[BananaMontana]

I have a problem at night with my eating. All day I eat my meals, my pre-planned snacks and I'm good. But the minute it hits around 11 pm and onward, I eat. I snack on things. Unhealthy things. Popcorn, cheese its, chips, goldfish crackers (pretty much anything salty) and I drink soda like it's my job. It's a huge issue because I won't STOP eating until like 6 or 7 am. I will go through a bag of Smartfood and a bag of goldfish no problem. Hey, might even eat a small pizza! I just eat like crazy. Actually, I think the only reason I don't eat during the day is because I spend the day sleeping since I didn't the night before.

Normally I can curb this by trying to keep a normal sleep schedule, but Mr. Hubs is off on some field training exercise starting today so I can't sleep. I'm munching on carrots and drinking water for the time being, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to bust into the buffalo wings we have leftover from the super bowl soon. I mean, I'll have celery with them so that's sort of like eating healthy.

Except that it's not.

Does anyone else do this? This late night eating is the main reason (I think) that I gained all of this weight and it's pretty much what's keeping me from losing any. It's stressing me out and now I want a cheeseburger

[JudgeDread]

My mom does a lot of that. She claims it's from an upset stomach (she has a lot of problems) and I think boredum as she can't sleep very much due to her RLS.

Well it sounds like you will have to ramp up the will power. I suggest limiting yourself to one or two small snacks. MEASURE them into a bowl so you do not overeat out of the bag. As soon as you are done brush your teeth..because EVERYTHING tastes like **** after you brush! lol

Also it may help to find another thing to do to keep you distracted. If you are watching tv, keep your hands busy. Fold clothes, write, knit, puzzles, stack cards..anything to keep you occupied enough to not think about food.

Drink lots of water and/or tea.

Start weening yourself off pop, switch to diet, or just replace it with water..or flavored water.

[rachaelm]

I know this really isn't going to help, but I go to bed. Really. I'm sitting on the couch, thinking about what I can go eat. *sigh* Not because I'm hungry, but because it's there. It's just easier for me to go to bed.

[BananaMontana]

Originally Posted by JudgeDread

My mom does a lot of that. She claims it's from an upset stomach (she has a lot of problems) and I think boredum as she can't sleep very much due to her RLS.

Well it sounds like you will have to ramp up the will power. I suggest limiting yourself to one or two small snacks. MEASURE them into a bowl so you do not overeat out of the bag. As soon as you are done brush your teeth..because EVERYTHING tastes like **** after you brush! lol

Also it may help to find another thing to do to keep you distracted. If you are watching tv, keep your hands busy. Fold clothes, write, knit, puzzles, stack cards..anything to keep you occupied enough to not think about food.

Drink lots of water and/or tea.

Start weening yourself off pop, switch to diet, or just replace it with water..or flavored water.

It's mostly the will power! I have everything pre-arranged in portion size baggies, but I eat like 6 at a time. It's my own doing. I should get back into knitting though. It's pretty impossible to eat while you knit

I need to drink water instead of soda. I like the crystal light flavored things so I try to drink those instead of soda, but again with the will power.

The brushing my teeth thing will help though. Last night I popped a few altoids so I wouldn't have to walk upstairs to brush, but it had the same basic effect

Originally Posted by rachaelm

I know this really isn't going to help, but I go to bed. Really. I'm sitting on the couch, thinking about what I can go eat. *sigh* Not because I'm hungry, but because it's there. It's just easier for me to go to bed.

I know I should just go to bed. I laid in bed for a couple of hours last night before giving up. It's easier to do that when the hubs is home. When he's not I feel restless.

[JudgeDread]

That's good with the altoids. You can also maybe keep some sugar free hard candy to keep in your mouth to keep it busy. That should help too. Just make sure you are focused and once you start doing well it will be contageous to keep it going!

[BananaMontana]

Originally Posted by JudgeDread

That's good with the altoids. You can also maybe keep some sugar free hard candy to keep in your mouth to keep it busy. That should help too. Just make sure you are focused and once you start doing well it will be contageous to keep it going!

I hope so! Last time I started doing well I decided to reward myself with not dieting for 6 months and gained 30 more pounds The tough part is that I still have a lot of days where I feel like I look damn good and then I stop seeing the point in dieting. Like, most days I feel frumpy and unhealthy. But once every couple of weeks I just think I look fabulous and then any dieting I had done gets unraveled. I'm a hot mess

I have to run to the store today to get some bread and skim milk (my husband bought whole milk before he left...I might puke on him when he gets back. I hate whole milk!) I might stop by Hobby Lobby and get some crafts or something while I'm out. I do so love Hobby Lobby!

[JudgeDread]

Originally Posted by BananaMontana

I hope so! Last time I started doing well I decided to reward myself with not dieting for 6 months and gained 30 more pounds The tough part is that I still have a lot of days where I feel like I look damn good and then I stop seeing the point in dieting.

I hear ya, I was in a similar mindset after I was in really good shape. I started slacking a lot and it all added up into 15 lbs over 2 years. I didn't completely fall off the wagon..but enough to screw myself over.

[rachaelm]

Originally Posted by BananaMontana

I know I should just go to bed. I laid in bed for a couple of hours last night before giving up. It's easier to do that when the hubs is home. When he's not I feel restless.

Oh do I know. 'Secret' eating is a big problem for me. Something about no one being able to see me eat, gives me permission to chow down. Even if it's just hubby going to take a shower, I've finally realized the correlation, I mean, I caught myself walking to the kitchen when I heard the water come on. It is hard. But I've told myself I'm not doing this for anyone else. And it's not secret eating when I know about it.

[thistoo]

Originally Posted by BananaMontana

I hope so! Last time I started doing well I decided to reward myself with not dieting for 6 months and gained 30 more pounds

This is a pretty good illustration of the fact that looking at your way of eating as a punishment or temporary situation is most likely not going to be successful long-term. In order to effectively lose weight and keep it off permanently, we really have to be looking at whatever plan we choose as a lifestyle change, not a temporary situation.

If you can't live without ever having chocolate again, you work it into your plan. If you need cheesecake to live, you have to plan it into your calorie allotment or whatever. There are ways to do it and still enjoy life, but until you commit 100% you're not going to quit the night time bingeing. (Though adding some high intensity cardio/weight training would help tire you out enough that you're not up all night.)

That probably sounds harsh, but I say that as someone who got down to a normal weight and started thinking of myself as 'normal' for the first time. I wasn't self-conscious about eating in front of other people for the first time, and I enjoyed it so much that I gained back nearly 70 pounds. So when I say that you have to make it a lifestyle choice, I'm speaking from experience. This time around I know that in order to get the weight back off and *keep* it off, I'm going to have to eat this way forever. The trick is finding a plan you can live with long-term.

[linJber]

I know this harder when you are worried about someone who isn't home. However, being home alone should make it easier in some ways. No one else to cook for. No one else bringing the wrong foods into the house.

Try freezing left over food in portion sizes right away. You really have to think about it if you have to defrost it.

I give my biggest vote to knitting. I'm a knitter. It is a pain to stop just to get a snack you plan to eat out of boredom If you don't have a project to do, knit kid's hats and mittens and donate them. There are sites with info if you don't have a local group that takes them. One person I know saves them up and then takes a bag full to one of the grade schools in town in a lower income area. She gives them to the principal who then gives them to kids who can use them.

One last bit of advice. Try thinking of the newer, smaller version of yourself as the reward. Going off your healthy eating plan should be the negative, not the positive aspect of this. Hard at first, but easier as you go. Good luck.

Lin

[thistoo]

If it's kosher, I will plug my favorite knitting charity right quick:

Friends of Pine Ridge

The website is pretty low-rent, but I promise it's legit. They are the poorest reservation in the country and could use all the help they can get.

[98DaysOfSummer]

There are some things I don't keep in the house. If goldfish and soda and popcorn are issues for you, don't buy those things. I have proven to myself over and over again that there are some things I can not eat in reasonable amounts. No one in my family is going to die for lack of Doritos and they're not exactly health food anyway - so I don't buy chips of any kind.

Clearly I've got other issues going on, but I've finally beat late night eating by just removing it as an option. There is no choice to make, there's nothing around here I'd want to snack on.

[BananaMontana]

Thanks everyone for the wonderful advice and support! I know I need to start looking at it as a lifestyle change, but I'm having a hard time with that. For now I'm going to focus on small goals, I suppose and with any luck eating healthier will become second nature. I'll start by removing junk from the house. I will save the indulgences for special occassions (or I'll try to, at least). I need to work on exercise too. I wish I could have an elliptical in the house so I didn't have to work out in front of people. I feel so weird when strangers can see me sweat.

I'm not going to let myself sleep during the day today so hopefully I will be exhausted by tonight. I'm thinking maybe letting the puppies sleep in bed with me will help with the whole missing my husband thing so that should be good. It will help with late night eating for now anyway. If I feel like I absolutely must snack between meals during the day today, I'll eat a few almonds. They always make me want to gag so I won't overdo it

[Munchy]

If I'm feeling snacky, I literally have to stay out of the kitchen. I grab my water, my book, and lay in my bed reading until I fall asleep.

[carter]

I have trouble with late night snacking too. Here are some of the things that help me:

* The sorts of snacks that I eat when I am having these late-night snack attacks - don't keep them in the house. If they have to be in the house, have my partner hide them from me.

* Don't go into the kitchen late at night. I try to discipline myself to do the kitchen chores right after dinner, because if I save them for before I go to bed, as is my habit, then I am more likely to snack as I do the kitchen chores.

* Use my will power and discipline to not even start on the snacks. As a general rule about myself and temptation, I find it MUCH easier to eat none of something than to eat a small amount of it and stop. So before I dip into the nuts, berries, salty snacks, cheese, rice, whatever it is that is singing my name, I try to take a deep breath and just not even start. If the voice in my head says "just one piece," I try to let the rational mind chime in with the reminder that it's very hard for me to stop at one. I have the control to not even start - I just to have to exercise that control.

For better or worse - I don't know if you will find this comforting or not - I still struggle with this, 2.5 years and more than 115 pounds into my weight loss process. Just last night, I violated both the second and the third paragraphs of the above, and ate a few hundred calories more than I needed to for the day. Just keep at it. Keep trying new tactics, don't be afraid to switch them up if you find yourself working around your own tactics after a while.