How nice it is to eat a chocolate late at night in front of the TV screen. Or make a sandwich and go to bed with it. But eating before bed is not the most healthy habit. How to get rid of it?
So that you understand: food for the night is not dinner, but what follows. As a rule, the feeling “I’m not hungry, but I want to eat something” appeared in me a couple of hours after the evening meal. And, as you can guess, it was not a lettuce leaf. Cookies, good pieces of a long loaf with butter and chocolate bars – that’s what I ate before bed. A moment of acute pleasure gave way to remorse, but the next evening everything was repeated.
No, I wasn’t overweight (yet), but after a heavy meal, I slept restlessly and woke up the next morning exhausted and with a heaviness in my stomach. Instead of detoxifying and repairing, my body was trying to digest everything I threw into it shortly before bed. Sometimes well past midnight. Realizing that I couldn’t cope with the habit on my own, I turned to psychologist Natalya Knyazeva for help. Looking ahead, I will say that it took me only two consultations. And then the second was the control, just in case.
There are many reasons why we want to eat, not related to physiological hunger. We may turn to food to improve our mood or cope with stress. My reason turned out to be even more banal: with the help of food at night, I sought to relieve drowsiness in order to spend more time with my owl husband.
So I had to choose between sleeping and socializing. And I increasingly went to bed an hour or two before him. It’s a shame? A little. But how light, energetic and proud of myself I began to get up the next day! Of course, this recipe is not for everyone. Below are other ways to gradually cut back on food at night.
At about five o’clock in the evening, have an afternoon snack. Eat fresh berries (in summer), some dried fruit or a banana (at other times of the year). Thus, you stimulate the production of serotonin – the hormone of happiness. He, in turn, will start the synthesis of the hormone melatonin – the regulator of circadian rhythms. By the end of the day, you will be emotionally stable and calm.
Take a break
Take up yoga, meditation, or sex. Go out for a walk. Rock the press. After that, you can take a warm bath with oils or foam. It’s good to grab a book or magazine, as well as a glass of water or a relaxing herbal tea.
Get a manicure
Paint your nails with four coats of lacquer according to all the rules: with a base, two coats of color and a top coat. Now you can’t touch anything for an hour.
Decide in advance
If you can’t immediately refuse food at night, try following the recommendations of Natalia Knyazeva. They helped me.
“Immediately after dinner, take a beautiful plate and put on it everything that you plan to eat before going to bed today, if you feel such a desire,” the psychologist suggests. – It is good to divide these products into small portions. After eating one, wait 15 minutes before moving on to the next one. Naturally, you don’t have to eat everything you put on it.”
What to choose? A good option is natural yogurt with a low (but not zero!) Fat content and other “evening” products that calm the nervous system and help you fall asleep.
Clear the landscape
The best way not to eat some fast food like crackers or chocolate bars at night is not to have them at home. Instead of chips and salted nuts, it is better to stock up on dried fruits.
If for some reason you cannot avoid buying fast food, at least let it not fall into your field of vision. Store these foods in closed cabinets. This will increase the chance that you will choose what you put on a beautiful plate as your nightly meal.
Eat consciously
In front of the TV, computer, telephone and even a book, we eat mechanically, without giving ourselves the opportunity to enjoy the taste. Drive each piece in your mouth to fully experience its taste. After all, different areas of the tongue are able to capture different shades of taste.
To lengthen the tasting process, you can put frozen berries, pieces of fruit or a slice of chocolate on a beautiful plate. Cold at times reduces the sensitivity of taste buds, and with it the desire to chew something goes away. In addition, a frozen piece of chocolate will need to sit on the tongue for about two minutes to melt! Maximum pleasure with minimum calories.