There’s probably nobody who doesn’t know that urge eat something late at night. Maybe you’re watching television when the need hits you. Or maybe you’re already asleep when something deep inside you wake you and tells you to head for the refrigerator. Regardless, your mind says to get something to eat. Now. It doesn’t matter what you satisfy that hunger with. It also doesn’t matter that you aren’t even hungry. Read this article and learn how to fix late night eating habits with these 10 easy tips.
Regardless of what you eat or when calories add up, and when they do, your weight goes up. If you are looking for a way to knock off those pounds, especially when you think you can trace them to your nighttime urges to eat, here are 10 ways that will help show you how to stop night eating habit. Just as is the case with any habit, enough practice at overcoming the late night urge to eat will make it progressively easier to break it, and you will be healthier for it too.
How to Fix Late Night Eating Habits?
#1 Find the trigger of the problem.
If you are up to eat late at night, you’re not alone. There are a lot of people who find themselves in the kitchen after hours. Just as is the case with any habit, in order to solve this problem, you need to identify what is causing it. To do this, the next time you find yourself wanting to get something to eat, stop and look at yourself and the situation you are in. Then try to determine what it is that’s triggering your urge to eat. Is there a particular television show on? Are you thinking about something in particular? Sit with this feeling long enough to determine what is causing your urge to eat. Other causes include an overly restrictive diet that breaks you down at the end of the day. Or maybe it’s just the result of boredom. Whatever it is, identify it and take the steps necessary to solve the problem.
#2 Identifying your button.
Identifying specific triggers that cause you to eat in the evening or at night is important, but there might also be specific overall patterns that kick in to cause a problem too. For example, if you eat after a particularly difficult day at work you might be overcoming your anxiety with food, even if you aren’t hungry. Another problem that can cause an eating pattern is difficulties with a spouse or children after you return from work. A good way to identify these issues is to keep a written record of what you ate and when, as well as an overview of what was going on when you ate. This might reveal a pattern that you can make yourself aware of to avoid in the future.
If you find yourself feeling like a zombie when you arrive at the refrigerator or cabinet, there’s probably a good reason for it: you are one. Even if you have a job that you like and enjoy, chances are good that you have things that happen throughout the day that are stressed. These stressors serve to deplete practically everything you have going for you during your day. If, for example, you have a normally cheery disposition at work, but there is one person who is negative to you, chances are good that the one person will cause a tiny break in your otherwise pleasant attitude. Unfortunately, dealing with issues like this, hour after hour, day after day, your personality “shield” will tend to take its knocks until you get home, and your willpower to avoid certain foods at certain times of the day is trashed.
#3 Find a routine.
Of all the influences on our daily lives, one of the most powerful is habit, those little things that serve to almost unconsciously direct our actions. There is a good chance that your habit of eating in the evening or late at night has nothing to do with your hunger. Instead, it is simply a habit that you have gotten into. The good news in this is that although you have gotten into late night eating as a habit, you can also unlearn your habits. This includes your habit of eating at night. And the best way to break a good habit is to simply substitute it with a good one. For example, if you find yourself wanting to eat something late at night, find something else to do when you would ordinarily be eating something. Like computer games? Instead of eating, why now sit down with a computer game that you particularly enjoy? Or if you happen to enjoy reading, why not pull out a book when you usually eat. Not only will this help to break your late night eating habit, but it will also give you a reason to read more when you otherwise wouldn’t.
#4 Plan your eating.
The next time you go grocery shopping or just plan your meals for a day, determine what you will eat for the day and nothing more. It’s hard to eat a particular snack food that you are used to eating at night if you didn’t buy any at the market. Or even if you did buy that snack food, you can make yourself aware of it and avoid eating since you have planned around not eating or just eating something healthy like an apple or other fruit.