Tips for evening munchies?

[Pootler]

My worst habit, the one that kept me fat, has always been eating at night.

I could eat like a normal person through the day, but after the sun goes down, the voice in my head starts up, reminding me about the crisps/chocolate/biscuits/leftover pasta in the kitchen. The voice does not shut up until they have been eaten. Needless to say, I'm not hungry when I'm eating this stuff.

Over the last month, since starting SW, the voice has only won two or three times, instead of every day. And I'm TRYING to shut it up with low-syn or free food instead of my usual rubbish. So that's a big improvement.

But I was wondering if anyone has any tips on how to avoid emotional eating and giving in to unwanted impulses? What do you do when you hear that voice?

 

[Sparky67]

Hmmmm...

Define "normal person" - you say you eat like a "normal person" during the day. Depends what that means. I work with a lot of "normal people" (women mostly) that think lunch is a slim-a-soup, breakfast is half a grapefruit etc etc. Now if I ate like a "normal person" I would be ravenous by the evening and would eat anything!

I have found that eating more during the day means I end up eating less overall, because I don't feel the need to pick in the evening (and that usually means picking at rubbish).

However, if you are eating loads during the day and it is true emotional hunger, then you need to work out why - are you bored? stressed? depressed?

If it's a habit, you need to change something in your routine to alter the receptors in your brain from making automatic connections (6 o'clcok, sit down to watch telly, eat a bowl of crisps). Bit like, if you always buy a chocolate bar when you have a morning coffee, your brain is conditioned to expect it, even if you're not hungry, so it is difficult to break the association and habit.

 

[alexisemma31]

I try and have my evening meal a little later, 6.30-7pm and then I'm not peckish later on.

If I am though I always save some syns and have something like a ryvita with a spreading of EL philadelphia. Failing that I make a sweet cup of tea with sweeteners and go to bed!!

 

[lurverick]

i try to eat my evening meal a little bit later....after 6pm (normally 4.30/5ish)...that helps a lot!

i also make sure i have sugar free jelly made up in fridge as its very low synned. or another low synned desert. or frozen mixed berries and a yogurt.

i make sure that i have the majority of my syns left so i can have a little treat with those.

and always make sure you have some yummy favourite fruit around handy to grab! for me its pineapple or when in season berries as i feel like im getting a treat then because they are my favourites.

this way i have my meal....a low to no syn desert about 30ish minutes later.....then some syns and then i still have the fruit or even all the free foods such as sw chips etc i can run off and knock up if im exceptionally starving! i find this takes up the evening nicely and im rarely struggling now.

 

[kerry b]

This might sound really silly but it works for me. If the voices are there and I know im not hungry I go and clean my teeth, use mouth wash. everything tastes horrible after you clean your teeth

 

[who_la_hoop]

I agree with the eating later - I used to eat my dinner at 6 on the dot and then feel peckish by 9 or 10 and want to eat biscuits before bed! Now I hang on until 7.30 or sometimes even 8 and I feel full throughout the evening so I don't get the late-night munchies.

And I agree with sparky67... I work with several women who are on the larger side, like me, and they both seem incredibly virtuous with their food during working hours - which leads me to suspect that they go home starving and do the damage then.

 

[Pootler]

Oh I'm not being really virtuous through the day. I mean that I eat when I'm hungry, stop when I'm full, eat a balanced diet and regular portions. (Wasn't always like that but considerably improved over the last few years.)

I'm getting better at identifying what I'm trying to achieve by eating that extra slice of cheesecake, and it is usually a vague, unpleasant feeling that I'm trying to ignore. I'm having trouble making the step from identifying the feeling to NOT dealing with it by eating. I feel very recalcitrant and huffy when i do it, like a petulant child. Because I KNOW there's a better way of dealing with the emotion. I'm just not sure what that way is and I sort of mentally stamp my feet and eat the cheesecake anyway because I'm frustrated.

Brushing teeth is a good one! I'll try that. I'll pay attention to when it's happening to see if there are patterns in it. We eat quite late on the days that I work, and I think you're onto something with eating late. I think I might have less trouble with this on workdays.

I feel bad about eating free foods in this situation. Do any of you do that and still lose weight?

 

[SlimmingKitchen]

I used to be a night eater too. It was an hard habit to get out of it but think I have about kicked the habit now lol!
I tend to have my days syn free then use my syns in the evening.
If I have free food throughout the day and still have healthy extras left in the evening then I tend to make myself something like Ryvita mini's & cheese with abit of salad or I have a hifi bar or 2 alpen lights with a cuppa.
I also keep in plenty of low syn snacks too
Hope this helps.
Stacey xxx

 

[gl12282]

I sometimes eat free foods if I need to because if I don't then I'll go for the crisps, chocolate etc. I try to save my syns for the evening which is when I tend to pick.

The other thing that sometimes helps is to know that I'm going to have some syns (which makes me feel better and not deprived) but then try to save them for the end of the evening. So if I feel like picking (which I sometimes do) I tell myself that I can have that chocolate but just not yet. When I have the chocolate (usually from my tin of treat size snack chocolate or cassava crips - 4 syns per bag for quite a few) I make sure that I have water with it and am definitely in a different room from the rest of the tin (and preferably on a different floor of the house !) and keep myself occupied until the taste has gone (so that I won't go back for more). I keep telling myself why I'm doing this and what I've achieved and then feel happy from that 'chocolate feeling' and proud for not going back for more.

It doesn't always work but it mostly does.

Gail x

 

[gl12282]

I now keep a couple of smaller snack size pots of yummy meat and sauce in the freezer for those moments. I can have a small portion of rice with it if I need to but the meat and sauce tastes like 'proper' food so it keeps me mentally satisfied but is actually mostly superfree food anyway !

Gail x

 

[alwyn]

Do you do any exercise? Why not try putting an exercise DVD on or using the wii if you have one when you get your cravings.

 

[Nixy]

I am exactly the same. I now tend to have 2 x alpan lights in the evening if I haven't used my HEB on breakfast. I also make sure I have something like an apple or oranges in the cupboard to snack on.

Having dinner later helps to, we eat about 8pm so If i am peckish when I get home from work I usually have a carrot or something similar.

 

[cherry-pie]

I find that if I can keep busy then my brain forgets to pretend to be hungry (as for me 90% of the time it is boredom hunger not stomach hunger) so I go online, escape to the bathroom for some pampering, knit blanket squares, anything that keeps my brain and hands busy!

 

[Lucia Lucia]

I save at least 5 or so syns and often have pud after the kids are in bed too. I have a plate with what I can have during the evening. It might have say a banana a muller a little packet of raisins and 4 boudior biscs ( the little sponge fingers ) After I'm in the lounge with my plate of goodies I dont go back in the kitchen and you can make quite a plate of nibbles with just a few syns.

 

[polly2810]

This might sound really silly but it works for me. If the voices are there and I know im not hungry I go and clean my teeth, use mouth wash. everything tastes horrible after you clean your teeth

Yeah I do that too it works really well.

 

[katoof]

I have been making a fruit bowl with berries (strawberries, blueberries, raspberries) and melon or pear, when I get back from work, I leave it in the fridge for when the munchies hit, they normally do, then I pour a muller light over it and it fills me up so much! I know its not a chocolate fix but its sweet in the right way and filling

 

[katoof]

Also alpen light bars or the SW hi fi bars make a good evening snack

 

[furrysmudge]

Great tip Lucia! I too tend to save my syns for the evening, then panic because I havn't had them all! When you consider what I used to eat............x

 

[-Tally-]

I tend to get "the voices" starting around 8pm so instead of sitting watching TV and fighting the urges, I grab a can of diet coke and go make some jewellery or get on Photoshop or play a video game...basically keep busy, invest some time in a hobby. After doing that, if I still want something then I will have something, but normally something free like fruit chopped up with yogurt on top or a highlights hot choc or even some cereal if I have a HEB left. I think the key is keeping busy though, take your mind off it.

 

[Pootler]

Definitely got PMT so today was another munchy sort of day. But I've stayed under 15 syns and the munchies have gone now.

I snacked a lot though the day. I think this worked because I'm working SO hard on eating normal portions and stopping eating when I have had enough, but that does mean that I get hungry again sooner. Having the odd free snack helped a lot. Makes me look like a bit of a piggy on my food diary but I don;t think I was really.

I also saved some syns for the evening and that helped, knowing I could have something if I wanted. And look what happened - I ended up not using them all, which should mend some of yesterday's damage.

And what has really done the trick tonight was having a mug of soup. I think a good tactic for days like this is to make sure I have a portion of soup ready and defrosted ahead of time so that it just needs warming up.

Thank you for all your answers - they were all really useful!