Try this. It fills you up until it’s time for lunch.

Spread peanut butter on 2 lightly salted rice cakes. Slice a banana and lay the slices on top of the peanut butter.  Quick! Easy! Nutritious! Superb!

Remember to eat slow and chew well. It takes 20 minutes for your stomach to send a message to your brain that says, “Good! My stomach is full. You can stop eating now.”

And as far as that message that announces your stomach is full? Try listening to it when you’re half-way through a meal–any meal. You sometimes find that you don’t really want to clean your plate. Save what you don’t eat for a snack later in the day (when the message you’re receiving says, “I’m hungry. I need food and I need it now!”)

I like to watch TV in the evening and snack. It’s a habit I’m trying to break. But I’m not always successful. That doesn’t mean I’m not watchful.

The trick is to eat something that will fill up the void and the time. One way to accomplish this is to eat something frozen. That way you’re forced to eat it slow or suffer a brain freeze.

This is my favorite–1/2 cup of frozen blueberries with a big dollop of ReddiWip whipped cream. It takes a while to eat the berries because they’re little, bitty pieces of sweet ice.

I’ll tell you my secret. I eat them right out of my measuring cup. And this tasty snack topped with whipped cream equals 55 calories.

If you’re still hungry after that, pop one of those 100 calorie mini bags of popcorn. That ought to do it. Nighty night.

As I mentioned in a previous post, to stay healthy and, hopefully lose a few pounds, nothing works better for me than counting calories. So, what do I do when I’m at a party–grazing?

I fill my plate with my favorite foods, remembering moderation. Once my plate is full, I take out my cell phone and snap a picture of all my goodies. Later, when I’m trying to recall what I ate at the party, I look at the photo and calculate as closely as possible how many calories I consumed.

Nifty idea, huh?

Ordinarily, I tend to eat a lot of the same foods, i.e. a bagel and cream cheese for breakfast, a sandwich for lunch, etc. After a while, I know how many calories I’m swallowing without having to look up the calorie content. As time goes by, counting calories become easier and easier, until finally, at the end of the day, I know whether I’ve stayed on track or gone over.

Okay, I’ve heard it hundreds of time–On or Off a diet, you need to eat a good breakfast. Personally, I’d rather skip it altogether, but all the studies indicate breakfast is the correct way to start the day.

Do you know what that means? Whole wheat toast, a banana and a cup of coffee–or something equally unappealing– is touted as a healthy breakfast. Like that’s really going to fill me up and get me through the morning?

So, here’s a solution. It works for me. And it’s actually filling.

Take a nice, big, juicy bagel. Slice it in half. (Sorry, you can only have half, but on the bright side, it’s not a slice of wheat toast that tastes like cardboard.)

Toast the bagel, if you like.

Spread on 1 tablespoon of “1/3 less fat cream cheese.” This is Neufchatel Cheese. It is prized in France, so don’t feel sorry for yourself. It’s a real delicacy.

I take my breakfast on the run with a cup of black coffee.

If you happen to be thinking, What? Only one tablespoon of the blasted cheese? Pull yourself together. It’s not the end of the world if you absolutely must slather on 2 tablespoons of the cream cheese.

Just keep in mind, 1 tablespoon of Neufchatel Cheese equals 56 calories–2 tablespoons equals 112. Therefore, you trade up from a 130 calorie breakfast to a 186 calorie breakfast. Still not bad.

Save the other half of the bagel for tomorrow’s breakfast.

Chew on a Chiclet–a regular Chiclet–not sugar-free.

[I’m not a fan of any food containing aspartame. For one thing, it does bad, bad things to the inside of my mouth. There’s plenty to read on the web about aspartame, so you can make up your own mind. Aspartame]

But this post is about keeping unnecessary foods out of your mouth. One of the things I suggest–chew on a Chiclet. There are only 4 calories in a single Chiclet. You don’t need to chew on two of them, although at 4 calories, you can go wild!

Normally, one will do me. It keeps my jaws moving for an hour before the darn thing loses its taste. Really! The taste of peppermint Chiclets goes a long way.

One downside. I have trouble finding Chiclets in the stores. The trend is to chew sugar-free gum, so that’s what most stores carry. When I come across a store that carries Chiclets, I load up.

Anyway, this Chiclet trick works. Anything that will get you through an hour without food or thinking about food is worth a shot.

I love my carbohydrates! It’s a fact and I admit it.

My favorite lunch is a sandwich, preferably a hoagie or a sub. What to do? What to do?

I’ve learned it’s best to make my own sandwich, because I can control what goes in it. I don’t use an inch of ham and cheese–no, no. I go easy, but I refuse to give up foods I like. So, the ham and cheese STAYS! (but two slices of each are plenty).

And I use a good amount of lettuce.

Now, here’s the kicker–the one important thing you should be aware of. It’s all about the mayonnaise. Did you know 1 tablespoon of mayonnaise equals 99 calories? What to do? What to do?

I’ll tell  you what to do. Switch to low calorie mayonnaise. It tastes exactly the same as regular mayonnaise, BUT 1 tablespoon equals 36 calories. Can you believe that? If you’re using regular mayonnaise, run as fast as you can to the store and change to low cal immediately. The exercise will do you good, too.

Oh, and if mayonnaise isn’t on your “must have” food list, make your sandwich with mustard. 1 teaspoon of mustard equals 3 calories. Woowee!