Feel SO Hopeless: Night Eating

Melissa,
something warm does indeed sound soothing, before GBP I didn't even like hot drinks, now I love them. Thanks Melissa

Hi
I didnt read all the wonderful replies to your post but can you go to bed earlier??

Also... I find that lowfat popcorn helps me... its not overdoing it and its the hand to mouth habit relieved.  I account for it during the day and have a nice stiff glass of extra sweet Crystal Light white grape............ I get full and my munchies are sated.
I like my night snack so I just account for the cals/ and carbs during the day and give it to myself.
Somtimes the way around somthing is just working WITH it...

Hugs

Kathy,

I feel your pain!  I'm also a night eater and lately I feel more out of control than ever.  Fortunately my scale has remained steady but I know if I continue to snack in the evening like I do it will start to creep up.  I usually eat every 2-3 hours during the day but I find if I go to bed at a decent time it does curb the late night snacks a little bit. 

A few weeks ago I went through everything in the house and got rid of anything that would be "bad" to snack on.  Now at night if I'm feeling snacky I will have a small serving of greek yogurt with fruit or some warm light soy milk with SF flavored syrup (sort of like a latte without the coffe) - that seems to really do the trick...for now...

Hang in there Kathy you can beat this!  So you're letting some of your old eating habits creep back in - ok, now take back the control and turn things around.  You've done it before - you can certainly do it again!  Go back to early post-op eating if you must to re-train yourself, but remember that YOU are in control!

Chin up and use your tool babeeee!

Bekah

Hi Kathy,
I've battled this also. You've gotten some great suggestions here! I wanted to add, tne thing I found helped me was just breaking my habit and routine.

By changing up my pattern of what I usually did at night, I was able to reprogram and get back on track.

I find WEANING myself off night eating works better for me than trying to quit cold turkey. First thing i did was tell myself that if i wanted to eat again AFTER dinner, it was ok, as long as it was ONLY raw veggies w/ a little Ranch. Broccoli especially fills me up. I also still make the good old stand by: Weigh****cher's Veggie ("zero points") soup; also a good filler! Somehow, giving myself that permission, was enough to initiate a head change!

Next, I started by filling up the "snacky" hours, which for me, are right after dinner time...I would eat dinner and then want to just keep on eating thru the night. So I started going to the gym later--at dinner time!. I would get home around 8pm, and knowing that I had just burned all those calories, made me not want to defeat the purpose by eating. I would just have a protein drink or light snack.

I also told myself that if it was after 8pm and i wanted a snack....i would force myself to just go upstairs and get away from the fridge! sounds dumb, but it really works. I started doing laundry late at night and would go upstairs to put it away. that would take a while.... or i would reorganize a closet. By the time i was done--cravings had passed! Busy work truly helped.

I realized late night eating was not my MASTER, it was a stinkin HABIT--and you can break habits! **REMEMBER....a craving usually lasts about 20 min! if you can wait it out....it's all good! you can do 20 minutes, you haven't come all this way for nothing! You have the POWER, you've just maybe forgotten you have it! =)

You CAN! and you will! hang in there! it doesn't have to be like it used to be! =)
All the best to you!

Kathy,
Remember what a beautiful person you and snuggle up to that husband at night.  Let him appreciate you:)  I know you have heard this before, but our tummies were healed, not out heads.  We really have to work on that constantly.  You deserve to be thin!  Enjoy it!

Stop having these things in your house! You can't eat what isn't there. Our brains don't change, just our guts. If we had problems with over-eating junk food before WLS, we have a good change of having the problem afterwards.
So get rid of the junk. Keep veggies and meat, and foods that take time to prepare before you can eat it.
People always ask what they can do about gaining weight from eating the wrong foods, but the only solution is not to eat the stuff. The way to do that is to clear the kitchen of all of it.
I would also ask my doctor for something to help me sleep, and try to start a habit of sleeping before 11:00 pm since that's when your cravings are triggered.
If you can't manage to keep the junk out of your house, you will need to see a therapist about why you keep bringing unhealthy, or trigger foods into your house.
I am over 3 years out, and I do occasionally eat things like hot dogs with the buns, potatoes, rice and some pasta. But I avoid sweets like they are poison, and keep chips and dips out of the house. This is because I know what will happen. No sense in lying to myself and telling myself I can eat it " just this once." Or trying to pretend I'm not walking into the kitchen to look for crap that might get me started on a binge. It's like being an alcoholic who can't take the first drink. We can't eat the first bite of foods that get us started on the downward slide.