Struggling in the evening

Chillycatmum
Chillycatmum Posts: 188 Member
I am finding it a little easier to get back in the right mindset and for most of the day I do really well, not feeling hungry and eating great, but I am finding myself sabotaging myself in the evening - I have had a few months of very bad carb heavy rubbish foods and the evenings is when I find it hardest to stop munching even though I am not hungry.

Does anyone have any suggestions that might get me through the first week or so before I manage to get the carbs out of my body and mind and get back into the swing of everything.

I will admit, I am definitely not bingeing as badly as I had been doing so my mindset is improving.
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Replies

  • cstehansen
    cstehansen Posts: 1,984 Member
    Brush your teeth right after dinner or when you start to feel the urge to eat. Most people would agree that the toothpaste taste makes everything taste bad.
  • gotblues66
    gotblues66 Posts: 58 Member
    Hope this helps, but for me the evenings can end up tying two things together, TV and snacking. If this is the case for you, maybe try reading a book with a cup of tea (or brush your teeth first as cstehansen suggested, that's a keen idea too), or even early to bed with a book, or listen to health and fitness podcasts, anything to break the TV/snack habit. Have lots of water handy.
  • Juliegray1963
    Juliegray1963 Posts: 96 Member
    I am the same and reading on the internet, alot of people have the same problem. It was suggested that I get a hobby ... something else besides eating an tv. Also, a little exercise (maybe a walk or rowing machine) tends to help curb my appetite after I get home from work. Hang n there an ur not alone.
  • Sunny_Bunny_
    Sunny_Bunny_ Posts: 7,140 Member
    I tend to want to nibble in the evening sometimes too.
    Sometimes I will allow it and I usually go with cheese and pepperoni or salami.
    If I really want to try to force through it without eating at all, I find drinking something hot helps me. I like flavored teas and green tea and I try to keep a variety of them and I try to treat it like a method of pampering. I will even allow a few drops of stevia for a touch of sweet. Sometimes I'm still feeling like I want to eat but on a good night I can just have a few cups of tea and it will pass.
    And when I fail, on my very worse nights, I have some dark chocolate. On better, failed attempts, I eat the cheese and meat. I also make sure to take small bites snd savor it because it's not a hunger issue and that keeps me from waaay overeating.
  • kimberwolf71
    kimberwolf71 Posts: 470 Member
    Oh you are singing my song! I have even created a diary category "couch crap" so my evening food does not get tied into my actual meal and will hopefully help me be more accountable. It is a horrible horrible habit. I snack in the evening to to help myself stay awake ( and no I can't really go to bed earlier...because sleep is already an issue so I'd be up at a completely ungodly hour and ready for bed again about when I should be starting work)

    I am also not overly crafty, so ideas like knitting etc., to keep my hands busy are brilliant, but would just send my stress levels soaring.

    Peppermint tea really does help quell cravings for sugar, but I normally don't want sweet things.

    A few things I found that don't mess with macros too much if you need to "snack"... You need to dip & crunch, try celery sticks (with cream cheese or peanut butter). Want salt: Beef jerky - pre-weigh and cut it into little pieces. Just mindless eating: try cocktail shrimp with a homemade lc verson of cocktail sauce (sugar-free ketchup & horseradish) or sunflower seeds (but they only work if you use shell-on and I make a mess lol).

    I also drink a lot of water and am working really hard to retraining this horrible horrible habit... but in the meantime, I have found those actually fit the bill sometimes!
  • dasher602014
    dasher602014 Posts: 1,992 Member
    edited January 2017
    If you are early days , maybe you are hungry or not yet fat adapted so that cravings are still there, but either way, a hard boiled egg solves it for me. Not delicious, so don't want more, very filling and if it is all I am "allowed" gets boring quite quickly. We also have nuts in the shell left over from Christmas guests. They take a good deal of work and you stop fairly quickly yet your hands are busy feeding yourself.
  • RalfLott
    RalfLott Posts: 5,036 Member
    Here!'s a strategy from George Orwell's Down and Out in London and Paris:
    Two bad days followed. We had sixty centimes left, and we spent it on half a pound of bread, with a piece of garlic to rub it with. The point of rubbing garlic on bread is that the taste lingers and gives one the illusion of having fed recently.

    @cstehansen's toothpaste idea is good, too.

    Hmm.. ...
    4603125939_3860d71170.jpg
  • ShanBanKrup
    ShanBanKrup Posts: 55 Member
    Sugar free jello is a godsend for me. It's only 10 cals and no carbs or sugar and a gram of protein and maybe 60mg sodium. It takes the edge off for me when I wanna binge .
  • kimberlyb6682
    kimberlyb6682 Posts: 79 Member
    edited January 2017
    Sugar free jello is a godsend for me. It's only 10 cals and no carbs or sugar and a gram of protein and maybe 60mg sodium. It takes the edge off for me when I wanna binge .

    this is good, it worked for me and you can eat a lot of it without blowing your day, though it's full of crap and led me to making my own jello but that's another rabbit hole. or a cup of bouillon also full of crap but will take the edge off and add a lot of sodium
  • Chillycatmum
    Chillycatmum Posts: 188 Member
    Some great ideas, will definitely try them today if I feel myself straying - I am at the beginning of my journey again and I know once I get past the first few days I will be fine - today is a new day and I will try hard to keep the gremlins from attacking tonight
  • kimberlyb6682
    kimberlyb6682 Posts: 79 Member
    Some great ideas, will definitely try them today if I feel myself straying - I am at the beginning of my journey again and I know once I get past the first few days I will be fine - today is a new day and I will try hard to keep the gremlins from attacking tonight

    you can do it, we are all rooting for you!
  • ShanBanKrup
    ShanBanKrup Posts: 55 Member
    @kimberlyb6682 how did u end up making your own sugar free jello? Do tell!
  • canadjineh
    canadjineh Posts: 5,396 Member
    I eat while I am reading in the evening - if I'm not at work (2200-0400). Right now I am injured from work and cannot do much at all, besides read and watch DVD's. I get in pain and cranky and if I am not eating mindlessly, I would be pacing in my house. The pain meds only last about 1/2 to 2/3rds of the time they need to be effective at a safe number of doses for the day, so I am left with choosing to pace I guess. It just feels so much less soothing than food though :( . I can't go to bed early because staring into the dark in pain is way less distracting than food or pacing. Today the scrip for Naproxin seems to be working better so I hope to get this under control. Although I'm not happy about having to eat just after I get up so I can take the pill to forego stomach damage possibilities. All that eating for pill taking purposes is screwing with my daily IF and cravings (I've already run out of cheese and almost out of nuts.)
  • dasher602014
    dasher602014 Posts: 1,992 Member
    oh my goodness @canadjineh I hope it gets better soon. Why do pain meds always run out too soon? They all seem to.
  • Chillycatmum
    Chillycatmum Posts: 188 Member
    Oh no @canadjineh I hope things get easier soon xx
  • LowCarbInScotland
    LowCarbInScotland Posts: 1,027 Member
    I was always an evening snacker, though I've finally managed to break the habit. But in the early days, I just planned ahead for my snacks so that I didn't completely blow my eating plan. I also started eating dinner pretty late at night so that I could sit down and eat a proper meal during my most snacky time of day.