Pre-Emptive Snacking

It is not uncommon for serial dieters to lose touch with their natural hunger and satiety cues. The result is that they are either hungry a lot or simply never full. Read on to find out how you can reduce your hunger pangs through pre-emptive snacking.

In the 1960s, a research was done at the Michigan State University where women who wanted to lose weight were told to eat a slice of bread 20-30 minutes before each main meal. Compliant participants lost weight in a most astounding fashion.

How could such a simple change make such a great difference? Well, what happened was the bread was digested and absorbed into the blood causing the blood sugar levels to rise enough to inform the sensors in the brain that they were no longer hungry. So by the time the participants sat down to their main meals, they were not as hungry and simply ate a lot less thereby facilitating weight loss.

I do this often with my children before each birthday party. Just before we leave the house I would offer them a fruit salad with yogurt topped with mixed nuts, sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds. This way they will be a lot less hungry when they get to the party and eat a lot less junk! Simple but effective.
You can make pre-emptive snacking a part of your lifestyle. Do this before the two largest meals in the day. These two meals will often be your lunch and dinner.

Have available lots of healthy snacks like:

1. 1. handful of dried fruits and mixed nuts
2. 2. yogurt and fruit salad
3. 3. a cup of hot Milo and a Snack Right biscuit
4. 4. large Fuji apples (apples require a lot of chewing thus enhancing your sense of fullness)
5. 5. boiled and drained chickpeas seasoned with French fries seasoning
6. 6. one fruit toast
7. 7. one peanut butter on toast
8. 8. 3-4 rice cakes
9. 9. 3-4 corn cakes
10. 10. a small serve of tinned fruit in juice
11. 11. a small freshly baked bread roll
12. 12. roasted or boiled broad beans
13. 13. one small bowl of edamame – boiled drained soy beans
14. 14. roasted mixed lentils seasoned with French fries seasoning
15. 15. a small can of baked beans

The ultimate deal is to never be too hungry such that you eat indiscriminately too fast and too much. Whenever you get in that mode, you will invariably find yourself not feeling full until it is way too late. When you do this over and over again you cannot help but generate some very undesirable results like massive weight gain.

This next point I am going to raise may be very important to some of you. If you are unable to feel full and do not know when to stop at each meal, then use the following as your guide – STOP EATING WHEN YOU ARE NO LONGER HUNGRY. Period!