Excited

dxsicurello16

I have fallen off drastically throughout the years . I was always passionate on my physique and diet. Though there were certain hills and valleys I had to contend with that the aforementioned passion lost it's luster.

I am at least 40pounds overweight. Addicted to binge eating at night. I hope anyone with positive support can help.

I believe we're all in this together.

rosebarnalice

Welcome and best of luck to you :-)

One thing that helped me with late-night eating was (a) logging very honestly; (b) taking a serious look at what it was I was "hungry" for at those times and (c) adopting some "self-coaching". It looks something like this:

When I found myself drifting towards the fridge or pantry in the evenings, I'd stop and look at my daily log (a). More times than not, I had eaten plenty of calories that day, so then (b) and (c) would be me saying--OUT LOUD-- Okay, what are you FEELING--because you know it isn't hunger because you've had enough food. So let's just step away from the pantry for a moment and figure this out. Are you hungry for attention or comfort, and if so, why? Are you lonely, bored, angry, tired, anxious? What's making you feel that way? Was it something that happened today that made you uncomfortable or you didn't like the way you reacted? Was it something on TV or social media that triggered you? Tell you what: even if you're not quite sure what you're feeling or why, let's just sit back down in the den and just FEEL what that feeling is like without trying to stuff it down with food. Just FEELING it isn't going to hurt you--it may not be comfortable, but your are not physically in danger, so let's just feel it, okay?"

If found the more that I allowed myself to "feel my feelings" instead of "feeding my feelings", the easier it was to name and identify what those feelings were, and what might have triggered them. Sure, a lot of those feeling were unpleasant and I didn't enjoy feeling them. But I learned to trust myself that I could feel them without feeding them-- and that was much better than stuffing those feelings down with food and then feeling the self-loathing that a late-night binge would cause.

AnnPT77

Wise words from @rosebarnalice, up there!

I'd add that some part of evening cravings can be fatigue-related, i.e., our bodies are more likely to seek energy (food!) as we're more tired . . . that's one of the reasons night cravings are more common than early ones, I think. The implication is that in addition to the good advice above, it can help to try to be getting good quality/quantity of sleep, and using good stress reduction and stress management practices throughout the day (because stress is fatiguing!).

Another idea is to keep exercise intensity/duration/frequency moderate and energizing, rather than intense and exhausting: One can increase the challenge level gradually as fitness improves: It's not essential to go all out starting on day 1, and can even be counter-productive.

Wishing you success!