Late night snacking

Ljcourt1 wrote: »

Any suggestions for stopping late night snacking? I do great all day, but after dinner I have trouble!! It doesn't help that almost every commercial is a food advertisement!!

Stop watching commercials!

This sounds like eating in front of the TV. Take up a hobby, keep your hands busy, find a bit of distraction.

When I sit down in front of the TV I have a big glass of ice water. Then I crochet or I play solitaire on my Kindle. When I am slightly distracted I don't think about food. You might play the "Deck of Cards Workout" during commercials.............


Deck of cards workout: Hearts = cardio, Diamonds = upper, Spades = lower, Clubs = abs. Play: draw the 8 of hearts - do 8 jumping jacks, draw 10 of diamonds do 10 push ups .... etc.

Otherwise save room for something. I eat light popcorn, but I limit the amount.

Plan your day so you can save some calories for evening after dinner. Make it at least a couple hours afterwards before you get anything, and plan ahead of time what you can have. Knowing you have something you can have later will help. If I really want a snack, I tell myself to wait an hour and see if I'm still hungry. If I am, I get up and make popcorn. It's filling, and even popped in oil isn't going to add on a lot of calories.

Also, find something to do with your hands. Arts and crafts of some kind, play solitaire, paint your nails, doesn't matter what just find something. I prefer arts and crafts because that's a very wide category, it requires me to use my hands and brain, but if it's something I've done a lot, I can still pay attention to the tv.

If I am hungry late at night, I drink a full cup of water. If I drink all that and are still hungry, I grab fruit or popcorn. Most of the time I find I am just thirsty.

Sometimes I drink a glass of milk too.

You could start by not watching as much TV, or switching to commercial reduced or free TV (Netflix, online streaming straight from the provider, DVR all have less commercials than traditional cable or OTA).

Also, you can do what I do and save calories for after dinner. I typically skip breakfast because I would rather have food after dinner than when I first wake up. I typically eat at 11AM, 5PM, and 8-9PM. My 11 and 5 meals are my biggest and the 8-9 o'clock eating typically comes in at only a few hundred calories.

However, I have to say that tonight might be mud slide night. Its shaping up to have over 600 calories left over after dinner.