munchies

how do you concur the munchies late at night when you are not sure you're truly hungry or just suffering from a bad case of head hunger ?

I'm a total newbie... but I have this issue!  I am finding that greek yogurt is my best friend - paired with crystal light drops!!  look at this blog for some ideas, too:  http://theworldaccordingtoeggface.blogspot.com

 

Best of luck!

i haven't had the surgery yet so i'm not a vet.  but i do get munchies late at night.

when was the last time you ate?  if it was a long time ago, you might want to have a small snack a couple hours after supper but long before bed.

if it feels like stomach hunger i think a lot here say it might be stomach acid and you could talk with your doctor about your PPI.  especially if this tends to happen a lot.

if you are 'craving' munchies, then it's head hunger.  i have head hunger for munchies late at night.  i'm trying to deal with it before i have surgery, sort of break the habit now.  used to drive to fast food restaurants late at night, now i have a few almonds or a couple of bites of yogurt.  hoping that by surgery time i'll be bored with late night food cravings.

Sometimes I just go to bed early. We eat dinner later now, so if I get "hUngry"  I know it is just head hunger.  I am going to start making a pot of tea and drinking that after 8.

It is hard, I have always loved my evening snack, but it is definitely a trigger.

Anne

A hot cup of tea will work (no sugar).  I do peppermint tea but any kind will work.

This comes from a different angle than the other posters but I'd be looking at WHY you are wanting to eat late at night.   Is it just a habit?  If it is, why and how did that start?  

A lot of times emotions will come up at night when we're tired and our defenses are down (sadness, loneliness, fear, anger) and our behavior in the past was to push all that down with food so we wouldn't think about it and could get to sleep.   

Try and break the habit now, because eating late isn't going to do your tummy any favors after surgery.  

My rule of thumb (17 months out) is that if I am willing to eat an egg...I can have something. That is my test to see if I am really hungry or not. I tend to be less hungy in the morning and afternoon. I "bank" my calories for after I get home. I also have a late afternoon snack at around 3 or 4 and push dinner bac****il later in the evening. This way I am still eating the same amount of calories but most days over 1/2 of my calories for the day are eaten in the late afternoon until evening. This is what works for me.

Great idea!

I also save some calories for most evenings.  Last night, I didn't have the calories, so I had decaf coffee instead with SF creamer.  Sometimes I just want the munch and crunch and I'll have cauliflower and hummus.  Other times, I have to tell my "fat girl"  No!  We're not eating right now.  It's a huge mind game.

I had to modify my mealtimes to four times a day instead of a classic b/l/d. Bu doing that starting around 8a and going every four hours you're eating at 8p. Hopefully the gap for 8p to bedtime isn't that much and you're asleep before the next hunger sets it.

Otherwise, focus on water and if particularly rough use sugar free popsicles.