QUESTION OF THE WEEK: I do great with my nutrition during the day, but struggle to stay on track with my eating at night. Any insight or suggestions? A: Here are 6 common themes related to poor night eating: 1. Perfectionism This is when someone eats too perfect breakfast through dinner. They get so sick of the restrictive eating that they spend all evening after dinner eating foods they actually enjoy (after willpower depletes for the day). To work on this, be reasonable with food intake, include foods you enjoy during the day. Dont aim for perfection, it doesnt exist. 2. All-or-nothing This is classic. Maybe someone has a cookie for dessert after dinner. They say, well, I blew my plan for the day, so I might as well just eat the entire box. All-or-nothing thinking gives you two options: perfect or crap. To work on this, operate along the spectrum of possible options. What are the pretty good or not too bad options? 3. Trading off good behavior This is when people keep a tally of good versus bad behaviors. Good eating during the day gives them permission to be bad at night. To work on this, forget about good versus bad - instead, come back to your values and deeper principles when you sit down to eat. 4. The F** it effect Maybe you go out for dessert or drinks with friends. That means f*** it, youve blown your diet, so you might as well keep eating/drinking before tomorrow morning. The f*** is effect is actually caused by food rules and dieting. Non-dieters (i.e., normal eaters) eat when theyre physically hungry and stop when theyre physically full. They dont have strict rules about what, when, where, and how they eat. No matter if its morning or evening, they eat according to internal cues and their values. If you keep trying to follow rigid external rules and prohibitions, it will almost always inevitably lead to overeating crap. Because once we deviate from the rules, as everyone does, we have nothing left to guide us. 5. Easy rationalizations Evenings present all sorts of comfortable rationalizations for eating a bunch of non-nutritious foods. It could be anything. You were busy. Or maybe you had nothing going on. You were traveling. Or maybe you were at home. You were at work. Or you had no work to do. You had family/social meals. Or maybe you ate alone. Rationalizations are a convenient script. They help explain our overeating to make sense of what were doing. But busyness, boredom, travel, work, or family dinners dont inherently cause overeating. Those are just the circumstances in which weve used rationalizations before. People overeat crap in lots of different circumstances. Their explanation simply matches whatever happens to be going on at the time. Rationalizations like this can take away your freedom of choice. You start to feel like a victim of circumstance or changes in moods. And examining your feelings, although a fine thing to do, will probably only produce limited success with eating modifications. Maybe you find that feeling bored or angry about something triggers your desire to eat. By all means investigate those feelings and see what you want to do about the situation. Just know that this doesn’t get you off the hook or make the feelings go away. Sometimes, you’ll want to eat crap. And too much of it. That’s normal. You’re still in control, no matter what you feel. If you have a craving, and decide not to pursue that craving, it will be uncomfortable and challenging, and this is OK. Avoid looking for justifications to overeat garbage. Because if you’re looking for one, you’ll find one. 6. Evening blahs For a brief time, nobodys demanding your attention. Theres no structure. Theres a break from busy-ness. What the heck do you do with yourself? You eat! When the rush of the busy day is over, we become aware of the lack of content and maybe connection in our lives. Reaching for a snack is better than gazing into the void. To work on this, do something. If you find yourself gazing into the void regularly, add meaningful activity to your evenings. The activity doesnt even need to be pleasurable. It might even be uncomfortable, like taking a new class. The point is to have a reason to keep going. Volunteering can be a powerful option here as well. -PN Coach Ryan Andrews
Posted on: Tue, 23 Sep 2014 23:00:01 +0000
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