Food Issues!!!

NJChick · June 7, 2006

I need your HONEST input, help, comments, answers, 2 cents..... HELP :help: I'm thick skinned so lay it on me.

I do pretty good all day long eating healthy and staying on plan. dinner I eat healthy but struggle with portions (I am getting better though).

Here's the problem, after dinner, I have an incredible sweet tooth, I mean ravenous. I don't understand what comes over me but I'll put DD to bed, 8 - 8:30 pm, I'll go to bed too, fall asleep and then around 9 - 9:30 I wake up HUNGRY but only want to shovel chit, ohhh I mean sugar in my mouth.. anything sweet (really chocolate) WTF?

Why is it that I wake up at that time and have such an awful craving for sweets, so bad that I go down stairs and gorge (1/2 a sleep). Why can't I crave it at noon, eat and burn it off... noooooooooo. Thats when I do my most calorie damage is at night.

Don't have sweets in the house!!... well thats true, and most of the time I don't so what do I do??? I'll look for anything to fill that void and that can be even worse than having what I crave. I'll eat fruit, swig diet crystal light and then shovel everything else in as well.

So my question is... does anyone have this problem at night, I mean wake you out of your sleep problem? I don't know how to deal with it anymore. I've tried everything, even eating Protein right before bed so I'm not hungry.

Is this a head issue?? but what about the belly growling?? I'm worn out folks.

Ms. Vicki · June 7, 2006

I used to do the same thing. I would eat whatever I could find. Sometimes would go from one food type to the other, salty, then sweety, back to salty, then sour, then Protein, then back to sweet. It was almost like I was doing it in my sleep. There was ABSOLUTELY NO CONTROL whatsoever. I could just barely remember binging the next morning. This went on for years, which contibuted highly to my MO. Don't know what changed, but it was before the band. I wish I could tell you what caused it. May never know. I sympathize with you. Let me know if you figure it out.

Poodles · June 7, 2006

Ok, I have the same issue... except with ice cream. I can not sleep without a bowl of ice cream or something similar. So I have made substitutes.

What about a chocolate Protein shake with a little splenda, maybe a spoon full of Peanut Butter added in? Or a chocolate Protein shake mixed with Decaf coffee (frappachino??). Or, get some low carb chocolate options to have on hand.

If you are TRULY hungry then the shake is the way to go. If you are HEAD hungry then you may want to keep a low carb cheat on hand until you can figure out what the "trigger" really is.

Good luck!

DOC · June 7, 2006

I am right there with you! Yesterday I got a fill and COULD not have junk so I didn't, but after 7 pm all I thought about was food!

NIGHT TIME EATING HAS ALWAYS BEEN MY PROBLEM. I was so good in the beginning after surgery, but I have settled back into some bad night eating. I have seen some people share they don't eat after a certain time. I think I might have to go that route because I have no will power once I start. I have one thing and then I am back in the kitchen looking for something else.

Before surgery I was waking up and eating in the middle of the night, but thank goodness that has stopped.

YOU ARE NOT ALONE...... if that makes you feel any better.

shackdog · June 7, 2006

yep, I know what you are talking about, I beleive in my case it is a head issue. No matter what I will not continue this type of eat eat eat. I know that I have will power. I just have to use it. Yep it is tough. But whats the alternate. I believe that you should get all the sweet stuff you take at night out of the house.

Old saying" out of sight out of mind" the other saying that I like is "Junk in Junk out" Who wants Junk? This is a life change and unless you change nothing will ever be different. A christian auther writes" change is not change unless YOU change". There are a lot of support groups for eating disorders and other types of support groups. Just a suggestion.............

DOC · June 7, 2006

A christian auther writes" change is not change unless YOU change". ...

lOVE THAT! Who wrote that do you know?

Elisabethsew · June 7, 2006

If your stomach is growling it's either gas or hunger. Are you eating enough during the day? I like to have dessert a few hours after dinner so I purposely save calories to allow for that. Edys makes 100 cal frozen yogurt and sorbet swirls that are delicious and the 4 oz Jello pudding cups at 60 cals are also satisfying.

HeatherGurl · June 7, 2006

Sounds like you need a fill girl!

NJChick · June 7, 2006

Heather you know it...long over due for a fill. I was really trying to work with what I have but its not working. I'm scheduled for one on June 16th.

Shack, even with sweets out of the house I will shovel anything in the ol pie hole. Not a pretty site LOL.

Vicki, Poodles, Donna, Elisabeth THANK YOU !!

Thanks for your help everyone.... I'm gonna really try to fight this and pray my fill helps.

health1st · June 7, 2006

Got banded 5.5 and life it totally different. So much extra time that I used to spend thinking about food and eating it. I had some panic attacks 3 weeks post-op, wanted to eat, eat, eat all night, & couldn't. Went to a therpist and she said "of course you are going to be feeling a lot of anxiety. You used to eat over these feelings, now you have to deal with them, feel them." We did some work on feeling out of control and some old, old stuff on being vulnerable, bla, bla, bla. But it helped and I accept that now I am in control and making huge changes in my life. I do have to deal with the emotional desire to eat and change my thinking. So now when I want to eat and it is emotional hunger, I go for a walk, or get a massage, picture myself on a bike, or some NEW, more healthy behaviour. It may be different for you, but emotional hunger was getting me!

Poodles · June 7, 2006

Hey girl... was watching Montel and a girl had this issue and thought of you. Googled "eating while sleeping disorder" and found this site http://www.anred.com/nsred.html

You might find more information or ask your doctor. It is a sleeping disorder and can be helped.

Marimaru · June 7, 2006

I don't wake up and have to eat, but nightime eating is what makes me go over my calories every time. If I can control my nightime eating (usually be being busy, or out of the house), my calories are always where I want them, or below, but if I can't keep it in control, my calories are good after dinner, and even sometimes with an after dinner snack, but then I keep going.

My solution has been to find things that are low calorie, PLAN to eat them, and then count them in my calories for the day. There's a product called Dreamwhip, you mix it with a cup of milk, and a little bit of vanilla and you get 2 cups of whipped topping, it's about 240 calories for the whole thing and it makes 2 cups. I throw it in the freezer for an ice cream substitute. I can have 2 cups of that for the same calories as a half a cup of regular ice cream (being conservative, nothing like ben and jerry's, lol).

I also recently found Crystal Lite candies. They are made with splenda, and 4 of them is 25 calories. I got them in a big tub at Smart n' Final. They are hard candies. A big bowl of veggies is good too. Corn and Peas are higher calorie tho.

I know this doesn't really help solve the problem of eating at night, but it does help keep the damage to a minimum in the meantime. I've also started making ginormous jugs of iced tea and crystal lite, to drink some of that when I find myself browsing the kitchen 'wanting a snack' but 'nothing sounds good' (which usually means, I'm just rumaging, and not even hungry).

pugmum · June 8, 2006

I do this exact same thing! I didn't begin doing it until about a year ago. I really think something is wrong with me. I do so good during the day and then just the other night, I woke up with granola crumbs on me! It was the only thing in the kitchen because I have taken all the "bad" food out. My husband got up one night right after I had surgery and I was in there stuffing ice cream down my mouth. I'm not really a big ice cream eater and it concerns me that I would hurt myself by hurting my band.

Honestly, I have tried many things, but it is like I'm not fully present when I get up.

I tried Ambien, but it made it worse. I guess that's becoming common though.

Kelli

Sunta · June 14, 2006

I read in my doc's office that going cold turkey on a food was much better than trying to have small amounts of the food, if it's a trigger food for you. The theory is that going cold turkey will eventually eliminate the craving altogether and you will lose your taste for that food. I know for myself, I have much, much less of a sweet tooth since avoiding sugar after being banded. If you do try this, you must cut out all artificial sweeteners also. I bet that if you did this and suffered through the withdrawl period, you would lose your sugar cravings. Now when I look at cake or donuts, the idea of them is actually icky to me. And before being banded, I ate sweets every single day of my life! Lots of sweets! So, I do think it can work...

Carla92864 · June 15, 2006

You are not alone. While I don't wake up to eat, once i am in bed I am down for the count, but I find at night I can eat A LOT more (too much) than I can during the day? What is up with that?