5.3

About those three meals a day with no snacks – sometimes it’s really hard. Even with the best intentions, a bag of peanuts somehow made it through the check-out and into my bag at a truck stop on I-95 Sunday. OK – I was bored. And yes, I did share my peanuts. And of course I could have been horrid and added the pack of Twizzlers I was eyeing.

But I would have felt better if I had left the package right where it belonged: At the check-out counter. (Of course, I could blame the truck stop for putting the peanuts out there, so easy to grab while I was buying my virtuous bottle of water. Guess everyone is conspiring against me!)

Truth be told: I wasn’t even hungry. Just bored. 95 can do that to me, especially when I am not driving.

Anyway, I came across this article posted on Everyday Health, which gives some tips for fighting hunger. I would say they work for boredom as well, because in my whole life, I have thankfully never been dying from hunger, something most of us in our well-fed worlds would have to admit if we are being honest.

So here are some strategies put forth by Everyday Health. Nothing new here. But right now, I need reinforcement.

• Get enough lean protein and fiber. A study of 22 men who changed the amount of protein in their diets for 18-day periods showed that those who ate the least protein were the most likely to report being hungry. “Protein is the number one thing to help you feel full," says Emily Banes, RD, clinical dietitian at Houston Northwest Medical Center. "The second thing is fiber."
• Eat a rainbow of fruits and vegetables. Researchers tracked the weight-loss success of 71 obese women between 20 and 60 years of age on a low-fat diet. Half of the women were also told to increase their fruit and vegetable intake. At the end of one year, both groups of women had lost weight, but the women who ate the most fruits and veggies reported the greatest weight loss and were less likely to say they felt hungry on any given day. In fact, when the researchers crunched the data, they found that whether the women reported feeling hungry frequently predicted their ability to lose weight. Other studies have shown that changing your eating habits to focus on these water- and fiber-rich foods will help you maintain weight loss for up to six years.
• Sip soup. Adding two low-calorie soups to your diet every day could stave off hunger pangs and keep you satisfied longer. Choose soups that are broth-based, not cream-based, to reduce the calorie count; also look for soups that are low in sodium. Consider chunky, pureed vegetable soups, as they have been shown to produce the most lasting full feeling. Timing your soup so that you have it before a meal also reduces the amount you eat at that meal by about 20 percent, according to a study of 53 overweight adults.
• Eat whole grains. A serving of whole grains will stick with you longer than a serving of refined wheat bread or any other refined flour product, for that matter. Most refined flour is white and often bleached.
• Pick “airy” snacks. If you must snack and you don't have a piece of fruit or a veggie tray on hand, choose the snack food that has more air in it — think cheese puffs instead of potato chips, rice cakes instead of cookies. You will feel just as full as you would if you ate the same serving size of another snack, but you will consume fewer calories on average.
• Another way to fight off hunger is to develop a “low-energy density” eating plan. This means that you can eat a large quantity of foods that do not have a high calorie count. Learning about portion sizes and counting calories is one way to approach this, but you can also try the plate method, which dictates that half your plate be full of veggies, one-quarter dedicated to a starch (preferably whole grain), and one-quarter to a lean protein.
• And speaking of plates, it's worth noting that a study of 45 adults demonstrated that the oft-repeated advice to eat on a smaller plate if you want to feel like you have more food in front of you actually has no effect on the amount you eat at a meal (if you are serving yourself) or your feeling of being full. So, if you prefer, you can go back to eating on your good china — just make sure to emphasize lean proteins, fruits, and veggies.

Ha! I knew that small plate thing doesn't work. Eating on a small plate just makes me feel deprived. It's much better to fill the plate with salad greens if it looks bare.