How to Conquer Late Night Snacking
Uncontrolled late night snacking is something we're asked about quite a bit. Everyone has faced it at one time or another and we'd be lying if we didn't admit we've run into it ourselves.
The good news is you can conquer it or, even better, turn it into something enjoyable and guilt-free!
Let's face it, there's nothing wrong with sitting down to watch TV or catch a flick with a little treat. The problem comes when you're trying to lose weight, you've finished eating for the day and the desire to eat something starts gnawing at you. Any satisfaction you get from caving and going to the pantry is far outweighed by the guilt you feel from blowing your diet and the psychological damage that occurs when the scale doesn’t move.
It doesn’t help that studies have shown eating in front of the TV is a mindless activity that deprives you of the experiential aspect of eating that’s so gratifying. It mutes satiety cues along with the sensations of enjoyment and fulfillment your snacks are supposed to give you. Falling off the wagon happens quicker than the next commercial break.
It’s one thing to eat a planned-out meal while watching the game but quite another to sit mesmerized by the happenings onscreen while dipping your hand into a bag of cookies. The signals telling you to stop eating fall on deaf ears, the TV’s distraction leaves you unable to enjoy what you’re eating and you end up unsatisfied.
When morning rolls around, the disappointment turns epic when you realize not only did you fall off the wagon but you also ran out in front of it and threw yourself under the wheels.
We don't want you feeling bad about yourself or getting into a position where you're frustrated and ready to give up.
If snacking at night is a constant problem then it's important to get a handle on it or, best case, make it part of a day's normal eating. At the least, when things don't go as planned, we want to make choices that won't lead to trouble.
Our first job is to make the commitment to either stop it from happening or rearrange it so it’s a part of the plan.
You have complete control over what you eat. This is one of the few areas of your life where you’re the only one who has a say in what happens. It starts in your mind with the simple focus on not eating after your last planned meal of the day.
Direct your mind in the direction you want it to take you and it will lead the way.
Jimmy Johnson, two-time Super Bowl Champion coach of my beloved Dallas Cowboys, always told his players to “Protect the football” instead of saying “Don’t fumble.” Tell yourself “I’m done eating for the day” instead of “Don’t cave and grab a snack like you always do.”
Concentrate on the outcome you’d like to see happen; not the one you don’t.
Always picture yourself as someone who is fit, healthy and makes good decisions about food. The self you see in your mind is the one your subconscious will strive to help you achieve. In time, it will pay off in a big way.
In the gym we say, “Go big or go home.” Here we’re saying, “Visualize big and then make it happen.”
Realize there are going to be times requiring you to have some grit and just say “no” to the urge to hit the snack stand. It’s all a part of the growth process and it’s only going to make you stronger and more resilient in the future. Champions, in any endeavor, aren’t those who didn’t face cravings or moments of weakness, they’re the ones who successfully overcame them. They weren’t always perfect but they learned at some point to say “No” when saying no was the last thing they wanted to do.
Picture the window for eating closing with your last meal of the day. If you make the decision to stop eating at “X” time of the evening – and lay down the law with yourself – then you have a positive roadblock to keep you from an all-out blitz of the fridge. It can be a big help in controlling the urge to snack later on.
Have a clear vision of where you want to go and allow it to direct your actions. See yourself becoming mentally stronger by refusing to break a promise you made to yourself. Don’t focus on missing out on something. Replace it with a reminder of how guilty you’d have felt. Now you won’t and that’s a great feeling.
It takes time, effort and some missteps along the way but when you get there it will be worth it.
On the other hand, if sitting down with a snack while streaming your latest favorite series helps you unwind at the end of the day then plan it out as part of your day’s eating. Pare down your earlier meals and shift those calories to the evening. You might find it's not a big deal to simply move one of your earlier snacks to your evening TV-time. Have fun and learn to make it work for you.
When you turn unplanned snacking into something that's part of your healthy lifestyle the psychology does a 180 and, suddenly, the guilt is replaced by enjoyment, you're encouraged because you made your plan work and it propels you forward.
That’s the power in realizing you have total control over what you eat.
To be clear, most of the time we're not really hungry but bored, stressed, lacking sleep or we've snacked at that particular time so often that it's habit. (Just like smokers light up after a meal or when getting into the car because that's what they've always done.)
It’s no secret when we’re stressed we make poor decisions concerning food.
Study after study has shown that high stress pushes people to consume sugary, high-fat and calorie dense “comfort foods” that do nothing but wreck your progress, make you feel guilty about your inability to stick with your diet and pushes you to the point where you’re ready to give up. The hormone response alone makes snacking easy and resisting the urge just the opposite. It’s an uphill battle and it’s a lot easier if we fight it by reducing stress first.
Exercising is a big help (you’d better be doing it already) and meditating is also a well-known technique for reducing stress. However, there’s one that’s even easier, you already do it and it will positively affect everything else in your life.
Our coaching clients get tired of hearing the broken record telling them to make sure they get enough sleep. We’ve always said it’s the cheapest and easiest way to improve your health. Making a commitment to improve your sleep will boost the results of your workouts and diet as well as your outlook on life in general.
And, yes, it will definitely help you control the urge to nosh on a little something while in front of the tube.
You’ll remember from our article I'll Sleep When I'm Dead...:
Adequate sleep is one of the easiest and most effective ways to lower stress, control your appetite and keep the hormones controlling hunger and satiety on an even keel.
A lack of sleep leads to increased stress. Piled on top of the normal stress of life the tendency to eat, especially “comfort” foods, goes through the roof. And it’s when you’re under constant stress that the problems start.
In our experience, high stress and low sleep frequently leads to a positive feedback loop that looks like this: you’re tired and stressed, you eat comfort foods… and you eat them in excess. You’re trying to slim down, you know you didn’t stick to your eating plan, you feel guilty and the stress goes up another notch.
So you “feed your stress” and the entire cycle starts over.
Our goal is to sleep at least 7 hours per night with 8 hours being the gold standard. Research shows that sleeping less than 6 hours a night leads to hormonal changes that hit you – pun intended – right in the gut. It’s also been shown that sleeping less than 6 hours a night can lead to an increase of up to 300 calories per day from the foods you most want to avoid late at night.
Still, sometimes all of that isn’t enough; at least in the beginning.
When the urge hits, see yourself as someone who doesn't have unplanned meals or "eats their stress." Picture how much leaner, stronger and healthier you're becoming with each passing minute. Focus on how good you'll feel waking up without the guilt you normally experience after one of those evenings. Give it a few minutes, talk yourself up while you're waiting and see if that does the trick.
Always be positive and focus on what you want to happen; not what you don't.
If things get out of hand one night and you hit the fridge - we've all done it - then try to make better choices. A bag of chips, box of crackers or a can of frosting isn't going to help your cause and will only make the guilt heavier. Stay away from "comfort foods" because, in reality, they're only going to do the opposite - make you uncomfortable.
Reach for something like crudités - carrot and celery sticks or broccoli and cauliflower florets and then use some of the low calories sauces available. (Texas Pete and Frank's Wing Sauce are calorie free.) Make yourself a fancy plate like you're served at a restaurant and grab a calorie free beverage with it. If you're laughing, remember, people plow through those items at the nearest sports bar with their order of wings. If it's good there, then it's good here. Those are things you can eat until your stomach pops and they total about 34 calories.
Or choose a small bowl of berries with a tiny squirt of whipped cream and a sprinkle of Flavor God topper. It's fancy, it's tasty like a dessert but without the impact of traditional snack foods.
You'll tie up your hands and mouth with the process of eating and the damage won't be as bad as an entire bag of chips. Again, it's often about boredom and going through the motions of eating - no matter what it is - goes a long way to curing what you think is "hunger" but without gorging on something guaranteed to get you into trouble.
Make no mistake, you didn’t have to grab a snack but once it’s happened then it’s over. Turn it into an opportunity to improve. Failure is a temporary setback that gives you the chance to make things better. So learn your lesson, move on and put it behind you.
Envision yourself as someone who makes healthy choices and your subconscious mind will help you make better decisions. It might lead you to the realization you need to work an evening TV-snack into your day’s eating and you might even find it helps you decide not to snack at all.
The power of your mind is incredible. If you see yourself as someone who eats and acts in a healthy manner then it will make it its mission to make sure you do just that.
Start with a bold commitment to stop the mindless snacking and use the power of your mind along with these techniques and you can and will conquer those late night cravings.
If you want to go big with your health, wellness and physique goals then let us help you build a lifestyle that automatically produces the results you’ve always dreamed of while still allowing you to enjoy life, have great times with family and friends and not worry about ruining the results of your hard work.
(It's pretty much the same thing as picking up the Bat-Phone!)
Regards,
Henry
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