Anne Louise
You’ve finished dinner and you are watching TV or you are on your computer. Suddenly you get this urge to go to the kitchen and look for something. You look in every cupboard and think: “mmh what I am in the mood for?”. Then you remember this yummy snack that accidently slipped into your shopping cart last time you went grocery shopping and you thank yourself for ditching all healthy eating regimes and you grab the snack without thinking twice. You curl up on the couch and you enjoy the snack to its fullest!
Does this sound familiar?
It does to me.
I used to do this every evening!
At some point I started thinking that my body needed this snack fix. I got so used to it.
Until I met my partner…
He never snacked in the evening. When I went to the cupboard in the search of something sweet and asked him if he wanted something, he would reply with this weird answer that he was not hungry or something! Completely irrelevant! You can read more about “What I have learnt by living with a skinny person” here.
Eventually I felt more and more ashamed of my need to snack when he was not that I tried to stop. When my urge came I would try to distract myself and do something else. I also know that if I snack too late then I will have trouble sleeping, so I set myself a deadline. Snack before 9pm or not at all. By distracting myself enough until 9pm and only then realising how late it was, that really worked. At some point I just didn’t think about it or want a snack.
If you snack in the evenings, try to find out what is missing for you. Why are you snacking? Do you need company? Then talk to your partner or reach out to a friend. Is something else bothering you for you to need to a snack?
Think about it! Those are just extra calories that your body certainly doesn’t need! And you feel so much better if you stop! All of a sudden you are hungry in the mornings for breakfast, which as they say is the healthiest meal of the day!! Read about that here.
For me it was clearly that I was lonely! After moving in with my partner, the need to snack slowly disappeared, by distracting myself long enough that my body eventually didn’t need or want it anymore.
What can you do to stop snacking? Share in the comments below!
PS: I found this article with tricks to help you stop snacking. Take a look!
My best trick is to brush my teeth with the kids right after dinner, it sets an example and it stops me snacking. “you can’t eat after brushing teeth then you would have to brush again and that would be silly” 😉
Or have a cup of herbal tea it gives you “something” but far less or none calories and it soothes you down for sleep.
A great tip, and so simple! Thanks Naja for sharing!
This is my biggest issue. I sabatouge my healthy eating snacking in the evening.
I think a lot of people do! Can you use the toothbrushing trick? Or find out WHY you think you need the snack?