One of the biggest reasons I put on weight was because I was in the habit of eating at night.
Okay, so eating at night is not that bad, but when you hardly eat anything during the day and then load up after dark on calories by consuming family sized bags of chips, a whole packet of chocolate biscuits and any high sugar, high fat foods you can get your litle hands on, well you are bound to end up with
I knew this was one of the biggest things that had to change if I was to start to lose weight. It wasn't as simple as saying no to these foods at night time or just not buying them on my way home from work. I had to put some strategies in place to help me break this habit.
I knew no matter what, I would still want to eat at night. Its just something that I was used to and going cold turkey would only result in some binge eating!
So I set myself up with some things I could eat in the evening.
One of my favourites still to this day is jelly! Don't buy the high sugar one.
Weight Watchers do an awesome jelly and it is a point free snack with no sugar!
I would always make sure I had some made up in the fridge.
The next thing I did was buy a massive selection of teas.
I have found some yummy herbal teas but I am currently loving green tea. Great for your health and it would keep my hands something healthy to reach for. Awesome site on green tea if you are interested!
The next thing that helped can easily be found in any house (I hope)!
Toothpaste!
Food tastes strange after brushing teeth, so brushing my teeth when I felt the urge to eat helped get rid of any food craving I had.I have heard that Pam Anderson uses this trick as well!
Mouthwash can have the same affect.
Chewing Gum...not so much. I find that I can still eat other foods after that.
So those 3 little things are what helped me break my evening snacking binges.
They say it takes 3 weeks to break a habit, To be honest I can't remeber how long it took but I can tell you that I have broken ths habit and it is part of the reason I have lost over 20 kilos. Yay!
Yeah for Ali!!! Good Work!
ReplyDeleteI read once that it takes about a day for each year of life to break (or make) a habit. That makes sense...it takes about two days for a toddler to make a naughty word part of his vocabulary, but takes an adult about a month to stop snacking at night! (FYI, it took me six weeks to break my night time snacking habit!)
So there is hope for me yet! I really,r eally struggle with eating in the evenings. But I am working on it.
ReplyDeleteI use the toothpaste trick or I try to find something to do or take a nap.
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean about going all day without eating but then making up for it at night (usually junk). I think part of it is being so busy during the day doing for others--family, job, kids--and then finally at night, when the little ones are in bed and the telephone has stopped ringing, you finally have some time to yourself. Eating all that yummy junk seems like a reward somehow, too. I also have found that fixing myself a cup of hot tea can feel like a real treat. I've enjoyed experimenting with a lot of the more "exotic" varieties. Adagio Teas has some great deals and sample packs online.
ReplyDeletemy blog: http://toosexy4thisfat.blogspot.com
Thanks for the reminder about the toothpaste trick. I had forgotten about the value of that one! Have a great weekend!
ReplyDeleteGreat Ideas. I try and make sure that I still have a few of my daily points left for a snack at night. Just enough to have something, but not enough to get carried away.
ReplyDeleteThanks for visiting my blog :)
Great tips! This is my worst problem as well, I can hold it together all day and then go crazy between 9-11. I have started going to the gym around 8pm and then I'm there 1.5 hours and that cuts down on the snacking time as well.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the awesome tips! I have a weight loss blog too and I would love to stay connected with you. http://finallyinspired.com
ReplyDelete