Diet shakes? Bad idea to get started?
 

I am thinking of replacing my evening meal with a diet shake. I would eat a healthy breakfast a mid morning snack a little larger but healthy lunch and then an afternoon snack then having a diet shake, such as slim fast, for dinner along with a salad or raw veggies. Because the majority of my eating is always done at night and I binge. So was wondering if anyone thinks this is just a horrible idea or if anyone with binging habbits has had success replacing that evening meal and making it the lightest meal. Reading other posts everyone had wonderful suggestions about little snacks to help curb the binging in the evening so I am going to try some of those this week.

IMO a not a bad idea, but I wouldn't go with a diet shake - hear me out.

Rather than a "slim fast" with raw veggies, why not create yourself a green smoothie with 6-10 servings of vegetables, a serving of healthy flaxseed oil, and a scoop of protein powder (30g protein).

That way, you can have your shake but instead of a junky diet shake, have an enourmous amount of vitamins, healthy fats, and protein.

I've drank this one myself and LOVE it. But I add protein powder to make it a meal.

http://www.bodyrock.tv/2011/03/28/green-smoothie/

If you binge at night I'd think you are not eating enough during the day. Have you figured how many calories you have eaten by dinnertime? I found when that number was below 800-1000 calories I'd binge.

Nothing wrong with doing the diet shake but how will it stop you from binging? I think trying to figure out why you are binging is your best benefit. If it's not from eating too little (I started eating more during the day to stop binging at night) then I'd see if it's boredom or something else.

I have always been a big night time eater. For me personally, drinking a shake instead of eating a meal would only make it worse. I try to work my calories so that I can have a decent sized dinner and an evening snack. I guess we all have to experiment and see what works for us.

When I binge at night it isn't from hunger usually, it is I think mostly from stress and needing to unwind from the day. I can be fine, but as soon as I put the first bite in my mouth its usually over from there. I am changing around my nightly activies to see if this helps. Boredom and stress are definitely too of the big problems I have.

The smoothie looks like a great idea so I will try that out and see how it goes. Sometimes I feel that if I just didn't have to go near the kitchen once I got home I would be fine, but I have to feed the kiddo and my husband feels bad eating without me. I am going to ask him to please go ahead and eat dinner without me since I work so late anyways, that way when I get home they will be ready to go for a walk or something with me, that way I just have a lighter meal or drink that won't undo what I did durring the day especially when I am not actually hungry. Thanks for the suggestions everyone :)

If you can you can also try going to bed a bit early if you are just tired- I've startd sleeping earlier and I can tell you it's helped me out a lot :)

I find that shakes don't really work for me personally because I enjoy the chewing action and the texture in my mouth and drinking something doesn't make me think I'm eating.

If you can get around that. The smoothies idea seems great!