Suggestions for night cravings?

Congratulations on your 29lbs down and qualifying for you knee replacement! I'm going to try with just having a cup of herbal tea to see if that will help me get through it. Fingers crossed! It's so dang hard.

I'm a newbie and pre-surgery, so can't help from that perspective--but I'm a 16 year veteran of the low carb keto war and a lifetime vet of the epic weight loss wars. I've been bruised and battered and tossed around. And here it is...I have to say this to myself daily, as I'm working to lose my pre-surg weight for qualification.

I say to myself:

"Eat 3 times a day. The End--unless you purposely schedule a snack that is part of your meal plan for the day."

The reason why is that your body does it's fat-burning when you are "fasting." That means, after you've eaten and digested the food in your tummy and bowels...then your body resorts to the food stores. The longer between meals, the more opps for fat burning. So interrupting the fat burning by stoking the furnace with external fuel (food) is "no bueno por nada," as my Daddy woulda said.

I can totally relate to having to fight the "crunch/carb monkey within." The way I fight him is to tell myself, "If a hard boiled egg sounds good, you can eat it." No one gets fat/regains cuz of 1 or 2 extra hard boiled eggs. But I have a roll of fat on my left ass-cheek that will validate how those evil crunchy Lay's made me wear my fat-suit.

This is our time to lose. Let's quit messin' around, strap on a pair and finally lose this weight forevs!!! Are you all-in with me?

FluffyChix, you're totally right. I've been scheduling my snacks in my fitness pal tracker but there are nights where I feel like I NEED something else (I know it's all mental). Just trying to find ways to ween myself out of old crappy habits and get back into the healthy controlled ones. I'm with ya though! We're in this to win this!

I know you've had lots of posts in response to your thread, all of them awesome. I use and support the dill pickle idea - 'free' from almost everything but the salt and crunch. If you can 'white knuckle' it through 4 or 5 days you might be able to break the cycle of cravings. But that only works if you don't start again, if it works at all. Good luck and if by chance you happen to find a magic solution please share!!!

Cheers, Amalilly.

cream cheese and meat (turkey or ham) between 2 slices of cucumber. This is my go to small dinner sandwich... crunchy and salty (ham) and savory (cream cheese)

Head hunger sucks. I do have a snack at night as long as it is planned. I also try to drink some tea before I eat something.

Habits can be hard to break. The head part is the hardest.

Night is my hardest time, too.

It's when my addiction hits me the hardest.

You are detoxing from the carbs right now -- I know it sucks -- and just like any other addict, you will try to find ways to justify getting your fix. The advice from people telling you to "white knuckle" it -- is a good one.

Here's my go-to. Get yourself some cooked chicken breast, shrimp, or steak and put it in the fridge. When those night-craving-addictive thought**** you can have up to 3 oz. of plain steak, shrimp, or chicken. Weigh it out and eat that. It's protein, no carbs, and filling.

What? You don't feel like eating chicken, shrimp, or steak? THEN YOU AREN'T ACTUALLY HUNGRY and you should NOT be eating. It's your addiction, not your hunger messing with you.

That really helps me to separate the two. We cannot trust our addict minds.

You are not at, but you're getting close to your personal goal. You still have some honeymoon time left. You don't want to waste that! Snacks, munchies, and substitutes do not need added in right now.

Substituting "healthy" faux things is really just like using methadone or heroin. Or drinking beer instead of hard liquor -- or vaping instead of smoking -- sure, it's better -- but it isn't really addressing the addiction. Learning to deal with the addiction is about so much more than just our weight goals -- it's about inner happiness and peace. I contend it's hard to ever have real peace in our lives if we are coping with obsessions.

YOU CAN DO THIS.

I totally get it -- trust me -- I am the biggest food addict on the planet. How I didn't end up as the subject of My Six Hundred Pound Life is really beyond me --- and dumb luck. Seriously.

Finally, consider that a lot of times, people like us use food for all things. Happy -- let's celebrate with food! Sad? Food will cheer us up. Bored? Food is always fun!! Depressed, confused, overjoyed, lonely, tired, anxious? Food, food, food and food. Could you be tired in the evening and instead of going to bed you are eating? Could you be bored and need something to entertain you?

Really ask yourself what you are feeling when you want to snack.

It's hard to do at first. Then, address that emotion/feeling instead of eating.

Girrrrl, you are spot on. You totally get me. The chicken, steak shrimp is a good idea to wrap my head around and help me knuckle through. I know it's all mental. Most of the time I don't actually feel physical hunger even when it's meal time. I feel like a lot of it is all out of habit, just like when I was a smoker. A lot of the time I didn't even want the cigarette but I'd smoke it anyway because that's what you do on your lunch break haha. Brains are so hard to rewire, am I right?! haha! Thanks for all the ideas and support. So grateful :)

It took me 8 years to realize that the problem was late in the evening, I was bored. I needed to do something with my HANDS, other than eat! Those are my words, how helpful they are is up to you.

Marti

I just go to bed so I don't have to deal with myself anymore lol