Struggling in the evening
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.
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.
0
Replies
-
Sunflower seeds. That's my go to when I'm snacky. And cheese.5
-
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.4
-
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.4
-
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.2
-
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.2 -
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!3 -
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.2
-
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.. ...
4 -
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 .3
-
ShanBanKrup wrote: »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 sodium4 -
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 tonight2
-
Chillycatmum wrote: »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!0 -
My suggestion is to understand this excessive behavior may be just that. A behavior. A habit. It is not a character defect. It is a habit and habits can be changed. It takes time and it takes practice. Keep working on changing the behavior and know that if you limit the munching to low carb options it will help you get over the hump. On the other side of the hump is the end to the habit. It IS possible to watch a TV show or go to a movie and not munch. You will enjoy the freedom. You will be able to watch a Papa John's commercial and not head to the kitchen. It's just food. Successive approximations to the desired goal is success.
5 -
@kimberlyb6682 how did u end up making your own sugar free jello? Do tell!0
-
I'm not @kimberlyb6682 but will add my recipe in hopes it may help others. Those who are "healthy food" folks should stop reading here. I am not by any means saying this recipe is nutritious with its food dye and goodness knows what else. What it did for me was help me overcome and very unhealthy binge eating behavior that included...mostly ice cream. Vast amounts of ice cream. My husband lives here too and is able to eat all things in moderation. Ice cream was my problem, not his so keeping ice cream out of the house solely for my benefit would be a selfish move in my opinion. I digress...
Boil 5 cups of water while
Dissolving 4 packs of knox gelatin in 1 cup of cold water.
Stir to remove/dissolve lumps.
Add the gelatin mix to to the hot water.
Stir in 1 pack of dry powdered (sugar free) Kool Aid. Yes, Kool Aid.
Add sweetener to taste. I mostly used Truvia so 8-10 packs was my choice.
Stir all together and pour into individual containers.
Makes a little more than 6 cups but the ratios of ingredients seem to work.
It's not carb free with several packs of Truvia but it much, much lower in carbs than many, many other things. It is cold. It is flavorful. I like the texture. It is cold. Did I say that already? Cold. I seemed to like "cold". I could eat it without suffering the negative consequence that pertain to me as one who eats very LCHF for a neurological movement disorder and "the binge".
I rarely make my "jello" any more but I always have a double serving (1 cup) available in the refrigerator. If that "urge to binge" hits me, I have it available. I would sometimes fight myself at the refrigerator with one hand on the freezer door and one hand on the refrigerator door. It was in front of that refrigerator door, I learned learn to say "no" to the ice cream by reflecting on the reasons I had to say "no".
I've been winning the battle for many months. Ice cream free and rarely eating my "junk jello". Substitution got me through the rough times. Desperate measure perhaps but effective (for me).6 -
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.) 0 -
oh my goodness @canadjineh I hope it gets better soon. Why do pain meds always run out too soon? They all seem to.
0 -
Oh no @canadjineh I hope things get easier soon xx0
-
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.1
-
My two cents worth after 4 years of doing this. I live with a carb eater. He will get up at about 7pm and make coffee and come back to the loungeroom with an icecream, and a bowl of crisps. He also has bags of sweets in the cupboard and pretty much eats all the garbage you can imagine. That's entirely his choice. He eats low carb dinner with me, so we're all good.
The most important thing about any particular way of eating, the thing that will guarantee it works for you long term, is that it is comfortable, it fits within your life and it doesn't make you feel like you're missing out or constantly having to fight an impulse.
For me this means I save calories for the evening. I am stronger during the day, like you. I will have a coffee with butter and cream for breakfast. Some sort of meat and salad/veg for lunch (this week is hot smoked salmon, tomato, cucumber, olives) but only about 250 cals. Dinner is meat and veg of some kind (last night was Aldi kransky sausages and zuchinni/mushrooms) 400 - 450 cals in total. I am generally left with 300 to 400 calories for coffee and a snack in the evening. This is rather a lot. Coffee (with butter) 100 cals. Last night's snack was lite jelly with blueberries and whipped cream. Some nights it's a small bag of pork crackling with cream cheese. Or some smoked oysters and olives. Or some camembert. Or some sugar free chocolate. You get the idea. If I didn't do this, I would sit there with mutiny in my heart and a thunderstorm on my face every night while dear hubby indulged. This would not make him happy, and it would not make me happy.5 -
EbonyDahlia wrote: »My two cents worth
The most important thing about any particular way of eating, the thing that will guarantee it works for you long term, is that it is comfortable, it fits
For me this means I save calories for the evening. I am stronger during the day, like you........ If I didn't do this, I would sit there with mutiny in my heart and a thunderstorm on my face every night while dear hubby indulged. This would not make him happy, and it would not make me happy.
I just quoted the pieces that truly gave me a light bulb moment. I have been working so hard on the 'couch crap' but really, I just need to be aware, plan, and ease up on myself. It needs to work long term in my life. Thank you!!
1
This discussion has been closed.