So I eat a great breakfast, decent lunch, occosially a tidbit of something I shouldn't, usually a good dinner. No matter how full I am I then loose control and will eat anything late at night. to the point that I actually stop and think about it and realize that it is not the right thing for my body and I still do it, even while I am having the thoughts. Any advice.???
1. Consider the kitchen "closed" past a certain hour, don't go in.
2. Brush your teeth, who can eat with that minty taste?
3. Stay busy. Keep your hands busy - knit, write letters.
4. Find support - friends, forums.
5. Confound the craving - if you want something sweet, eat a pickle.
6. Make sure the house is completely junk proof, put tasty/bingey foods out of reach/out of sight/hard to get to/hard to open
Glory's tips are great! Some more I'll add to the mix:
1) budget accordingly for the rest of the day so you have room to nosh late-night
2) pick very calorie-light (or -free) foods that you can eat a lot of w/o a major dent in your intake: most veggies, air-popped popcorn, and of course, water!
3) do a light, brief workout -- all that time spent eating, reprogram yourself to think of it as an opportunity for late-night calorie-burning rather than calorie-consuming! A walk around the block, some indoor weight-lifting, or even a few stretches are great options!
4) make and sip hot tea (unsweetened, of course)! it'll keep your mouth occupied for a quite a while. And if you're caffeine sensitive, go for the herbal stuff.
5) if you work, keep all your junky, unhealthy foods at your workplace (if space allows for it) -- that way it'll totally be out of sight during your late night cravings. Of course, you'll have to watch out for mindless noshing @ work now.
Yeah, food as relaxation. Hard thing to stop. I agree with the other posters' ideas. Get all the "bad" food out of the house, and instead have plenty of "good" snacks on hand so if you just "have" to have something, it will at least be healthy. Baby carrots are a great snack, for example. Sweet, don't contain many calories, crunchy, and provide vitamins! Also, some fruits are good that way. Just make sure you have planned in your calories so you have some room for it.
And don't eat right before bed. That usually isn't a good thing--can cause heartburn, insomnia.
For me to break the habit of eating in the evenings I had to quit cold turkey and eat NOTHING after 7:00PM. Somehow for me it was easier knowing that I could eat NOTHING than it was to try to find SOMETHING!
Now I look at my Fitday report for the day if I am hungry. If I am at my limit for that day then I know I can have a nice cup of tea and THAT'S IT. If I still have a couple hundred calories to play around with, I have a bowl of cereal or some fruit.
My family (two sons and my husband) are all thin and athletic. They NEED lots of calories a day. (The lucky schmucks!!!) They have snack food around and good food around and ALL KINDS of stuff around! It has never been an option for me to "take all the snack stuff out of the house", so I have had to learn to live with all of it. They eat often and they eat A LOT! It's tough, but I finally realized that I was NOT an athlete, I was NOT a muscular male who requires 2600 calories a day just to maintain weight, AND I wasn't 6'4" either!!!! I could not go one-for-one with all of them like I once was doing! What was I thinking?!!!!
2. Brush your teeth, who can eat with that minty taste?
Get some floride rinse. After using it you can't eat for a half hour (and even after that there's still sometimes mint taste). And it's good for your teeth.
Eating Late at Night
