Nancy Butcher - 101 Ways to Stop Eating After Dinner

Nancy Butcher writes and edits health-related subjects on the World Wide Web. She is also the author of a number of childrens and young adult books.

J ust about every diet expert and diet program will tell you to stop eating after dinner or not to eat anything after 7:00 or 8:00 P . M .

Why? Because research suggests that the later you eat, the greater the chance your body will store that food as fat.

The problem is, these experts never tell you how to stop. And we all know how tough those hours before bedtime can be. Theyre a snacking temptation land mine, and the downfall of many dieters.

You know what Im talking about, right? Youre watching television, gabbing on the phone, or just puttering around the housewhen, suddenly, youre seized with that urge. Visions of microwave popcorn, ice cream, or leftover pizza pop into your head. You try to resistyou remind yourself that you just had dinner two hours ago! Sometimes youre not even really hungryand yet the call of the kitchen is just too great.

So you give in to that urge. And more often than not, giving in opens the hunger floodgates. One little snack leads to another. The next thing you know, youre parked in front of the television set, mindlessly chowing down on all sorts of stuff thats neither good for you nor particularly good.

Fortunately, theres a way to stop this nighttime snacking madness.

The thing of it is, Ive been there.

Growing up, I was what they called a big girl. I wasnt exactly overweight, but I wasnt slender, either. And I wasnt particularly athletic, which meant that whatever I ate tended to show up on my hips, my thighs, my waist.

Nighttime snacks were a major weakness for me. My mother believed in keeping the refrigerator and cupboards stocked to the gills. She also believed in making about six times as much food as we needed for dinner, so we always had leftovers.

In other words, there was never a shortage of snacking material.

Television time was a killer. So was homework time. Many nights after dinner, Id sit down at the kitchen table to do my algebra or American history homework. And whenever I felt my eyes glaze over or my brain shut down (which was often!), Id take a break, go to the fridge, and make myself a snack to keep me going.

Unfortunately, I carried the nighttime snacking habit with me into adulthood. I continued to be a big girl, and got even bigger. But after I had my son Christopher at age thirty-four, I realized that I was tired of being big. I was tired of not having enough energy, of not being fit. And so I decided to make some changes.

I joined the gym and started exercising religiously. I tried to become more aware of my eating habitsincluding my way-too-generous serving sizes and my tendency to clean other peoples platesand to reeducate myself about which foods were fattening and which ones were not.

And there was my old nemesis, nighttime snacking. I was still doing it, but with new rationales and excuses. During those evening hours, I allowed myself all sorts of treats because Id had a hard day; because I was feeling stressed out; because I was in a bad or sad or bored mood.

I realized that if I was ever going to lose weight I was going to have to stop eating after dinner. And I did.

My new habits paid off. Over the next year and a half, I lost thirty pounds.

And during that time, one positive change seemed to trigger another. Being able to say no to a late-night bowl of ice cream made me feel good about myself. Feeling good about myself motivated me to exercise more. Exercising more motivated me to stick to a healthy eating plan throughout the day. Sticking to a healthy eating plan throughout the day made it easier to say no to nighttime snacks. And on and on.

In this book, you will learn the tricks and strategies that will help you say no to nighttime snacks. They have worked for me and many others, and Im confident theyll work for you.

The book is divided into five sections:

• Outsmarting Your Hunger
• Mirror, Mirror
• Finding Your Flow Zone
• Beating the Blues
• Television Time

Each section addresses a different aspect of nighttime snacking, and includes tips on how to ignore and eliminate those bad-for-you cravings.

Also included are three chapters that discuss what to do if youre having a snacking emergency. One offers suggestions for healthy snacking when you absolutely, positively have to have something. Another chapter provides ways to deal with the social events that keep you out in the evening. And finally, there is a chapter that teaches you how to eat small meals throughout the day so you wont be tempted to eat after dinner.

Read this book cover to cover. Keep it by your side, by the remote, by the refrigerator door. Reach for it whenever youve got the late-night munchies.

Then read it a second time, and a third. Theres no such thing as overdoing it when it comes to adopting healthy new habits.

Remember: Youre in control of your body. You decide what you eat.

So, take charge and start saying no to nighttime snacks... tonight!

N o doubt, youve found yourself at some point having a sandwich and a glass of milk at midnight... and wondering, What am I doing? Im not hungry, so why am I eating this?

If youre anything like me, most of the time youre just sort of, kind of, borderline hungry, and you could just as easily go without that late-night snack. Sometimes youre just thirsty and youre misreading the sign for hunger. If thats the case, you should have a tall glass of water or decaffeinated tea. Keep your body hydrated throughout the day so that when youre really hungry youll know it.

But how do you not give in to the siren call of hunger? How do you resist the logic of Well, Im just a tiny bit hungry, so what can it hurt to have a tiny snack?

Remember: Its a slippery slope. A tiny snack can lead to another tiny snack, until you find yourself chowing down on tiny snacks all night long. And there are many, many snacks that may look tiny, but are actually packed with calories and fat. Just take a look at the calorie count of some of the most common evening snacks:

Small bag of Cheez Doodles
..................190 calories

Four cookies
..................200 calories

Slice of frozen pizza
..................350 calories

Slice of cheesecake
..................370 calories

Slice of apple pie
..................450 calories

Two scoops of ice cream
..................600 calories

So with that in mind, here are 101 helpful tips to keep your hunger at bay till breakfast. Ive also included strategies for shopping, meal planning, and rearranging your after-dinner routine so the word hunger is totally erased from your evening vocabulary.

1. Just say no!

If youve committed yourself to losing weight, maintaining the weight youve lost, or just plain eating healthier, then make that commitment firm in your mind. If youre reaching for a snack, stop, and tell yourself No! Dont have it. Walk away from the refrigerator, sit back down, and pat yourself on the back for your self-discipline.

While I was losing weight, my mantra became: I eat to live; I do not live to eat. This thought kept me on track and reminded me that I was in control of my body.