What if our nighttime snacking urges are just trying to get our attention about what is REALLY needed beyond what food can give us for our life?
That is the real work called for when we look at our habit of eating when we are not hungry.
Nighttime snacking is in the way of consistent weight loss if you eat at night after dinner without physical hunger, AND you aren't losing weight, or your weight loss is inconsistent.
Why is nighttime snacking especially problematic? Because adding food/fuel to your body interrupts your greatest fat-burning window, the overnight fasting period.
Eliminating nighttime eating will help you maximize your fat-burning window, making weight loss easier.
When we want to lose weight, we make a deal with our bodies that we will eat a little bit less than what is required to fuel the body to trigger the body to start using its stored fuel to lose weight.
Tips:
1. Go back to a specific time when you were eating and not hungry. Think about what you were thinking and feeling in the greater context of your day. Ask: What am I getting from eating if I know I'm not hungry?
2. Take it further- pretend I'm there and I'm going to take the food from you. Ask: What am I taking away?
3. Once you have the answer to what you are thinking food is solving for you, take on an experimental mindset to solve for that need proactively without food.
4. Change up the environmental cues that surround your nighttime snacking habit. Create a new protocol where you change up what you do and how you show up during that nighttime eating window.
5. Keep your hands and mouth busy during that window of time.
6. Tell the truth about the urge when the urge to snack when you are not hungry. Power thought: No snacking habit is worth my weight loss.
7. If you want those snack foods, present them to yourself with your meal.
8. Litigate your urge to eat when you are not hungry. Make an argument for the contract you have with yourself to eat a bit less in order to lose weight.
Visit me @thriveinmidlife on Instagram on the episode 21 post and comment with your ah-ha's, takeaways, homework, and/or questions from this episode, and let’s keep the conversation going.
Visit me @thriveinmidlife on Instagram on the episode reel and comment with your ah-ha's, takeaways, homework, and/or questions from this episode, and let’s keep the conversation going.
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