Hmmm....for overcoming the urge to snack at night, I am more than happy to share what I've tried. I'm not sure I can call them recommendations though- LOL.
Personally, I struggle with the urge to snack at night. Often times it is because I actually feel hungry. If I feel hungry, I have a really hard time falling asleep. Currently what I have been doing is saving a lot of my calories for the evening. I have also been trying to wait to have dinner until after I finish all of my exercise. For me this has two benefits. First, I seem to exercise better on an empty stomach. Kind of along the lines of wait an hour after eating before swimming. Second, it pushes my dinner later and therefore I have less time in the evening to really blow it. I am just now realizing there is a third benefit- it makes dinner feel like a reward. Anyway, as part of my later eating, I make sure I have something I really like in the mix that fits in my calorie allotment. For example today, I had some mini peanut butter cups (Shhh! Don't tell the diet police!). It is not 100% but I do feel like this has helped me of late.
Another thing I will try if the urge will not go away is to take a fiber supplement capsule and have a small snack. A couple of nights ago instead of the capsule, I mixed a small amount of powdered (tasteless, grit-less) fiber supplement in to some chicken broth. That seemed to be successful. I do believe enough fiber is key to weight loss but I wouldn't want to overdue it. In the past, I have tried drinking water or eating a fruit or vegetable. You know, the standard advice given. Neither of those worked for me. My satiety is definitely tied to fat.
Along that line, when I was doing intermittent fasting, I would eat a tablespoon of cream and it helped me immensely. The type of fasting I was doing was supported. By that I mean, according to the book you were allowed to have certain things besides just water or other calorie free non-sweetened drinks.
The other out-of-the-box thing I do is put on my belt. My belt is actually very simple. It is a strip of elastic with a plastic buckle. Perhaps some day I will share the embarrassing story of how I came to own said belt. If the urge to snack is really strong and I know I have had enough to eat, I will wear my belt and drink a can of seltzer water. I don't really like the taste of the seltzer so that helps a bit. My primary theory is doing this will help my stomach clearly tell my brain we are done eating. I also feel like it acts as an external lap band. There was an actual 'device' marketed to work as an external lap band. To me, it looked like an overpriced belt. Often my belt is enough by itself. I will move it around to a couple of places. One place is the typical waist and the other is just under the rib cage.
So all this writing about stopping the urge to snack at night has made me hungry-UGH! I just put on my belt! I may have to open a can of seltzer soon.
Lastly, though it is worth considering if the urge to snack is related to stress. If so, it is helpful to try to find ways to reduce the stress.
Now to return to our usual programming:
625...
The weather was warm enough today so I rode my bike. It was very smoky though. The sky even turned orange. Then it seemed like it was clearing. However, it wasn't. The smoke was higher and the sun was lower.
This morning the scale tied my recent new low weight. Oh my gosh! I feel my hopes rising and I don't want that because they always seem to be dashed. UGH! I'll be holding my breath until official weigh-in day, Sunday. Sad thing is, I am sure just about everyone on their own weight loss journey knows exactly what I am talking about.
Pssssch!! I opened my can of seltzer- Cheers!
Exercise
Calorie Deficit