This is when I typically "blow it" for the day! Especially with sweets- ice cream, cookies, Halloween Candy....though sometimes it is just an extra lean cuisine or something. I'm not hungry, I just do it to myself over and over again. Suggestions for stopping this?Thanks!

The first thing you should do is to get rid of all those temptations. Ice cream, Halloween candy, Cookies...yikes. That would hard for a sweets eater to ignore, even if you felt you had your eating under control. As far as curbing your night time eating, that's going to be a little harder. At least if you have healthy choices to chose for the evening, you're better off right off the bat. The next thing to do is to make sure you're eating enough food during the day, so that your night time eating isn't a result of hunger. Next, you might want to budget in a healthy evening snack, if your allowed. The last thing to do is to really get to the bottom of why you've been snacking on junk food in the evening. Is it boredom, mindless eating, hunger as I mentioned earlier, etc? Then, attack the problem.

Personally, I budget a healthy snack in the early evening. It might be plain Greek yogurt with fruit, Stevia, & little Fiber Cereal, a few baby carrots, 1/4 banana, spinach, or a sf Jello (for examples). But, for me, the important thing was to get rid of the temptations and have healthy alternatives.

I agree with Kiz. I have learned not to fight it but i save enough calories to have a snack.

Your band will NEVER control head hunger. That, sadly, is the one thing you have to do on your own, "white knuckling" it. Is it easy? NO. Some things that helped me:

1. eat dinner a little later.

2. plan for a snack that is crunchy, like raw vegetables

3. get all the really tempting, really bad stuff like ice cream, chips, or whatever your triggers are OUT OF THE HOUSE

And, a piece of advice, while Lean Cuisines are low in calories, they have a good amount of sodium and you'd do a lot better to prepare your own foods if at all possible because all that sodium just isn't good for you, can make you retain Water and, for me at least, it even makes me want more salty stuff.

Each night I allot enough calories to still be able to eat some low fat popcorn each night. During the weightloss phase I popped the 100 cal bags. Something to look forward to and takes awhile to eat. If I was hungry a bit later I would eat a pickle, cocktail onions (a little bit of sweetness and only 10 cals for 5 onions). I always have a bag of melon cut and ready to grab. A few little chuncks do the trick. Also, I have bags of prepared veggies or open up a can of veggies to snack on.

As others have said, get your trigger foods out of the house. Good luck!

Your band will NEVER control head hunger. That, sadly, is the one thing you have to do on your own, "white knuckling" it. Is it easy? NO. Some things that helped me:

1. eat dinner a little later.

2. plan for a snack that is crunchy, like raw vegetables

3. get all the really tempting, really bad stuff like ice cream, chips, or whatever your triggers are OUT OF THE HOUSE

And, a piece of advice, while Lean Cuisines are low in calories, they have a good amount of sodium and you'd do a lot better to prepare your own foods if at all possible because all that sodium just isn't good for you, can make you retain Water and, for me at least, it even makes me want more salty stuff.

I also eat dinner a little later. That way, I'm still not really interested in food when it comes time to go to bed. Since banding, my sleep schedule has been way more regular as well, so I know when I'll be going to bed, and can try to plan accordingly. Its kind of like tricking yourself but it seems to work!

All good advice above. This is my biggest remaining eating disorder by far. Some of the things that have helped me:

Make sure you eat all 3 meals during the day.

Make sure you drink a lot of Water.

If you MUST eat something, make sure it's not a slider.

One of my go-to evening Snacks is I take a slice of turkey breast, spread some Dijionaise or a Laughing Cow wedge on it and roll it up. I have to eat it slowly or I'll get stuck, and it fills you up since it won't slide.

I'll put one serving of almonds, about 15 or so, in a small bowl and tell myself that's it. I'll snack slowly to make it last.

One entire can of Progresso chicken Veggie Soup is only 160 calories, and it's a full meal.

Some hot tea will fit the bill sometimes.

There are plenty of zero calorie foods. Celery, etc. Eat all you want.

Brush your teeth. That minty taste kills a lot of head hunger. And your teeth look better!

Turn the TV off and go do something, anything. Laundry. Clean out the closet. Vacuum. Tidy the garage. Go get you some with your spouse. Play a video game that requires both hands and some concentration.

Edited November 12, 200916 yr by AirKuhl

One other thing I meant to mention. Try to avoid eating anything sweet, even if it's artificially sweetened.

There is a theory that eating sweet foods is a type of addiction, so even zero calorie artificial sweeteners cause you to keep craving sweet foods so you end up eating something sweet with too many calories.

I tried this myself, I ate nothing sweet for 2 weeks. It was REALLY hard, but after those 2 weeks I wasn't craving Desserts or sweet drinks anywhere near as much.

I try to do my work out on the elliptical after the kids go to bed or we play Wii - that way I stay busy and when I'm done I don't feel like munching espcially after I see all the calories I burned on the elliptical - don't want to undo that hard work!... that is my BAD time of day as well - I always want to munch in the evening after supper!