Late night cravings

Why are cravings so irresistible at night? Nighttime may be the first time you get to relax after a long, structured and stressful day. You’re through with work and the kids are asleep; it’s finally your time. Whether it is behavioral or hormonal, the urge to treat yourself with a decadent or savory food can be an overwhelming response from the body’s need for relaxation. In addition, you may be tired or emotional from the stress of the day, which makes it that much harder to fight the impulse to indulge.  Plus, all those television food commercials don’t help!

Crush cravings with the following strategies:

• Control late-night hunger Eat breakfast within 90 minutes of waking and every five hours throughout day.  This keeps blood sugar level, which in turn keeps you from overeating or binging at night.
• Eat a fiber-rich dinner The soluble fiber keeps your blood sugars stable, and the insoluble fiber keeps you full through those evening hours so you don’t have an intense urge to snack. Start your dinner with either a hearty  non-starchy vegetable soup or large tossed vegetable salad, and drink plenty of water throughout the meal.
• Push dinner back an hour If you regularly overeat later in the evening, consider starting dinner at 7 instead of 6. This leaves you less awake time to snack. 
• Out of house, out of mouth No matter how amazing your will power and determination may be, surrounding yourself with lots of tempting treats could lead to disaster. Keep problematic goodies out of your house.  If it’s unavailable, you can’t eat it.
• Pre-plan and stretch your p.m. snack
  People often “crave” what they’ve planned for.  Plan for something healthy and you’re likely to crave it.
• And if you’re a volume eater, pre-plan snacks that last a while. For example, a lollipop, four cups air popped popcorn, one to two sliced cucumbers with spicy salsa, a handful of pistachio nuts in the shell, or a low-fat fudge bar.
• Keep yourself busy,  in and out of the house Downtime tends to be “craving central.” Knitting, drawing, solving a puzzle and exercising are some things you can engage in that will squash your desire to munch. If you’re watching TV at night, find ways to distract yourself during commercials, particularly food commercials.  Check your e-mail, do crunches or pushups, jump rope, plan your calendar for the rest of the week, make that call to your mother-in-law, etc. It’s also a great idea to get out of the house a few nights each week. Taking a nighttime yoga, dance or spin class will get you moving and allow you to be part of something. Find a local book club or card game to join. Being social can be a real mood elevator, replacing that need to munch.