I just found this Night eating challenge---this might be harder than that 100 days of exercise challenge that I am doing.  Snacking at night is a real problem for me.  I usually have a healthy dinner between 6:30 and 7:30.  BUT by 9:00 pm I think that I want something to munch on.  Now I do allow myself a low calorie dessert of some sort.  No more than 100-150 cal.  Sometimes it is so hard to just stop at 1 snack.  I find myself sneeking another 100 calorie snack and another.---before you know it I consume 5-100 calorie snacks.  It blows the entire day I have had eating healthy and wise.  I do know that it is all in my head, so I have been working really hard at having just 1 snack at night.  So, I usually have tall glass of water or decaffinated tea or coffee to sip on.  But I have to make a REAL EFFORT to do this--or I just slide into the old bad habit.  I will hop on this challenge to see if it can help the pain of stopping to snack.!!!

Wow, you guys have been doing great on this! It’s a great idea- count me in on this mini-challenge.. although it’s not so “mini” for me! I’ve always been a big night-muncher, which as was said earlier, just tacks on more calories that I don’t really need.

I eat my dinner at work, about an hour and a half before I go to workout. When I get home around 4am, I was nibbling on things here and there, nothing out of control (although it has been in the past, that’s for sure!)… but it’s still extra calories that I’d be fine without. Last night I did great-- I came home from my workout, took a shower, had some tea, and went to bed. I felt wonderful..

So, there’s Day.. or should I say Night… 1! Here’s to many more…

Just a quick update, for the past 3 nights I have come straight home from my workout and did the very same thing that I posted above-- shower / tea / bed (well, with some MTM posting in between.. hehe)… My calorie intake is lower, and since I’m going to bed anyway, I don’t feel deprived. It feels pretty good, actually!

Ok well as you can see in my journal, I didn’t do well with this challenge on Friday or Saturday (those are my days off work)… well, I’m working hard to get back into the swing of things. Last night was a success, and tonight will be as well. How are you all doing with the stop-night-eating-challenge?

Day 1...OK here I go again. It’s funny how I keep coming back to this thread. It has become a valuable tool. I’ve been wanting to eat when I get home from work late at night. It haults my progress so I have to deal with it.

I know this is the way I got back on track before and so I will use it again. Gecko are you still out there?  Are you willing to give it another go with me? If I have to come here every day and let someone know how I did it will give me that added boost to stick to the straight and narrow. Accontability is a beaustiful thing. I’m looking for a buddy on this one. I promise to complete 30 days. I remember how remarkable I felt and how easy it got as the days continued on, as well as how wthe weight started to melt away. I do fine with my food all day until I sabotage myself at night. I know how to do it...that isn’t the problem. It’s the consitency of the doing that is what I need to find a pattern in. Like exercise has become a no-brainer. I just do it. It’s like breathing. I crave it everyday. Even as I sit here typing all I can think of is my hike in the mountains with Baby Dog. So I’m off to do that hike and the 30 day challenge begins with tonight.
Thanks… Denise

Denise,
I would like to be your buddy in this one.  I have a tendancy to snack out during the evening too!!  So, let’s hold each other accountable on this one.  Last night, I had a small piece of cake that a neighbor brought over.  My neighbor had his birthday and so he bought too much cake.  He brought over 3 pieces for each of us.  The piece I had was way too big.  I should have just thrown it away or just had a small piece of the cake and then thrown it away.  I knew better, but I gave in to the food demons.  Oh well, not going to beat myself up too hard for this.  So today I did some extra walking and Monday I am going to hit the gym.  For me, I just need to choose better snacks during the night time or have a big glass of water instead.  So, Denise I am in on this one.  I will check in and we can support each other in this one.  Thanks

Here is to healthy living,

Scooby

Thanks Scooby.....I’m in I usually have to have a small meal late in the evening since I work the pm shift and get home at 12:30am. So I eat something healthy, and believe me I know what that should be. It’s my rationalizations that lead me to the junk food or just too much food...like I deserve it after working so hard with all the stress in the ER. What I should be thinking is I deserve how good I feel when I don’t over do it or make the wrong choices in food. I deserve to lose the rest of this weight. I deserve that concave abdomen. On the evenings I don’t work I go to bed a bit earlier so I will call the cut off point for my last healthy snack for 9pm.

Here’s to success for all who want to join us. 30 days to a new healthier habit!!!! When we make it perhaps we can turn it into 100 days if you are up for it.

Denise

Ooooh… a hike sounds like fun.  It’s gorgeous and sunny here, and I’m looking forward to grabbing my teeny dog after work and hitting the trails.

While I am not really struggling with night eating now, I’m happy to be another accountability buddy and keep an eye on your posts.  You’ll do great, I have faith in you.  And I’m glad to hear you do have a small, healthy meal when you get home. 

Laura

Laura ,
The more accountability the better. I hope you and your pooch had a wonderful hike. It does the body and soul good to get out there in nature and breath it all in...don’t you think?

I did great last night and I’m feeling energized and even a bit taller and thinner to have an empty stomach and real hunger this morning. What is that with the feeling taller thing? When I’m stuffed I feel shorter and more in the catagory of an oom-pa-loom-pa.

I know the night eating is my downfall and every time I do my homework it is brazenly pointed out to me. Like a neon sign it tells me that I can get so much more out of this whole experience if I tweek this aspect of my plan. so last night as my small and late meal I had medium sized bowl Cheerios with strawberries and I felt satisfied and content.

So now I’m working on day 2. More later. I’m off on our walk.

Denise

Day 2 went really well and I’m feeling so great today for it. “How do you want to Feel?” comes to mind. Petty darn good!

At 9:30 PM last night a wave of automaticity passed over me and I almost got up out of my chair and headed for the refrigerator, when I stopped and drew the line in the sand. How bad do I want it? Pretty bad was the comeback. I thought of my discussion here with all of you and I stopped in my tracks. So this morning I felt great and I’m about to eat my salmon for dinner with veggies and brown rice and call it quits for today. If I get hungry later I have some watermelon but I really don’t plan on it. I’ve had enough food for today.


Denise

Denise,
Sounds like you are doing really well!!  Good job, it can be hard to do, but looks like you did a great job.  I was very tempted to eat this past weekend some late night snacks.  On Saturday night my wife and I went to a friends wedding and reception.  The portion sizes were very small during the meal.  The salad seemed like there was only a few pieces of lettuce, one tomato, and a piece of cut up cucumber.  Dinner they brought out a small rock cornish hen, which is basically just a little chicken.  It was not even pre-cut and was brought out whole.  Can you imagine the scene everyone is dressed up for a nice wedding in there dresses, tuxes, and suits and they bring something for the dinner that is basically finger food??  We all tried to use our knife and fork as much as possible, but when eating one of these at some point you can’t help but use your fingers.  I didn’t finish that basically I was afraid of spilling on my suit or hitting my wifes nice dress.  I made sure to finish all my veggies.  I had a small piece of cake for the dessert.  After a 2 hours of dancing I had worked up quite a appetite.  When I arrived home at 11:00 p.m that night I was very tired too.  I stood in front of the fridge and was very tempted to eat food that would not be good for me.  Since I was very tired my mind wasn’t with it either.  I could hear the food calling for me as I stood there in front of the fridge.  Nothing looked good or appealed to me, I knew if I stood there long enough I would just start eating junk food.  So, I grabbed a large glass of water and downed that, then went to bed.  I will tell you I was very tempted to eat junk, I came so close to giving in!!  I am soo glad that I just had some water and went to bed.  I am so glad I joined this challenge because it helped me to keep accountable to my eating on Saturday night. 

Scooby

Day 3 and 4....onward and upward. No night eating!

Scooby...yeah for you. I know just how you feel and you did it. That is a very hard thing to do. Like Scott says sometimes life gets in the way. The key is staying on track when it does and you did a fantastic job. That is what our new healthy life is all about. Making empowering decisons, and you did. Who would think a glass of water could give you all of that?

Last night was day three for me and I did wonderfully. At 10:30 PM I did an hour of cardio. I walked Baby Dog up the mountain in the morning but knew I wanted to rev it up in the evening. I started with Tae-bo and went into some of my other tapes. The key was the music I picked on my iPod. I blasted it and danced my heart out. I woke up feeling thinner. I plan on doing the same thing tonight. It’s 9pm and I’m done eating for the night.

Keep up the good work...Denise

PS...you probably burned more calories trying to eat that hen than there was in the whole bird. Great job!

Whaa… am I late?  Did you start without me? 

Denise, you are doing GREAT!  Isn’t it fantastic to have all the old tricks in the bag… ready to pull out when you need them! 

Hi Scooby!  Denise and I did this challenge together last year and learned a few things about how to cope (we both have jobs which end very late in the evening and tend to be pretty damned hungry by 10pm).  It’s good to have you along on this second journey.  Sounds like you’ve got a handle on things already!

Tonight I am hungry but you’ve both inspired me to not head for the fridge.  I’m not working so I don’t need the food.  However I added up today’s calories on Fitday and it only came to 1100 so its no wonder I want to eat!  Better to go to bed early and eat in the morning.

manana

gecko

Hey Gecko -

I think it’s great that you are continuing to avoid eating at night, but I’m concerned about the 1100 calories.  What does Fitday say about your basal metabolic level of calories? I’m not a nutritionist, but I think you should consider whether it might be better to eat a little something at night and avoid dropping below your base calories.  For most people night eating adds additional calories beyond what they really need or what they should limit themselves too to lose weight.  But if you genuinely need to eat…

Laura

Last night was day 5 and I’m amazed at how quickly I jumped back on the horse. Accountability is a beautiful thing. Just when I jump up on a commercial and head towards the frig, I realize I’m not going to do that because I wouldn’t want to have to come here and say I did. Then I think how good it feels in the morning when I don’t wake up with a food hangover. Good to have you here Gecko.

Denise