R
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And that leaves me with #3. I have just been having so much trouble. Been improving, but still hard to stop eating once I start... Getting more sleep would probably help too.
A coffee, cigar, or shot of liquor after a meal is a good way to stop gorging on food when you're hungry or lingering too long at the table and eating too much. They put an official end to the meal, deaden the taste buds, and kill the appetite.
Some experts recommend a couple glasses of water at the end of a meal to fill up the belly and kill the appetite. But on a long-term basis, chugging a lot of water is not something I look forward to at the end of a meal. I like a little treat awaiting me at the end.
If I'm serious about losing some weight, I'll figure out how much I want to eat at the start of the meal and then have something right at hand as soon as I've taken my last bite of food. A strong cup of coffee is good after breakfast. For supper, I'll have a finger or two of whiskey neat in a glass right at hand and start sipping slowly as soon as I'm done eating. (I don't tend to drink a whole lot of straight whiskey, so a single drink will satisfy and I won't be tempted to get refills). Booze is extra calories, of course, but the booze gives me a lift and gives me energy to get active after supper (putter around or practice dance steps), and that burns extra calories and aids digestion.
Here's a separate issue that hasn't been brought up but is sometimes worth mentioning.
Dieting means putting up with an empty stomach much of the day. Some people may find an empty stomach to be genuinely uncomfortable, leading to snacking between meals and difficulty controling their weight. In some cases, the cause may be some mild gastritis (long-term irritation of the stomach lining). When the stomach is empty, the stomach acids irritate the stomach lining; snacking provides relief because food in the stomach soaks up the acid. But that cycle makes it hard to diet. Therefore, such people may want to consider use of antacids (Tums and Maalox) and PPIs (Zantac and Pepcid) to reduce stomach acid, at least temporarily until the irritation subsides.
Mild gastritis can also lead to sleeping problems. Typically, such people can get to sleep easily but find themselves waking up for no reason after 2-4 hours of sleep (about the time the stomach gets empty and irritated). Late night snacking helps them get back to sleep, but that's not good when you're trying to lose weight. So again, such people would probably want to take a 75 or 150 mg of Zantac at bedtime to settle their stomach for 8 hours, and maybe also get a white noise machine (babbling brook, wind in the trees) to provide stimulation and help change up their sleep patterns. Even with that, it might take a couple weeks to change their sleep patterns permanently and stop waking after a couple hours sleep.
Just a couple random suggestions that have helped me and others.
FL