When 5 pm rolls around..

courtmper
courtmper Posts: 14 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I do so well all day at work not giving in to all sorts of temptations. The second I get home from work I indulge in food. Does anyone have any advice to keep me from doing this?
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Replies

  • pinggolfer96
    pinggolfer96 Posts: 2,248 Member
    edited August 2016
    Willpower
    Find new habits
    Break old/ bad habits
    Read
    Watch tv
    Go on a walk
    Find a hobby
  • heartofplastic
    heartofplastic Posts: 68 Member
    Distract yourself by doing other things, and eat small snacks throughout the day (within your calorie limit of course) so you're not starving yourself. I schedule my eating times so I can wait for when it's time to eat without being tempted to indulge NOW. Hope this helps! Feel free to add me for any food ideas.
  • ashcky
    ashcky Posts: 393 Member
    Water water water and occupying yourself with something. Reading or puzzles helps me.

    I always eat dinner and then tell myself if I feel hungry later I can have a snack at 9 pm. Sometimes I eat a snack and sometimes I dont.
  • Lounmoun
    Lounmoun Posts: 8,426 Member
    Plan to eat something. Have some calories reserved for it. Have easy food ready to go like fruit or cottage cheese.

    I save 100-300 calories of my day for planned snacks. I eat lunch at noon, eat a snack at 3-4 pm and eat dinner at 6 pm. That is when I get hungry so that is when I eat.
  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
    Don't starve or deprive yourself; eat enough food and food you like through the day, when you are hungry and have time to eat.

    Meal plan. Have dinner or all the ingredients you need to make dinner ready. Cook just the amount you need (you can plan to have leftovers) and serve yourself an appropriate amount.

    Don't stock up on foods you don't intend to eat.
  • Eleanor_82
    Eleanor_82 Posts: 57 Member
    Seconding all these good ideas above- I drink fizzy water when I have a craving for sweeties. Makes me feel full and realise I'm not really hungry, just bored.

    Pre-plan dinner and maybe fit in a hour's workout or yoga in the interval between getting home and eating. Plan in a treat for later (wine, dark chocolate) etc so you can convince yourself you can save yourself for your nice things *after* dinner instead of snacking before.

    I've also banned myself from eating while doing anything distracting like watching TV or reading. Previously I had this intractable link between reading/ watching and treating myself to a snack and it's been really eye opening to find out how hard (and important) it is for me to break this link.
  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 24,811 Member
    edited August 2016
    When I come home from work, I have ...

    100 grams of cottage cheese, a bunch of cucumber slices, and a raw carrot (or sometimes radishes or cabbage or cauliflower) + 2 or 3 ryvita crackers with a skiff of margarine.

    Then I go workout ...

    My husband and I go for a walk to the beach, or ride our bicycles on our trainers, and/or lift weights, or maybe we go to the gym or ride our bicycles outside.

    Then we have dinner!

    At 9:30 we have a snack ... usually a bowl of yogurt. And I usually have a cup of tea ... lemon-ginger or rooibos-chai. No sugar, no milk.

    At about 11:30, I often have another snack ... a piece of toast with nutella and honey or if I'm going a bit lighter, then just a chocolate coated McVities digestive biscuit. Plus another cup of tea ... usually chamomile these days. Again, no sugar, no milk.



    I pre-log everything so I know it fits into my day, and the exercise also helps. :)

  • fitnellieforlife
    fitnellieforlife Posts: 40 Member
    If I'm hungry in the evening after work I save like 300 Cals during the Day when I'm not so hungry. It's definitly helpful to save so you won't feel guilt later.
  • girlinahat
    girlinahat Posts: 2,956 Member
    I try and ensure my mealtimes are filling. I avoid snacking, as that is when I easily slip into too many snacks and bad habits.

    Have a fuller lunch, and remind yourself that you really and truly won't die of starvation if you don't eat before dinner.

    or have a very light snack (an apple works well) at 5pm.
  • shinycrazy
    shinycrazy Posts: 1,081 Member
    I usually have a snack at 4pm (protein bar if calories allow or fruit and cheese). This keeps me from being starving when I get home at 5:30pm and allows me to make sane decisions about dinner. Even when all prelogged meals, I find that I will go off the "menu" when I get home an am hungry. Good luck!
  • LivingtheLeanDream
    LivingtheLeanDream Posts: 13,345 Member
    Keeping busy really helps.
    At 5 you'll be thinking about planning your evening meal so take pleasure in cooking that.
    Drink water.

    It also is very much a mind over matter thing - ok we can't perfect the right thoughts overnight but we can over time :smile:
  • yayamom3
    yayamom3 Posts: 939 Member
    Are you physically hungry? If so, then you should eat. If you're like me, the urge to eat the minute I get home is just a habit that I suspect is ingrained in my brain dating all the way back to the after-school snacks of my childhood. Since I recognized that I'm not physically hungry when I get home from work and just eating out of habit, I've been working on changing my habit. I've implemented my afternoon coffee break. I sit down with a huge cup of coffee to which I've added sweetener and half and half (I drink my morning coffee black, so this feels more decadent). I slowly sip the coffee, take deep breaths and enjoy the relaxation of my coffee break time. If you're not a coffee drinker, I'm sure any low-cal beverage that you enjoy would work. This has really been helping me a lot.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,876 Member
    I indulge in food when I get home from work...but it is a planned snack...I'm not just arbitrarily reaching into the cupboard and pulling out food. Then I eat dinner.
  • positivepowers
    positivepowers Posts: 902 Member
    courtmper wrote: »
    I do so well all day at work not giving in to all sorts of temptations. The second I get home from work I indulge in food. Does anyone have any advice to keep me from doing this?

    I do this too. I'm not necessarily hungry, it's more of a habit than anything. I've started coming home and instead of starting dinner right away, which is my habit, I have started to come in, shower (I work out after work) then Meditate for 15 mins or so before entering the kitchen. So far, so good but I have only been doing this for a couple of weeks.
  • KiyaK
    KiyaK Posts: 519 Member
    Plan to eat something when you get home. And have it READY. Something to munch so you have time/energy to make dinner (if that's part of your routine.) My mess ups always come from lack of planning. I felt starving after getting off work, but didn't have any fast, easy options, so I caved to junk food that was laying around. Soon as I set myself up for success by having an easy, fast snack, the issue was resolved.
  • llbrixon
    llbrixon Posts: 964 Member
    Have a Coors Lite on ice! Drink it slow
  • mkakids
    mkakids Posts: 1,913 Member
    Save calories for later in the day. I regularly save around 50% of my calories for betwee 6-10pm
  • adambrewington23
    adambrewington23 Posts: 18 Member
    Make yourself a filling but low calorie snack. (Fruit salad and sun chips for example) Leave it for yourself when you get home.?
  • cerise_noir
    cerise_noir Posts: 5,468 Member
    As well as the above, if you're restricting yourself too much during the day (not allowing certain foods, too little calories), it may be the cause of over indulging when you get home.
  • kathymc54
    kathymc54 Posts: 56 Member
    I tend to prolong my dinners, grabbing one thing after another until bedtime. I started getting up right after dinner and heading out for a walk. It seems to be working to break my old routine.

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