My rules (I won’t eat between meals, I won’t take seconds, I’ll strictly-avoid added sugar & I’ll drink at least 2 liters of water a day) serve me pretty well most of the time. They act like a protective shield around my body — keeping temptation away. So I don’t (mostly) have to use will power. Which is good since I don’t have much.
But, I’ve noticed that almost every night at about 8:30 p.m. I find myself rummaging around in the kitchen, looking for something good. A sweet treat. A COOKIE. Ice Cream …. even (pause) … a marshmallow.
8:30 is a witching hour of sorts in my house. That protective shield evaporates. And I’m helpless. I swear, It’s not a pretty thing.
Luckily the grocery shopping happens in mid-afternoon when that shield is up and at it’s most powerful. You should see me in the grocery store. All the bad stuff lines the aisle right inside the door but, I breeze right by. Candy? Nope. Cookies – naw! Chocolate powder? Cake mix? Sugared Cereal? Rice Crispie Treats? …. No, no, no & no! It’s all there, right inside the door. You can’t get to anything else until you pass that.
(whew! just typing it out exhausted me)
I admit it. I have my weak moments. But, I’ve found a way to work around them by limiting my access to tempting treats at home.
What about you? Whatever your goals, are they always strong enough? Or do you get tempted by something you don’t really want to eat anymore? How do the 8:30s (whenever that is) affect you?
Filed under: General | Tagged: commitments, Eat4Today, food, gluttony, healthy-living, nutrition, temptation |
The Confluence 
LOL! It sounds like the sweet stuff is waiting to ambush you, wrestle you to the ground and force themselves into your cart. It could be a Far Side cartoon.
But you can take them on, Kbird. Head for the strawberries.
Nah! I’m Zena at the grocery store. It’s that 8:30 thing… I’m like a zombie pig. Luckily Rick doesn’t care for the stuff that tempts me (he likes salty snacks) so we just don’t have it in the house. Well, we do have some (confiscated) marshmallows!
What’s your weakness, Riverdaughter?
Almonds. Walnuts. Peanuts.
Chocolate, but I actually consider that a separate food group so it’s ok.
Oh, and this one is going to sound weird, sugar snap peas with ginger dressing. The snap pea is a carrier for the dressing and the combination is cool, crisp and fantastic. Give me a bag of sugar snaps and a little bowl of dressing and I eat the whole thing in one sitting.
OMG … that sounds delicious! Maybe we could have a recipe night tomorrow?
Sounds like a plan!
I’m going to an Occupy event in Princeton tomorrow and just received an email to bring a lunch and a snack to share so I’m taking pineapple salsa. It’s vegan.
One thing that really does help is knitting. Focusing on the knitting pattern really does break that cycle and I get past it almost without noticing.
And yesterday I started a project that I’m really enjoying.
what helps me is just going ahead and eating whatever it is that I crave. If I do not I will eat 5 other things I do not want nearly as much to try and avoid the thing I really want and then I will end up eating the thing I really want anyway.
I have gotten hooked on an apple as dessert. But I’ve also read that they are even better – health-wise – with a tsp of raw, organic, unfiltered honey. I just finished mine for tonight and it is yummy. And I actually don’t go to bed with a stomach that feels like a beach ball. (Oh, and today there was a bunch of new info out about apples and cancer prevention.)
I have a square (or two) of delicious dark chocolate, or a small portion of real vanilla ice cream–full fat with sugar, and add a few chopped up walnuts, part of a banana, frozen blueberries, or a splash of liquoir, such as Kahlua or Grand Marnier. My bowl is a very small, attractive Japanese one.
If I want more, I have to refill it. I ask myself if I really want more first. Mixing plain, unsweetened yogurt with the ice cream extends it, too.
Cheese and crackers are a bigger evening downfall, especially with wine. I limit myself to whole wheat/grain crackers and thin slices or smears of cheese. I try to keep the number reasonable.
Ok, it’s 12:30 at night and I’m up playing around with some modeling software that a vendor is lending me for 2 weeks. It’s running on my mac and sucking up all my CPUs and memory.
Cool.
😉
Holy Snot! That was fast. Mac performance is really good. I’m impressed. The job launched on all 4 processors and barely burped.
Evenings aren’t too bad but 2:00 in the afternoon is when I have to watch out. I usually don’t keep things around that I would get into. I can get by a sweet tooth (most days) with thinly sliced red pepper strips or a small avocado. I don’t know why they help.
Food cravings wise it’s like I am two people: one rational in the morning and a complete unleashed ditz in the evening. Not having any bad temptations in the house helps. After weaning myself of sugar, last summer I had become addicted to walnuts like it was heroin. I was eating so much in the evening, I’d get the runs over night – and still not want to miss my morning legit serving. Took me a while to get THAT under control – but at least my weight wasn’t suffering – it was like a binge and purge thinghy. When not abused, nuts are your friends, superfood and everything. These days, if I absolutely have to have something it’s a spoonful of sour cream with mustard in it. Love it, it goes down nicely and if I do this slow enough, it’ll do.
http://nomnompaleo.com/
You are “craving” because of what you eat most of the time and when you eat.
But you won’t believe because…..
Try almonds, pistachios, macadames and 90-100% dark choc.
Oh well.
Breton
Really? Such a time-specific craving (lasts maybe 1/2 hour) is because of what I’m eating the rest of the time?
As to your second paragraph, I’ll take a moment to point out what should be obvious. I’m not discussing all my health issues here. So giving me (or anyone else) such absolute-and-specific advice about how to eat is close to being inappropriate. You don’t necessarily know what you are talking about.
Yeah. What she said. BTW, I think this was on Stuff You Should Know but food cravings do not necessarily correspond to specific nutritional deficiencies. They’re just what you like when you’re hungry and what’s easily obtainable when they hit.
Nonsense. No matter how healthy you eat, you may crave in the evening. One of the things I found helpful – keeping busy. An evening swim – ending at 9PM, helps me skip the craving time usually.
These guys:
http://www.boulderbaked.com/
are Dr. Mrs. Propertius’s great undoing.
Cupcakes.
Really good cupcakes.
Fresh-baked.
Delivered.
Is this a great country or what?
Check out “Slim Chance in a Fat World” by Richard Stuart. It has tips for changing eating behaviors which result in you being less hungry (so less “will power” is needed. (E.g., putting your fork down between each bite, waiting 15 minutes before taking a second helping, eating from a salad plate instead of a larger dinner plate.) No calorie-counting or excluding particular foods. I lost 1 lb. per week and never gained it back.
Yeah, I’ve tried that. I’m tending to believe that the paleo diet is the one for me. Lots of veggies, a bit of meat or fish, fruit and my favorite thing- nuts. There’s a youtuber named Julia who went on a eating regime similar to this one last year and she has shed a lot of weight.
Check out The Third Shift where she posts her meals and grocery shopping stuff. It worked very well for her. she lost weight without sacrificing flavor and without being hungry or playing tricks on herself about plate size or timing of the next bite.
Here’s her a typical eating diary for one week:
I think of this: I can eat an apple if have true hunger. The fiber fills me up. Has to be one without the pesticides on the skin. Apples are the dirtiest of the dirty dozen with pesticides. Trader Joe’s has good small one’s by the bag.