South Beach Diet - How do you manage the dreaded after work eating?

What are your strategies for fighting the dreaded after work munchies?

I just put my food choices into fitday to see how everything is going. I do it once in a while to see what's up. And I realized that if I ate what I planned to eat I'd be in good shape.

The problem is once I get home the mindless eating takes over and before I know it I've eaten way too much. I could easily eat an entire day's worth of calories (I know, SBD isn't about calories-it's good carbs yadda, yadda yadda. It works better for me to check my calories every once in a while.

I have to stay alert after I get home, and sometimes I'm just too tired to bother with staying alert...so it's time to bring out the :dust:

I know that somehow I've programmed my brain to equate TV watching with snacking. So I work on limiting my TV watching in the evenings. I only cook every other day, I make a huge batch of what ever and have it for several meals. If I don't go into the kitchen then I won't be tempted to eat.


Sarah in MD

I'm very new at this, and I'm sure others will have better tips, but I've found if I eat enough protein I don't have mid-afternoon munchies. Actually, I haven't been hungry at all this week. A couple of times I was working (at home) and had not turned on the TV all day, and when I did, I was shocked to find it was 6:30 or 7! I have been eating the afternoon snack (bean salad or string cheese or yogurt this week) and then I'm just not hungry!

I think what you said that it's a habit to equate TV watching with snacking is very true -- and I guess the only thing to do about that is to work on breaking the habit. I make constant To Do lists when I watch TV -- always have -- and I chew on pens now :)

Im on WW so its a bit different but I just pack something low point for ww (1c cucumbers and 1c carrots) and I munch on those during the car ride home. That way (I get home around 2 in the afternoon) it will tide me over till dinner. Also, when you eat a snack be sure to drink a big glass of ice water as it really does make you feel fuller!

Hi Sarah:sunny:

I plan to have some snack avaliable for me as I drive home. We eat our dinner early. For us it's 6pm and we eat then watch our dumb tv shows until 7. We're tv eaters (no kids) so in addition to our main course I have a huge salad with lots of cut vegies (cukes, zucchs, cauliflower, broccoli, radishes) and I munch on the vegies for awhile.

By doing this, my hunger level isn't nutso. I just don't get into all the snack stuff (which sometimes takes effort). I know that I can have my sf fudgesicle later so I have something to look forward to. I go to bed early, so I "cover" my evening.

There are occasionally nights for me that I really feel that old urge to crunch so I change my venue-go to my bedroom and read on my book or log in to my laptop and post here. Theres always a newcomer to say hi to or a word game to play. Changing my focus seems to help.

When I get home, I cook about 20 minutes after that, then we eat. Of course, my body is programmed to just want to keep eating and snacking. To break this habit, I tell myself that everynight at 9pm (I go to bed at 10pm) I can have a SF popsicle. So far... it's worked! Some nights it'll be 10pm and I have totally even forgotten the popsicle. (Other nights I eat 2, don't tell!) Since I have a goal to work towards, it helps keep me motivated to not snack :-)

How about making a big salad the night before and have it ready and waiting for you when you hit the door? Do you eat a dinner at night or just raid the fridge? Keep some hard boiled eggs in the fridge..fast to grab.

We eat dinner EARLY...like around 4 or at least by 5. I teach and my husband gets off at 1:45. For tv "snacking" which is my WORST time of day, I have been drinking a shake of green powder, yogurt, whey protein, ice and part of banana and some frozen blueberries or other kinds of fruit. It really kills my need to snack.

Another night time trick I have is to BRUSH MY TEETH and use a white strip and paint my fingernails...or touch them up. Can't eat with wet nails. I get bored really easily even watching tv. I think that women are just multitaskers by nature and have a hard time just relaxing like guys do. We have to be doing a couple of things at once and unfortunatly for a lot of us, it's eating!

I think that women are just multitaskers by nature and have a hard time just relaxing like guys do. We have to be doing a couple of things at once and unfortunatly for a lot of us, it's eating!

Good point!

I get bored really easily watching TV, even while I'm engrossed in the storyline of my favorite shows. Even suspenseful crime dramas! I've gotten hooked on playing Solitaire and Tetris on my phone. I'm not really a gamer, otherwise, but those games are fun and mindless, yet distracting enough that i don't think about snacking while I'm watching (slash listening!) tv. And my hands are busy!

I allow myself a snack in the evening- it's a planned snack that I usually have around 7:30/8:00 pm.

Maybe having one planned and healthy snack would help? My snack usually is no more than 200 calories :)

If I'm hungry when I get home, I drink a glass of skim milk or eat carrots with hummus (very filling) or sometimes I just eat supper early. I eat lots of veggies with my evening meal and a pretty large protein serving, so it's impossible to be hungry afterwards. I am usually just stuffed.

I work from home, so I'm always tempted with the kitchen so near to my office. The key is, like I've read already here in this thread, is to really plan. I make sure I have plenty of choices of snacks to munch on in between meals. For example, I just had a string cheese and a handful of grape tomatoes, enough to tide me over until dinner.

It's been a very stressful day (back to school registration chaos! :dizzy: ), so DH and I are going out to dinner to get away. I'll probably have another healthy snack before we go, so I'm sure to make good choices at the restaurant.

I don't do SB, I count calories, but I used to be a huge after work eater. I'd arrive home famished, snack on english muffins with butter, cheese, etc. and then have a full dinner.

I finally realized that if I have at least 900 calories between breakfast, lunch and snack, then when I arrive home I can putter around the house, calmly make dinner and not be a starving lunatic.

Counting carbs is great, but if you aren't getting enough calories in the early part of the day you are going to be famished when you get home. So, maybe count calories and carbs for a bit and see if it helps.

I do the bulk of my exercising after I get home from work. By the time I've invested the time and effort in THAT, the last thing I want to do is sabotage my own efforts. That's how I do it/avoid doing it. :)

This has always been my worst time of the day, the between work and dinner stretch. In the old days if often included bags of chips on the drive home (they were from the co-op so they must be healthy, right). It is still a problem for me and some days I don't do as well as I'd like.

Oddly enough this is the time of day the wrong breakfast choice makes a difference. Early in my SBD days if I ate grains for breakfast my afternoons would be off the rails. Now I can have good quality hot cereal but absolutely must have protein with it.

I do better if I get a protein rich snack in around 3:30 (I push it as close to leaving the office as possible). Fat free cottage cheese is filling and easy, also hummus & veggies.

Finally I do let myself snack when I really "need" to. If I don't it just gets worse and worse and I end up going overboard. When I was losing I would allow fresh veggies, low fat protein (veggie Canadian bacon always does the trick for me), or leftover veggies from the night before. This is one reason I do count calories though and I am very careful about the calories I eat in the afternoon. These days I generally have a free vegetable rule in the afternoon and often go for baby carrots, radishes, or similar things. I like crunch. I also include low cal fruits - berries, an apple or peach, or melon chunks. I avoid grains and high fat things like nuts because I'm just not as good at staying within portion sizes at this point. Oh, I've also gone for pickles and pepperoncini when home (I drink tons of water so don't worry about the sodium).

I've also experimented with either getting out for a walk as soon as I get home or starting dinner as soon as I get home. Normally I get home around 5:30 and we eat around 7 so I have a little down time in-between. Sometimes it helps, sometimes it doesn't.

I wish I was the type of person who could just distract myself or eliminate this time from my triggers but so far I've had no luck (and I've tried about everything suggested here). I do much better creating rules like the "vegetables only" rule than white-knuckling it. I've also tried the no food in the car for 21 days rule. It didn't stick the way I hoped and often made me worse when I arrived home where the choices were bigger. Some days this time seems immovable so I need to work with it to stop it from being a day buster.

Last night was a good experience. I had a snack before I left work. when I got home I went ahead and made dinner and ate right away. Then went up stairs to sew for awhile. I sew with a charity sewing group (http://mspquiltingangels.blogspot.com/)that makes quilts for kids and wounded soldiers. Our goal is to complete 100 for each group, we are about half way there now. We still need 40 childrens quilts and 60 soldier quilts.
Sarah

My hubby is not working right now so dinner is ready when I get home around 6pm. I have a 45-60 min commute each day and I make sure I have 16 ozs of water that I drink on the way home. This helps me not attack the snacks on the days he happens to find work and we have to make dinner when we get home at 6pm.

My biggest problem is after dinner. I have found however, that removing myself from the food area really helps. I don't do the dishes and put things away right away. Instead I go play with the dog for 10-15 minutes and then come back in and clean up/put away the dinner dishes and left overs. I figure it is giving me and the pup a good work out time and keeps my fingers out of the leftovers.

The few times we settle down to watch TV for the evening (we usually are reading something instead of TV) I make sure I have some kind of crafting project in my hands or lap at all times. Even if I'm not working on it, it is still there and seems to help me not want to munch. I crochet most of the time but sometimes I just have a magazine I want to clip recipes out of to put in my recipe book. I have also been known to brush the dog while I am watching TV. He is long haired and takes a lot of brushing to keep him looking good and not matted. So I guess my "craft projects" are really anything that keeps me busy.

I always have my SF fudgesicles at night to get my chocolate fix and then if I'm still hungry, I"ll have pistachios and a glass of skim milk. That always fills me up.

There are so many great posts on this thread by people who have made this WOE work! What I'm taking from it is the principle that Hunder causes Hunger. I've realized this week (my first on SB) that my constant snacking is because I did not eat enough protein and low sugar foods at meals. It's that simple.

Everyone seems to have a different pattern -- I have to have protein for breakfast AND a morning snack, and then I seem to be balanced for the whole day. The one day I ate cereal (All Bran Strawberry Medley) for breakfast, not only was I hungry within the hour but I WANTED carb foods the rest of the day. It was as though the breakfast pointed me down the carb aisle, when I'd been perfectly happy in the meet and vegetables aisle.

Personally, I find if I eat a high fiber breakfast-really high fiber 20 g or more like 2/3 C of all bran nuggets (13 g fiber per 1/3 cup) with a little fruit and 1/3 cup cheerios to help it go down. I'm good until lunch sometimes longer. If I eat cereal that is less substantial I'm hungry within an hour or so and want to eat all day long.

I think I need to up my protein around mid afternoon. I think that would help the cravings after work. I've been eating some fruit or yogurt. Maybe switch to hummas and veggies or a hard boiled egg.

Something to think about.
Sarah in MD

The first thing I'd tell you is not to beat yourself up about this - we all have trouble zones with regard to our eating habits that we have to figure our way through as we try to eat healthier. For me, getting healthier has been as much (or more) about how I eat (how many times, during what activities, etc) as it's been about what I eat (healthier foods).

My biggest diet-related trouble zone was the same one you have - eating after work. I tried a bunch of different strategies with varying success, which is something I'd suggest. I really believe that it's all about finding the way of eating that works with you, your temperament, and your lifestyle.

The strategy that worked best for me was to eat my afternoon snack late in the day, ten or fifteen minutes before I leave work. Then when I get home, I'm not hungry, and I'm less inclined to mindlessly snack before dinner. I also always allow myself dessert (a pudding cup, usually) - but I tend to eat it an hour or two after dinner. I tell myself I'm allowed to have it if I really want it later, and sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. I hate feeling deprived, so focusing on what and when I can eat, rather than all the things I can't, has worked for me.

Another strategy I tried was to eat only when sitting at the kitchen table when at home. This helped because it made me conscious of what I was eating, and also really made me think about whether I really wanted the food or whether I just kinda-sorta wanted it as an accompaniment to something else (in which case, most of the time I would turn it down). It worked pretty well, too - right now the only thing I tend to eat away from the table is my dessert in the evenings.

Good luck!

I cant do it...I tend to eat 2 bowls of cereal and eat fruit and sometimes more...I thought I was the only one who did that! lol...funny...Im going to try and eat a fiber one bar because they make me feel full if I drink a pint of water afterward.

Well, I'm beginning to get some control on weeknight eating but over the weekend I've realized that I'm a basket case at home in general. If I'm home, I want to eat.

I know it's a matter of staying busy, away from the kitchen and not thinking about food. Just another problem eating situation to overcome in this journey.

Sarah in MD

One thing I like about SB is I'm not thinking about food constantly. This sometimes seems surreal to me. I contribute it to using all of the healthy fat servings (olive oil, almond butter, salad dressing), eating a ton of veggies (sometimes I steam and eat a half a head of cauliflower) and pretty large protein servings (6 oz of turkey, sirloin or chicken). This way I'm not hungry for hours. In fact, sometimes I'm very full and couldn't possibly eat more. Could you try to increase your servings of veggies and get all your dairy, fats and protein in?