over night.

Well that is about it for now.

Be back soon,

Marcia