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The goods news is that you’ve realized there’s a problem. I know it sounds corny, but it’s true.
I think the next step for you would be two-fold: first, figure out what triggers these night-eating episodes. Is it a certain emotion? Being alone in the house? Being with company? Insomnia? Finding your triggers will make it easier for you to figure out a pattern.
Once you’ve figured out your triggers, try finding another, different habit to replace the eating with. If, for example, you eat a lot when you’re the only one in the house, see if you can convince a friend to take late-night calls on occasion and chat. If you eat because you just can’t fall asleep, try taking a warm bath.
Please note, I’m no expert! This is just stuff that’s worked for me, and maybe it will work for you!
I agree with Julie, eliminate the cause of the urge and you’re well on your way. But while you’re reflecting on that here’s a little trick I’ve used myself:
As an overeater myself, I often grab those unhealthy foods without out thinking it through. I give myself more time to make the healthy decision by putting those treats out of reach. By the time I find our kitchen stool and climb up to the top of the cupboard I often come to my senses. You can use this trick with healthy foods in the opposite way; put the healthy foods in the easiest places to reach. When I get the munchies, there is always a bowl of mini carrots waiting for me on the kitchen table.
I find it helpful to be sure I eat enough throughout the day to quiet the evening munchies. It is harder on the weekends, when I am home because I don’t have the “breaks’ built into my day that I have during the work week when I have my snacks. I have by no means perfected this eating pattern, but I am working on it.
I am also guilty of an episode of eating 17 servings of cookies. Now, if I simply must have cookies, I refuse to let myself eat them out of the box. I get a plate, I count them, and them I put the box away.
There are many foods that we eat out of packages, and therefore, eat them mindlessly. Taking the time to prepare your snack in some way makes it intentional eating rather than accidental eating. No more ‘how’d I eat all that?’
Oooh… the curse of the baker! My boyfriend’s mom is an awesome (and prolific) baker, so I can definitely sympathize.
Like Jenna said, you might want to take the cookies out of the tin / container and put them on a plate. Even if they’re low-carb doesn’t necessarily mean they’re low-cal!
Another thing you might try to do is find friends who like eating cookies! That way, you get the pleasure from baking, keep a few for yourself, and make lots of friends by giving the rest of the batch away to appreciative eaters. That’s what my boyfriend’s mom does, and that’s why there have been *so* many cookies at his place lately! It might be something to try…
A couple of strategies that have helped me, though I admit I am not always successful at sticking to them.
1. I simply forego baking anything or cooking anything that would yield multiple servings where I might get into trouble (like a big pan of lasagna) unless it’s for a potluck or something. Thinking I’ll eat one at a time, living by myself, just wasn’t working for me. When I cook, general it’s a single serving of something now.
2. To help me wean off eating at night—I made myself start eating something earlier in the morning, then had a cutoff point in the evening and if I felt miserable I often made myself just go to bed hungry (after drinking water or mint tea) and stay there. I’d wake up famished, but that was okay by me.
3. If TV is a trigger, you may have to cut down on or cut out TV viewing. Having the exercise classes in the evenings really helped with that. I arrive home after primetime has started. I don’t have a TiVo. This may not be an issue for you but I was conditioned to snack while watching TV. Now I’m over that but I still don’t choose to watch very much.
4. If you can, get in some exercise in the evenings after work that will help clear your head and get rid of that stress.
If you’re only ten pounds overweight, a little modification should help you ease your way down the scale. These were strategies I employed for the long haul of having over 80 pounds to lose. If you do want to still have a small sweet treat in the evenings, maybe you can rearrange your day’s calories to accommodate them. But it sounds like you have two of the issues I have—portion control and using food to ‘medicate’ your stress. (I still want to snack like crazy when I am stressed at work.) I had my favorite flavor of ice cream (Starbucks Mud Pie flavor, made by Edys) only once in the past 18 months. It doesn’t come in a container smaller than a quart, so I waited till I was meeting up with a bunch of people and took it along… and left the leftover portion at someone else’s house. My small bowl of it was as yummy as I remembered.
Thanks, those are really good ideas. Especially working out at night to relieve the stress of day and occupy prime snacking time. The only problem I’m having with that is, getting to sleep after being wound up at gym. I plan to try hot tea to bring myself down to get good night’s sleep.
Pros and cons of morning workout vs evening workout
Mornings - Pro
1) burns more fat if workout is done on empty stomach in morning
2) gets the daily workout out of the way
Mornings - Cons
1) leaves lots of idle time in evening for stress eating
2) not enough time before work to get as much done at gym
If anyone can think of add’l pros or cons, please let me know. I’d like to hear ‘em
Are you sure you are eating enough during the day. If you are depriving your body of the food it needs to keep going, then you may feel hungry. I learned many years ago to substitute healthy foods as snacks. I’m off the chips and cookies and onto raw veggies as snack foods.
Pros and Cons of morning workouts:
Biggest Pro -
By the time life gets in the way, the work out is already done!
Biggest Con -
Morning workouts vs middle of the night workouts. Since I live in California and work for a company on the east coast (they schedule meetings at ridiculous hours for us pacific time zone people) morning workouts would become middle of the night workouts. My gym isn’t open early enough for me to work out before work.
That leaves late afternoon - not quite evening, harder to manage than first thing in the morning, but doable.
I’ve found that the best time to work out is whenever you’ll actually do it. I’ve dabbled with morning workouts, only to find that I really like sleeping in. My friends and I—all of us in our mid-to-late 20s and childless—tend to go out until moderately late, and leaving at 9:30 so I could get up at 6 is just not gonna happen. For me, the biggest con with morning workouts is that I always find excuses not to wake up.
If you can do it, I can see it being very beneficial, for the reasons you and Paula pointed out. But you’ve gotta be able to wake up! *grin*
Thanks, those are really good ideas. Especially working out at night to relieve the stress of day and occupy prime snacking time. The only problem I’m having with that is, getting to sleep after being wound up at gym. I plan to try hot tea to bring myself down to get good night’s sleep.
I have honestly never found this to be a problem, though I worried about it initially. My Jazzercise classes are at 7pm Mon, Tue, and Thu evenings. I’m home by 8:30, and after a warm shower and a change of clothes, some nights I could just fall into bed right then. But usually I read my Email, scan here, and get one or two things done, and I’m sleeping soundly long before the late newscast, when I used to catch Conan’s monologue almost every night before.
I think it was one of Scott’s tips that a nice warm/hot bath or shower can help re-regulate the body so it’s not too pumped up to wind down for sleep. Sure works for me. You could also try doing a short program of stretching and breathing exercises in the evening, instead of cardio/resistance, if you prefer to do that in the morning.
I now have to eat in the morning because I don’t eat a regular dinner on the nights I work out, so I wake up famished. I also tend to do laundry in the early morning before work instead of at night, often because I’m a bit tuckered after the class. So it’s totally shifted my day. Now, I might actually start going to the gym in the early mornings too, but it remains to be seen whether I can make the commitment to do that, which requires changing my sleep/wake cycle, and suddenly getting enough sleep is really important to me.
