If your mouth betrays you: reward it or punish it, but don't try to ignore it!
If you realize that your mouth is hungry, but your belly is full, you really need to satisfy your psychological craving for food. The previous rule mentions that sugar free hard candies and negative calorie foods might solve the problem. In some cases, though, I've taken a little more drastic action.
This rule will probably be found a little controversial, but again, it's working for me, so I'm listing it here.
We all have 'hungry days'. You know, those days when you would eat the HOUSE if nothing else were available? If I'm having a hungry day and I've determined that my belly has been fed, but I still can't get over the feeling of being hungry, I either reward my mouth (with sugar free hard candy or negative calorie foods) or I punish it.
Punishing my mouth goes like this:
I keep on hand some 'Hot n Spicy' pork rinds. These little devils are available at most groceries or convenience stores. They're the pork rinds that require about 1 quart of water intake per snack bag of pork rinds to keep your mouth from catching on fire! These little dudes are HOT HOT HOT! However, I've learned that after eating about 3 or 4 pork rinds, my mouth is NO LONGER HUNGRY! In fact, when I eat them, my mouth doesn't want to eat for several hours. In moments of hungry desperation, I've also pulled out a teaspoon and some tabasco or other hot sauce and punished my tongue with a little plain hot sauce.
Dr. Phil would probably diagnose me as some sort of crazy based on this rule but, again, it's working for me!
So, If your mouth betrays you: reward it or punish it, but don't try to ignore it!
