Night time hell

I do good until 4PM, then from 4PM until 7PM, I start to eat and drink. I had been doing great for a year then all of a sudden, I started to nibble here and there. Then a glass of wine led to a bottle and in two weeks, I was up 5 lbs and back to old habits. I feel like crap in morning, sleep terrible and am nasty and cranky. Well, this stops TODAY!!! I used to wake up happy and be glad to get on scale, log food and exercise and get dressed. Now, I drag out of bed, drag on to exercise and am not happy.

I have to remember that "Nothing tastes as good as feeling thin"!!!

Oh and another thing that I tend to do is space my meals out as much as possible throughout the day. I eat my breakfast when I get up which can be anytime between 7 and 10. I won't eat lunch until around 2 and then I eat dinner between 6 and 8. Once dinner is done I eat my sweet treat around 9 and make it last as long as possible and then by 10 I'm thinking about bed

What you're looking for is is that pat on the back, atta girl, way to go. It's normal. We start to reach a goal and want some reinforcement that all that hard work is worthy of acknowledgement.

So, what to do? Ugly truth, there isn't anything to do about it. You're a night eater. So am I. I've tried adjusting my exercise time, eating dinner slowly starting at 6:30, drinking water until my bladder thinks I'm drowning. But still, in the evenings when my body is slowing down my mind is saying, "Hey, there's nothing else I have to do today, so how about a snack?"

We all know what they say... Think about something else, do something else. Riiight. Let me just hop up and clean the house, or straighten out my filing cabinet or rearrange my kitchen cabinets. Yeah, loads of fun. The reality is that none of that really works. We all have lives to live during the daylight hours and 99.9% of us have to work to support that life. So that means we need to be able to sleep at night. And the evenings are when we decompress the day's events and get ready to start over.

In any case, find some snack (healthy - aren't we all just starting to hate that word?) that will fit in with your food plan for the day. If that means you adjust what your snacks are during the day to save some calorie digits for the evening, then do that. Instead of a 100 calorie snack during the day, make it an 80 calorie snack. Then find something that you like/love and incorporate that into your day's plan.

Don't restrict yourself so much that your plan becomes an effort in futility. This has to be a life-long change for it to work. For you to be able to say, this is a plan that I can follow for all the years to come with a few "vacation with the girls, the heck with the plan" events.

I know this isn't an answer, but maybe it will turn on a lightbulb for you that will give you an idea of how to accept the night eats and still accomplish what you are working towards.

If you know you are prone to snacking at night, why not leave yourself some room? You can also start eating later in the day - that works for a lot of people. You don't need to eat breakfast at a certain time to lose weight. Actually quite a few people find that if they delay their first meal after waking up they are less hungry during the day.

Personally I tend to have about 300 calories just before bed. Usually a bowl of cereal or something like that. It hasn't affected my losses at all but I do have to plan for it.

How many calories are you eating? Are you eating enough?
If you are just save the bulk of your calories for around that time.
It could also be boredom eating. Try get out for a walk or join a class at night.

I wish I could help but I share that problem. One suggestion I received was to not eat or drink anything after a certain time. The temptation to eat often wins out on me but after feeling guilty a while I may win the next day. My suggestion is forgive yourself and try again tomorrow.

I like this as I am better with NO than maybe a little of this would be ok. I did better at weight loss than maintenance for the same reason.

I'm a night-time eater too. So I plan my day for it.
I spread my meals out-
Breakfast, first my tea, then a bit later egg on toast, or peach/pineapple cottage cheese on toast, then later a piece of fruit.
Lunch will be a sandwich or soup, then a bit later a small salad.
Dinner is broken down too, first I'll have some veggies (mixed veggies with l/f cheese sauce, or zuccini/peppers/onions/tomatoes with some parmesan cheese, or some roasted cauliflower, then I'll have the meat, then a bit later a small baked sweet potato or flavored rice with mushrooms, and it stll hungry, a small salad.
Nightime snacks are s/f jello w/ light cool whip; fruit; popcorn.

By spreading out the meals it keeps me full all day. Nightime can stretch out forever it seems, that's why I stretch out mealtimes

Hope that helps!