I was so proud to be under 250 but had a horrible week and I'm back in the 250s again. I find I can do great during the day but I'm weak at night. Even if I know I'm making excuses to eat junk, I can't seem to stop my hands from shoving food in my mouth! I was wondering how you all deal with those weak moments. What tricks have worked for you?
Be strong! I am always tempted to eat at night. I chew gum, read a book, go on a walk, basically get anywhere food isn't there! Or i write in my journal, about why im upset. Or I talk to my mom, tell he im being so tempted right now, and usually sharing the fact that i am so close to breaking, gives me the strength to prove to myself and the other person that I can push through it!! If I have to I just drink a glass of water, an go to bed! Yes I'll be running to the bathroom all night, but id rather be mad at myself for having to pee all night rather than be mad at myself for eating junk!
But sometimes you give into those weak moments. I've learned, you need to just forgive yourself, and move on. I know people always say that, but it really is that simple. I know it's tough. You can do this!
Thanks for the advice and encouragement! I put a list of things on my fridge like think before you eat, drink, write it down, and most importantly no food in the bedroom. I'm restarting my food journal today too. Maybe I'll try painting my nails to get my hands busy. I need a sign that says "no food beyond this point" since I snack like mad in bed lol
My weakness is night eating too! I paint my nails when I get the urge to go eat. It hard to eat when you have wet nail polish on! It works like a charm! And yeah no food in the bedroom is one of my rules too. That and I have to put everything I eat on a plate, close the container, put the container away, and then bring the food into the dinning room. I can never tell how much I eat if I don't put it on a plate and I am SO bad with eating in my bedroom. I've got to break the habit.
Its embarrassing to admit I can't remember the last time I didn't snack when I crawled into bed. Partly started since most nights I'm working late so its easier to eat then sleep. Its such a hard habit to break (hopefully I'll start breaking it tonight). Thanks for sharing Rose because I was worried I was the only one.
There should only be two things that you do in your bedroom; sleep and have sex.
Getting a good nights rest and getting quality sexy-time are both really important to your overall health and weight loss efforts, so you should be setting up good habits and getting into a routine (more importantly with the sleeping than the sex... haha)
Eating in bed, even if the food is within your plan, is not a good idea for several reasons. It helps to establish a pattern of eating in bed which is only going to make it more difficult for you not to, it can interfere with your sleep if you are sensitive to eating before bed, and it's GROSS! LOL I hate to sound like a jerk, but ewww... I am just imagining little critters going after wayward crumbs that have found their way between your sheets.
------------------------------
Anyhoo...
It is hard to get back on plan for a lot of people, myself included. Usually if I just stick it out and make it through one day completely on plan the rest of it falls into place each day after that. Every day I stick to the plan it gets easier, and each day that I continue not to it gets harder.
Everyone has given great tips on things to do to pass the time and distract yourself, and I have another one I stumbled on today; scrapbooking! I was working on putting together my first scrapbook of my wedding photos, and I passed two hours without even thinking about it. When I realized it was time to eat I was almost annoyed to have to stop working. If I wasn't running behind on my meals for the day and risking undereating I probably wouldn't have stopped when I did.
If you need something less stimulating to get you over the hump prior to bed you can try some relaxing activities. Try stretching, yoga, drinking a cup of tea, taking a bath (although it actually makes it harder to fall asleep when your core temperature is raised, so it's recommended you bathe a couple of hours prior to sleeping) write in your journal, have sex (with or without a partner... it's all good!)
The most important thing is just to make up your mind to do it, and do it. You may be fighting it the whole time, kicking the door, biting your nails and in tears out of sheer frustration... but I promise you that if you make it through the night you will feel amazing in the morning.
It's not ideal but what about changing your dinner and desert around. Eat your desert/snack at dinner time. Eat dinner 2 hrs before bed. Then at bed time drink water. After that becomes the routine add more food to snack and less to dinner until you have things back in there time spot. Then you can work on moving your last food further away from bed time.
I drink my night time tea on the porch so that it's too far to get "something" to go with it. YMMV.
I worried I was the only one too! I'm been doing it nearly every night for so many months now! I've been under a lot of stress lately so I think that's what's mostly causing it. School, work, and family has all been getting to me. Especially this past month. But I shall break my habit of coping with emotion by eating or any other thing that hurts me. I shall start tonight. Best of luck to you okay? <3 Trust me if I can do it YOU can do it. :-)
JossFit's post made me laugh but its so true! Its so gross waking up going "oh nasty so many crumbs!" Lol now I think about it I never ate in bed before when I was getting more sex (with or without someone) I'll have to get my guy over every night lol doubt he'd argue.
I'm so grateful for all the support. I've got confidence now with work I can kick this habit in the butt. Definitely going to work on a meal plan for nights I work late too
lol...the crumbs in bed are bad, but I have to stop and think about your teeth, do you get out of bed to brush after your food fest? (Bed time brushing is the most important!!)
I've lost a lot of weight and have kept it off for over 3 years now and I'll be honest, I've had more than my fair share of bad days/weekends. The main reason I was able to lose it, and have now kept it off is because I forced myself to not let a little bad judgement derail me for very long. I have let a bad day rollover to a couple bad days, but I never give up and I always get right back on the wagon no matter how hard it is. I just white knuckle through the cravings and start again. It can suck, and it's hard after a sugar bender to get back in the groove, but I have given myself no other choice. I hated being fat, (super morbidly obese) and I will not and cannot go back to eating whatever I want whenever I want it just because it's fun, or feels good or tastes good or whatever pathetic excuse I used to tell myself. Eating crap just for the h#ll of it is no longer an option. (for me)
If you find eating at night is hard to break, do what I did/do and save most of your food to eat at night. The no food after 7pm is an old diet myth. I eat the majority of my calories between 7-10pm and have lost 190 pounds (and have kept it off) in doing so!
Thanks Lori! I usually do save my calories for night because I'm not hungry during the day for some reason I've always been like that. You give me hope I can do it seeing you've lost 190! I have to learn to not let a bad choice turn into a landslide of them.
If night time snacking is your biggest issue, I would say not to keep a lot of extra food in the house. A lot of stores probably close before bedtime, which would make it harder to get your fix. I generally go grocery shopping almost every day for my protein, buy veggies and fruits once or twice a week and tell myself that if I want junk, I need to bike to the farthest reasonable location to get it (I have no car, and luckily the closest grocery store closes at 8 pm, while one about 5 miles away stays open until midnight).
With that system, I have my fruits and veggies to munch on if I REALLY need something, don't really have a lot of unhealthy options to munch on, and if I want junk food, I'll probably work off more calories than I'll actually consume going to get it. True, this means that I have to have the self-control to bike past all of the closer 24 hour convenience stores where there's nothing BUT junk, but I usually try to decide which junk food I want before I leave so that I fixate on it while I'm biking to block out the other temptations.
...also, if I put my pajamas on early, I find I'm much less willing to put normal clothes back on and want to go out for junk. I'll bike in the dark in my pjs, but don't especially want to go into stores in them.
Here are somethings I have done to curb the night time snacking:
-Brush your teeth right after dinner and don't eat after that
- Find something to do with your hands like a craft or something
-Don't have snacks around the house
-Go for a walk or exercise
-Chew sugar free gum instead
How do you survive a bad week?
