When is your most challenging time of day?
 

It has suddenly dawned on me that if I could just hold it together from 8pm-10pm every night, I would probably have reached goal a long time ago. It seems like every night, I struggle so much at this time. So, I end up eating a little more of this and a little more of that. Some days, I white knuckle it and just avoid munching....it is often still within my calorie range, but still, it's tough.

Then, there are the nights when I'm super frustrated and I binge so that's where my calories go off track. Over the last few weeks, I've been going up and down by a few lbs.

Tonight, I have decide that I need to suck it up and just get it together. I have got to beat this thing and if I can just do it from 8-10, I should be good.

So...what about you...do you have a specific time of day that you struggle with the most? Or, is it just me? ;)

hmm.. when I get home from work... or right after i eat dinner..

when i get home from work im usually hungry and if dinner isn't ready.. oh boy i find something to hold me over..

and AFTER i eat dinner.. i go into the kitchen and take bites of the food left on the stove...omg so bad.. then i look for something sweet ._.

My most challenging time is when I am studying in college because there I encounter a lot of excitement in life....Challenge about taking an exam by which if you cant study your lesson you need to remember all the topics that you had taken during your class session.....Then after the exam if I got low score the next time I concentrate study my lesson at night before I sleep and go to bed....That was my challenging time.....

my hardest time is at night also, evenings, after everyone is settled down for the night, the kids are settled, and my housework is done for the night...then i want to relax and munch on something...lately i've gotten better at it though...i have a couple of low carb snacks that i can use, like a sweet protein smoothie, that will fill my need for something sweet and cold...also i find that if i space my eating apart by several hours, like i'm supposed to for my blood sugar levels anyhow, then i won't nibble the evening away...for instance, i'll eat dinner around 6ish and tell myself that in 2-3 hours i can have one more thing before bed, then i won't have that urge to nibble dinner leftovers, or what the kids didn't eat, or what's sitting in the fridge as i clean the kitchen...and in 2-3 hours, i will make a little protein snack, usually something sweet and cold, and then i am fine until bedtime....also i find that by adding up my carbs in my food notebook and flipping the page to tomorrow, for some reason stops the munching as well...very few times have i nibbled after i turn the page to tomorrow and those times was to give in to a SUPER CRAVE that i probably had been wanting all day anyhow lol

oddly enough, for me its about 1 am.. i take the night shift with my baby and after she gets her feeding mama kinda wants a feeding to.. i have been trying to just go to sleep around 11 so that i have to wake up to feed her and then im too sleepy wanna do anything but change and feed her :)

Ugh, after midnight when my DF gets home from work. I stay up to spend some time with him after he gets home and that's when he eats dinner. It's hard to watch him eat and not eat something.

I would say between 11am and 4pm..Im used to eating breaky late and eating lots and lots of carb cereals..and then at 4pm when i used to eat my good snacks..aka..chips.. But now that im almost carbless and on a fixed eating plan i find myself craving these simple things that sometimes drive me up the wazzoo during the day and it makes me irritated at times too

My biggest challenge is snacking from 3 pm to 9 pm. No matter if I eat a good breakfast and healthy lunch, make healthy snack choices in between, etc., I still want to eat between 3 and 9. So I stopped fighting it. That's when I eat. I make really healthy choices, limit calories, and skip eating the rest of the day. It works out great. I'm naturally not hungry in the mornings, don't feel the need to eat late at night, so eating all my calories during my window of time works out fine. And I'm losing weight.

This is a good idea for a thread. Mine is 6pm to 10pm.

Probably either just before dinner or after dinner. Snacking around the evening is my downfall!

Evening snacking seems to be a common theme. That's definitely my trouble spot! I can do great all morning and through lunch, but the evening snacking gets me every time. I can easily eat 1,000 extra calories after dinner, and so far I haven't found a way to get through it. Maybe I should do as some of you have and just white knuckle it.

Thursday nights. I used to jokingly call it "Binge Eating Thursday" in December because I'd lose the plot and inhale tons of food on Thursdays. My pattern is low calorie (under 1500) M-Th, with higher calorie allowances (usually total free for alls) Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

It is Thursday night now and I am sitting here fighting with myself over whether to eat a fiber bar. I'm right about where I want to be calories-wise but I'm pretty darn hungry and too weak/tired to exercise...

Um, yeah, we have about the exact same problem. I'll do GREAT until DH comes home from work (so about the same time as you) and then he eats like crazy and then I normally eat to. I NEED to learn not to eat just because he is eating. This is really by far my biggest struggle. Add to it that he HATES veggies so he normally ends up eating a lot of crap.

I guess I'm a morning person and my metabolism is geared to rev up during the day. I am RARELY hungry after 7 pm - even if I stay up until 1 am. We eat our biggest meal of the day around 6:30 pm and that meal is usuall around 600 calories. So, for me, it's keeping the hungries in check all during the day so that I can enjoy my big dinner. In my ideal world, we would eat our biggest meal around 1 pm and eat something light at 6:30 pm, but American lifestyle doesn't really allow for that and our dinnertimes together as a family are really important as it's the only time during the day we are all sitting together and 'bonding' together.

The way I've tried to counter that is to really eat a nice, filling breakfast that holds me for quite awhile (no carbs/low carb - lots of protein and fats). Then I eat a smallish lunch and then my big dinner and nothing else even tempts me the rest of the day.

Even my thirst - thirsty until about 7 pm and then that tapers off too. Kind of strange!

My husband is opposite he eats a normal sized breakfast, hardly anything for lunch, a HUGE dinner and then a sizeable snack around 10 pm. He's a night owl and is raring to go and do things come 10 pm - about the time I'm crashing. (By the way, he's thin).

Night time is my worse time as well. This go-round of trying to make permanent changes instead of temporary ones, I'm trying to go with the flow. I've always been a late night eater and have never had success at curbing it for long. So now I'm having a 10pm snack on purpose. I'm saving enough calories and usually have a greek yogurt and a vitatop, or two vitatops. If I want something more crunchy, I toast the vitatop. If I want sweet, I microwave one of the chocolate ones.

I think that's the smart way of doing it.

My husband has not changed when he is eating. He's eating when his body tells him he needs food and he's dropped 15 pounds in the last 6 months. He's 3 pounds from goal. He swims a mile 3 days a week, watches his portions, but eats WELL, even drinks his glass of wine with dinner and eats his late night snack. It's what works for him.

I know lots of things say not to eat after x o'clock, but if that doesn't work for you, find something that does. There is no one prescription/plan we all fit into.

Afternoons and before dinnertime.

Afternoons are a little rough for me at work. I get snacky. Fortunately, there's no snack machine at work, so I'm mostly limited to what I've brought myself, usually fruit of raw veggies, so that's fine. But if there happens to be stuff in the kitchen (meeting leftovers, someone's birthday cake, vendor visits) that's when I'm most susceptible.

The other dangerous time is right before dinner. If I haven't had a snack, or my lunch was too small, I'm really hungry, and I'm usually tired from the day and thus more prone to bad decisions. I usually have to figure out and make whatever it is that we're going to eat, and unless I have a plan in place, I have some trouble with this and it makes me grumpy. This is a time when I've been known to start grazing and pack in way more calories than I intend.

Fridays are especially bad for this because: 1) my energy reserves are at their lowest, and 2) my planned meals are too, by that point in the week.

The late afternoon/evening EVERY day is my difficult time. I usually want a glass of red wine when I get home from work, and if I have it I end up eating too much before, during and after dinner. 3-8 PM is the timeframe in which I struggle. I am very good during the day. I usually exercise in the morning, then pack a cooler of healthy food for my breakfast, lunch and snack at work.

When I get home from work, all **** breaks loose-usually between 5 and 5:30. I start eating popcorn, pretzels, leftover pasta......I eat carb-heavy in the evenings and usually drink a glass or 2 of wine. If dinner is ready, and I eat as soon as I get home, this does not happen. Or, if I go somewhere right after work, and get through that time until about 7, I don't desire the wine or extra food. Unfortunately, most nights I have to go home right after work. I have an 11 yr old son, and I'm the cook of the family. Their snacks being in the house is what kills me.....I'm working on it :(

Between 2-5 is rough for me. I get really snacky at work. I try to eat dinner between 5:30-6:30, so around 5 my stomach starts talking to me! I find that a lot of my calories in the day come from snacks which is fine with me because I consider them to be pretty healthy (cheese sticks, almonds, sweet potatoes, brussel sprouts,...oh, and the occasional FiberOne bar...yum!!).

For me, it's late afternoon (between 3-6 usually). I don't know why, but everyday around that time before dinner I start just wanting to eat. Usually I'm not even hungry...I just have intense urges to eat SOMETHING. After I eat dinner I'm usually fine unless I stay up super late, but those few hours before dinner are ridiculous. That's when, if I let myself, I'll eat most of my calories. Maybe I'm not eating enough earlier on in the day? Who knows?

After 7pm is my worst time. Once the kids are in bed all I want to do is sit on the couch and watch TV. If I start snacking then it is a huge trigger to binge.

I find if I can come up with something else to do, like play piano or just occupy my hands while I watch TV it helps but I definitly have my days!

Definitely the late afternoon - 3-6. I eat breakfast at 9, lunch at 11:30 and dinner sometimes as late as 9. Lately I have been making sure I have a healthy snack before I leave work so I don't snack the entire time I am making dinner.

I am like you my worst time is nights. I can eat healthy all day and once it hits 8 I want some ice cream or junk to munch on.

Evenings are definitely the hardest for me. I normally structure my eating plan because I know of my tendency to want to eat more at night and the fact I like freedom, variety, and spontaneity.

Breakfast: 200 - 300 calories
Lunch: 300 - 400 calories

Dinner in order of ideal:
Option 1: 500 calorie or less meal
Option 2: 500 calorie or less meal with a 150 or less calorie snack
Option 3: 700 calorie or less "good choice" restaurant meal
Option 4: 700 calorie+ "splurge" night

Obviously Option 4 is not preferable and needs to be infrequent for lasting success. Some people plan for their splurge days, but I don't like to.

Ironically enough I'm not a big dessert person normally, but find that an evening sweet snack seems to satisfy my cravings the best. Examples: Skinny cow ice cream sandwiches, WW orange & ice cream treat, Kashi chocolate & oatmeal cookie, frozen fruit bar, etc. Sometimes just plain popcorn satisfies me. I try to have decent snakes on hand. If I don't I might end up snaking on something high calorie! :(

When I eat this way caloric intake in a day ranges from 1,000 to 1,800 and averages to around 1,300/ day. I believe it keeps my body adjusting to a consistent daily caloric intake and holding on to the pounds.

This wouldn't work for everyone but it works for me, my weaknesses, and preferences.

After work or after taking a nap (usually afternoon).

I think my roughest is after 8p. I try to have a decent snack. Not like I used to when I would have chips or ice cream.

That's a good idea I am going to start saving some calories so I can have a late snack. Ill try a yogurt with fruit so I'm not so tempted to go for the junk thx :)

Right after lunch, right after dinner (from about 630-8pm) and then after the kiddos are in bed (after 9). SO hard to resist!!!!

When is your most challenging time of day?
 

My most challenging time is when I go to the beach with my teacher and classmates and that was our beach party....I consider this as challenging time cause there I encountered lots of foods and desert...And I am so happy on that day cause there we had a roll playing about some story.