discouraged, gaining weight back, self sabatoge?

I have the exact same problem except I start to feel like I just want to eat everything from the mid afternoon until I got to bed.

I have found that if I leave breakfast a little later instead of eating it the second I get up that all of my other meals are pushed forward a bit. I make sure that what I eat helps me feel full for longer or I break my meals up and have a couple throughout the day so that I have a healthy but filling dinner and then a snack after dinner. I find that that helps so so so much. I also remind myself what I want.

As you said about not having the food there. It really is the best solution. Make your nighttime snack foods healthier. Even if it's a tasty yogurt or cruskits/rice cakes with some sort of low calorie spread/dip eg. hommus, broken up so they take longer to eat. Sometimes I'll even just cook some frozen peas, corn and carrot and eat each piece individually if I'm going to go over my daily intake because it is time consuming so I generally eat less.

You said it's emotional eating for you, for me I think it's more that I'm just generally hungrier at that time of the day. I would say though that it used to be the hunger plus boredom. The trick is to catch yourself mid action and physically stop and think your way through it. "Do I need this?" "Will it help me get to my goal?" "'Am I hungry?' - If yes, 'is there something healthier I could eat which would satisfy me?'" "Am I bored?' if yes, "what else could I be doing which would be more productive?'". Another thing to think about is what are your emotional problems which are leading to your eating at this time of the day and what are other ways in which you can cope with them.

I am a Psychology Graduate and I'm studying a post graduate course on alcohol and drug studies at the moment. A lot of the information also applies to addictive/over eating and weight loss. I have found it extremely helpful.