Foods high in fiber are very nutritious for you, and an added benefit is that you feel satisfied longer after a meal...try to load up their plates with food like that.

What is a typical breakfast/lunch/dinner for them? (Particularly one where they are snacking 1/2 hour later?)

MPJ = here goes
This is for DD8
Breakfast - porridge (rolled oats) with milk and sugar or sugar or weetbix (4-6) with milk, sugar and plain nonfat yoghurt
"brain food" - 1/2 carrot cut up ( this is food they can eat during school at their desk)
morning tea - a couple of wholemeal crackers, 3 cherry tomatoes
Lunch - cheese sandwich (wholemeal bread) and an apple. A bit of cake or homemade slice if I happen to have any (not everything always gets eaten)
Water to Drink throughout the day

After school - a bit variable. Sometimes nothing, sometimes an apple or plum, maybe some cake or a slice or wholewheat crakers.

Tea (about 5:30pm) Rice, pasta or potatoes and bread with some meat eggs or pulses. Vegies - carrot or pumpkin. Peas or brocolli (she will have seconds of some vegies.Not a big salad eater.) Usually has second helpings Dessert - often tinned fruit and yoghurt or apple crumble or one lolly or chocolate from a box we have been given or a party. Milo to finish.

Tonight she didn't ask for a post meal feed!

ETA: I agree with you on fibre and fullness. tonight I ate 155g of brown rice and boy can I still feel it! However I have had very little success getting my kids (or husband) to appreciate brown pasta or rice

Anne, looks as if you are a good mum, working hard to ensure your kids get a healthy diet! In terms of hunger pangs for the young one, I suspect that if she had a bit more protein (esp. at breakfast) she would last better. So eggs (if not allergic) or legumes or meat...doesn't have to be "breakfast" meat like bacon. In winter, my daughter loves my homemade chicken soup for breakfast! Especially if she has a bit of a cold. Soup is also a great way to get more vegetables into kids, and you can make a big pot once a week and then have it through the week.

Anyway...in addition to fibre, protein and fat are what help us maintain that "full" feeling. Without enough of either of these we will get hungry faster, especially if we are eating simple carbohydrates (i.e. sweets, starchy things.)

Hi Suz - bacon may go down well, and we keep chickens so could do eggs though I suspect she wouldn't be keen.
We do have soup too, and I have the ingredients ready to make two soups with vegies.

I have received suggestions (outside YLF) to up her protein and I am trying, though I am fighting against my upbringing, which was intentionally high carb/ low protein, and cost considerations

ETA I just read your post again and you were saying it _didn't_ have to be bacon - sorry.

Yes, the advice many of us received (e.g. super low fat) and the financial constraints many of us faced (or that our parents faced) do influence our food choices, for sure.

Eggs: I have had success getting my daughter to enjoy these by trying to make them different than the norm. So, sometimes I make a veggie omelet/frittata, into which I put a bit of ham or bacon or something...just a bit...because that's what she likes more than the veggies. But the veggie taste sort of disappears...

I also make "sweet" omelettes with sliced apple, or even leftover sweet potato and cinnamon and put a bit of maple syrup on that...she loves those. Sort of like a big protein pancake.

And I make Japanese Okonomi (or similar styled) with ginger, green onion, spinach or other veggies and okonomi sauce (which is salty/soy based and also a bit sweet).

And sometimes I give her devilled eggs with paprika and curry...she loves it because it is a change.

Oh - another way to sneak eggs in is to give French toast!

Back to the issues at the beginning of my thread - and what is making me feel my eating is out of control.

Probably the biggest is hormonal. I started TOM yesterday and as usual the frantic eating stops, as does the grumpy stressed Mummy of the previous few days! I expect my weight would go down a bit (my concern was that was the highest "high point" in the cycle that I'd had)
Other issues - tend to comfort feed when procrastinating over a difficult task, stressed over things with kids.
Lack of self control - if there is leftover icing in the fridge I will eat it! Tend to eat too much while cooking.
We have people around to eat a lot, and this has its own eating temptations.

I feel much better now than when I first wrote and logged my days eating on the website Laura recommended (have worked out more how to use it now) and made it though a day with almost no sugar or simple carbs. 1400 calories, which is about what was recommended on the site for slow weight loss. It did reveal to me how what I usually eat could add up to a lot more than that.

So I think for the moment I will put off seeing someone (and if I do, get the sense it would be better to go the dietician route). But the real litmus test will be in a few weeks time and when I am stressed or tempted.

Thanks so much again for the advice and support!

Anne, This is a little OT, but I just wanted to comment on how different your Australian (?) English is from my American English when you write about food and meals! I don't notice it very often when you talk about clothes, but I'm mystified when I read about your kids' meals!

1. Is "tea" the same thing as dinner/supper (the evening meal?) Do you drink tea at that meal?
2. How do you eat pumpkin?
3. What are pulses?

It is interesting! For what it is worth, I always had a big bowl of fruit, and milk in the 'frig that my kids could serve themselves anytime. As they got older, they could also make themselves PB & J's on whole wheat. (peanut butter and jelly on whole meal).....

We often eat sweet potatoes, which, like brown rice, are full of fiber and very filling.....

Sounds good, Anne. TTOTM can definitely make us wonky, and apparently women typically eat about 200 calories more for the days preceding their periods...and need it!

You are on the right track! Cutting out the sugary stuff will do it for you.

Isis - translations here

Tea - is the evening meal - Some Australians say dinner. I think we are following northern english usage. ("afternoon tea" in Australia is a mid afternoon snack while supper is a late night snack, or the refreshments following an evening entertainment)

Pumpkin - we eat it roasted, steamed (my usual for the family) or in soup. Sometimes Aussies mash it with potato. I prefer the Japanese or Kent variety to the typical australian queensland blue. Butternut can be nice too.
Sweet cooking with pumpkins is pretty much confined to pumpkin scones or pumpkin in (dried) fruit cakes in Aus, though I grew up with Mum occasionally making pumpkin icecream and pumpkin custard ( similiar to filling in pumpkin pies). You rarely see canned pumpkin here

Pulses - beans, chickpeas, lentils
We have sweet potatos (the orange, kumara variety) here too and actually they are a great favourite of mine. When they are in season we will have them as a pumpkin alternative. They are too expensive (in our house) to substitute for potatoes or rice etc for most of the year

Anne, I am glad you tried MyFitnessPal. It really is a godsend in monitoring your intake. As for me, I have just about eaten up my calories for today At least I know!

True confession: I am a total sugar addict. I would totally be eating sugar out of a bag with you. This spring, I did a cleanse at my yoga studio that involved giving up caffeine, sugar, alcohol, red meat and dairy. I also pretty much gave up wheat, but that was my own choice. So I was eating hot oat bran cereal for breakfast, tofu and brown rice for lunch, dried mangoes for a sweet snack, and a soup and salad for dinner. I can't tell you how much better I felt!

Thanks Suz and Laura!

Laura - I just signed up for MyFitnessPal as well! It's amazing! Thank you so much for the recommendation!

It's just the thing I need to keep track of my cals. I love how I can also see my sodium (I have high blood pressure) as well as cholesterol (ditto) and the others. It seems I have no trouble eating protein - I've exceeded my daily allowance each day so far. But I'm doing well with the cals.

One question - I can measure and weigh at home, no problem, but my husband likes to eat out on the weekends. How do I control my portions when we eat out?

And any suggestions for a good diet friendly breakfast out?

Fruit is always low cal- what about a fruit cup and yogurt? Or egg white omlette? Or oatmeal?

Tarzy, almost all of the chain restaurants have nutritional information online. I look up and plan before I go. (And man! It's disheartening! That food is FULL of fat and calories!) For the neighborhood places, you have to estimate. http://www.calorieking.com has a HUGE database of all kinds of different foods and I often go there when I'm trying to figure out what I ate.

Oops! You didn't ask about estimating calories. You asked about controlling portions.

Never mind.

Khris' suggestions are good for going out. If you are going to diner-type places, you can always get cereal--it is usually in one of those little individual boxes, so you know the portion is small, and then get it with skim milk. I usually get an egg white omelette with broccoli and dry toast (of which I try to eat only one slice). I feel like breakfast is the easiest meal to eat out of you're dieting.

Another trick is to only eat half of the portion and take the other half home (or give it to a homeless person on the way out, if you live and eat out in a big city).

I've been thinking about what you said about eating sugar, Anne, here and on a previous thread. Try googling 'sugar cravings' and see what you come up with.

This article from the UK looks interesting as a start:

http://www.independent.co.uk/l.....38730.html

Polly thanks for that link and the search suggestions

Suz - I didn't see your link to egg suggestions before. Thanks for that. Actually my daughters do like eggs; they are just shocked at the idea of eating them for breakfast (conservative little things). But it is always good to get egg suggestions because when the weather is right we get 6 a day to use up!

And your mention of okinomyaki took me back! I lived in Japan for a while in the 90's and initially it was one of my favourite dishes (til I had it a bit too often)