on a saturday night when my lot settle down to watch strictly and merlin etc, they all tuck into crisps and chocolate,
i am starting to find it hard sitting with a bowl of fruit and low fat crisps when they are munching away

i want the sweetness of chocolate but not the calories, i won't eat chocolate as i can't just resist one piece and then
put the bar away, any ideas please as i have done so well for years not bothering with it but now i am starting to
want some and i don't want to go back to the way i used to be.

any ideas please before tomorrow

Can you tolerate nuts, a lovely bag of dried fruit and mixed nuts always satifies my sweet tooth. Julian Graves has a good range.

Ditto above!!

Dried mango and cranberries are my favourite. Cashews and pistachios go down well too :)

Dried banana chips too, don't over do it mind. Small bowl full of mixed, should suffice.
Or alternatively how are you at baking? nice little squares of flapjacks.

Is that why you have the username suger? you have a sweet tooth too.

Unfortunately no - that would have been less embarrassing though. It was after my first hamster and all I could think of at the time!!

I go for the darkest, purest chocolate I can find and then just let it melt it my mouth, that gives you the chocolate 'hit' but you don't need to eat loads, it's also supposed to be good for you ;-)

> I go for the darkest, purest chocolate I can find and then just let it melt it my mouth,

Easy tiger. Not sweet enough for most tastes though, and of course won't satify for very long. Unlike dried fruit, oats etc that will fill you up and keep you going longer, right till the end of that Saturday night movie.:)

> Easy tiger. Not sweet enough for most tastes though, and of course won't satify for very long. Unlike dried fruit, oats etc that will fill you up and keep you going longer, right till the end of that Saturday night movie.:-)

Sometimes you don't need filling up, or something particularly sweet, you just need chocolate :-D :-D :-D

> Sometimes you don't need filling up, or something particularly sweet, you just need chocolate :-D :-D :-D

Better than sex so I'm told. ;)

> Better than sex so I'm told. ;-)

No comment ;-)

LOL

Well....how about making a sugar free jelly up, and eat that with lots of chopped up fruit. Also the weight watchers fruit chews are really sweet and good.
It is really tricky...speaking as an habitual eater/picker also with a sweet tooth.
The ideas will be greeted with great interest from me too
Karen :)

I'd rather have chocolate!

These days if I have a craving I sip bottled water, v.boring & not half as satisfying! Am considering aquiring a taste for Fish4dogs sea jerky twists, non fattening & good for the teeth, that would keep my mouth occupied for a while!

> I'd rather have chocolate!
>

It must be ruddy good chocolate! LOL

Microwave popcorn can be quite light and filling also. Just don't do what I did, didn't cover the dish and it popped all over the place in the micro. Nice though all the same.

what about some frozen yoghurt (ben and jerrys mmmm) or skinny cow ice cream which doesn't taste low fat at all.

the other option is to get stuck into the chocolate and eat something like the new twix bar or a full fat bar but watch tv while pounding away on the treadmill or rowing machine.  nah, second thoughts, get the ben and jerrys in.  2 for £3 in Asda just now rather than £3.99 a pot.

Trouble is, you eat all these subs for choc but still crave choc.  I like to nibble Bendicts Bitter Mints, only one mind - drives me demented though. 

I sympathise JJ-I'm doing slimming world (going really well, 2 stone in 11 wks), and I was a total chocolate eater before. I still have it, but I buy a small bar, or 'normal' size bag of buttons (whereas it'd have been a big bag of giant buttons/minstrels a good 4 times a week before). I make it last and when it's gone it's gone, so no temptation to eat more! I have to have chocolate otherwise I know I'd be likely to fall off the wagon-magic stars are my current fave :)

Put a curly wurly in the freezer gives you the hit of chocolate in a reasonable way but lasts so much longer as you have to thaw it in your mouth to eat it.

It's so very hard watching the TV at night all those food adverts just don't help, and living with a family that are in the same room as you, munching away can't help either.
I just don't watch TV any more, but rather click away on CDs and other web sites, food doesn't even enter my mind then either.

> Bendicts Bitter Mints

Have to be the best chocolates.

Bendicks Bitter Mints

MMMMMMM...very good for readily available stuff

also (if you feel like splashing out) Valrhona and Prestat. There used to be a tiny place doing handmade chocolates in Harrogate called Theobroma (where did you go to :(???), and buying two or three would cost what you might pay for a box elsewhere, but it was one hell of a meal :)

fruit leathers
popcorn (my guilty secret when I'm on my own)

> popcorn (my guilty secret when I'm on my own)

You know how to live dangerously you do. :)

I like the frozen curly wurly idea will give that a go, when chocolate is needed I go for it I'm afraid I don't even try to restrain myself.

>> i want the sweetness of chocolate

Oh how I wish I felt like that... I'm a monster muncher of Pringles.. I'll get through one large tub without even realising it..
Sainbury's have them for buy 1 and get another 2 free... Oh boy...

fish 4 dogs lol Have you tried one I tried to bite one in half recently to treat my xpom as I didnt want to give her a meal relatively speaking they are enormous.
Wont be reapeting that experience in hurry !!

Laughing at that...
Not something I'd fancy trying either.

Karen :)

> fish 4 dogs lol Have you tried one I tried to bite one in half recently

lol, you are definately spending too long in your dogs company, your'e even seeing the dogs food as appetising now,......

Have u looked at those marrow bones !! Lol

well went and got some dried fruit and some nuts today and will have a go tonight and hopefully will help
with the cravings,

the reason i do not want to start again i have lost 8 stone and i know that it was a struggle and
i just do not want to back track to what i was,

the skinny cow stuff i do like but sometimes it is hard to get a hold of in the stores i shop it sells out
so quick,

when i do get cravings i walk the dogs or go for a training session with them takes my mind off the chocies

so tonight armed with my different dries fuits etc will be trying it out

> Have u looked at those marrow bones !! Lol

Nah I'm a veggie, but the Healthy Paws Peanut & Oat Biscuits look tempting. lol

> well went and got some dried fruit and some nuts today and will have a go tonight and hopefully will help
> with the cravings,
>

They should help, at least you won't be sitting there watching the others tucking in. They can be quite calorific so perhaps work out how many you can afford to have, without feeling guilty, work out a measurement, say 150g. And eat slowly and taste each one. Just keep thinking about how hard you must have worked to loose all that weight in the first place. Chocolate is not worth it, a minute on the lips - a lifetime on the hips.

If all else fails like you said, go out for a walk.

Enjoy your healthy snack tonight, judgedredd.

Well done on losing 8 stone.... I find that when I have a craving by time I try this, that and the other, I may just have had the bit of chocolate.  I know this may sound girlie, but with the sitting round watching TV, I actually find giving myself a manicure helps...

The getting up and doing something is the best option by far!

> I actually find giving myself a manicure helps...

Killing 2 birds with 1 stone there, You're can not put newly painted nails in your mouth now can you, nice one.

Although, you would go throught an awful lot of nail varnish though. LOL

had no cravings tucked into just a small handfull of the dried fruit and it went great was really shocked how well it worked

Well done you, stay off the choccie girl, it's not worth the cals.

Cinnamon is very good for a sweet tooth, I have it in a small bowl of porridge or spinkle it into a bag of dried fruit....my partner is a personal trainer and he always advises his clients to brush their teeth after their evening meal or when they are feeling peckish....as you know most things taste yucky afterwards, I do this and have a bottle of water afterwards...by the time the 'minty freshness' has gone I no longer feel hungry, it works for me.

That is really good news - and well done on losing 8 stones - I so wish I could but ..

I often find that with stuff like chocolate you are better just to give in and have a little bit - I usually try having something else then end up eating the chocolate anyway, so I've eaten more than if i'd just had the chocolate in the first place. Freezing it is good though because it takes much longer to eat then.

Late to the game but what about marshmallows- fat free!

Got to dip em in that chocolate jeff. Naughty but nice.

Jeff, are all marshmallows fat free or do you get special fat free ones?

Pretty much all marshmallows are fat free...but still pretty high in calories, unfortunately.

I like a little bit of peanut butter (with jam is even better) or chocolate spread, spread thinly on a corn cracker (like a rice cake).  Satisfies the urge for something sweet without being too calorific.

Popcorn made off the stove with nothing added- thats pretty good.

I think its okay to have maybe a bar once a week and no more- You can still be on ur diet n lose weight and should still be able to enjoy your food/snacks...

> Popcorn made off the stove with nothing added- thats pretty good.

Watch for that poppin......
Don't forget to cover the pan, dollface. lol

Talking to someone at the weekend, she's lost 18lb- gave up bread (made her bloated) and substituted with rice cakes. You can get them in all sorts of flavours now.

I got a packet  ...............well the dogs enjoyed them.

> and substituted with rice cakes.

Even the birds wont touch em....

That's what I have to do - I honestly don't like any healthy food like salad, pasta, humus, soups, cereals etc. So I just have small portions of my normal food. I have lost over half a stone since end of July, so it is slowly creeping downwards....

>I often find that with stuff like chocolate you are better just to give in and have a little bit - I usually try having something else then end up eating the chocolate anyway, so I've eaten more than if i'd just had the chocolate in the first place. Freezing it is good though because it takes much longer to eat then.

> Talking to someone at the weekend, she's lost 18lb

flipping heck, thats a lot of weight, wonder how long that took to drop off.. But its true bread and carbs in general do this to us..As i look across my desk at my loaf of sourdough bread + rice cakes..

Roll on AquaFit!!! :-D

Really?  Are marshmallows fat free?  Oh something I like that I can eat and eat and not feel any form of remorse.