Engine 2 has a wonderful network of guest contributors that will be sharing their expertise and tips with you! Today’s contributor is Lani!
Lani is the creator of The Body Transformation Formula and Fit Quickies™ 5 Minute Workouts. She has a Master’s Degree in Physical Education and over 30 years of experience as a teacher, coach, and trainer. She has received awards for her instruction, created and starred in her own CBS TV Show, and her expertise in the area of health and fitness is called upon by examiner.com, as Fitness Expert for Dr. John McDougall’s Health and Medical Center, coach, Dr. Neal Barnard’s 21-Day Kickstart program, and Health and Fitness Lifestyle Expert for Vegan Mainstream.com. She is Certified in Plant-Based Nutrition through Cornell University. Check out her website for more information.
Every Tuesday Lani answers one of your questions… today she tackles evening overeating. Also, be sure to check out the information about an upcoming tele class with Lani, and Engine 2 team member, Natala!
Evening overeating: What causes it and how to stop it
Mary asks: Hi Lani, very excited to learn your insights. Seeing how you like to address the why’s of dietary issues in depth, I am wondering why it is that getting through the day eating plant strong is not a problem for many of us, but at night, ah, that’s another story. Looking forward to your help!
Lani Muelrath: Thanks for your question, Mary. I answered it right on the blog when you originally posted it, with the intention of getting back to you with some more information because you ask a very important question that is not an uncommon problem. Here I am!
First, I’ve got a question for you.
Is the evening the only ‘trouble’ spot during the day for you? Observe carefully over the next few days and see if there are other points of hunger unmet during the course of the day.
More often than not when I ask a client to examine the rest of their day as well, these moments of intermittent hunger emerge. A common trouble spot is mid-to-late afternoon. We get a little hungry, or a lot hungry, yet look at the clock or are too busy to stop and pay attention, and have a ‘snack’ to ‘tide us over’. Not enough to really satisfy our hunger when it presents itself.
Or maybe we minimize the ‘snack’ even and have something to drink, that really doesn’t satisfy our fuel needs. I call this ‘medicating’ hunger, and it’s a carryover from diet thinking where we are trying to hold back by eating less or save up calories for later in the day.
Some or all of these may be part of your experience. It’s hard to know without a closer examination.
But the result is the same. We end up with what I call ‘stored’ hunger. It accumulates through the day until BAM, we are overcome with the need to nibble on, and on, and on. The unbridled and urgent hunger has a biochemical drive behind it, too. For some real insights into this, see 3 secrets to mastering leptin & ghrelin on a weight loss diet: Are your hormones hijacking your willpower?
Look carefully to late morning or early afternoon, and see if you can find times in there when you are hungry yet respond by a ‘tide me over’ snack. This can happen mid-to-late morning, too.
This will also provide some insights from some case studies on how to offset this problem: 2 huge eating mistakes women make when trying to lose weight and what to do about it.
2 Strategies for freedom from overpowering evening hunger
1) Eat well, early, and as often as your hunger signals demand throughout the day. The clock has nothing to do with your hunger and fullness. Try to just be a good animal by responding with quality fuel when hunger hits. Watch the tendency to ‘tide over’ with a ‘snack’, or to delay satisfying or medicate your fuel-need signals.
If you do this well from early in the day, starting with a solid breakfast, then you will find that evening urge to nosh diminishing. It happens every time. At the same time, if you really are hungry in the evening, you should have something to eat! Yet if you’ve eaten well during the course of the day, a moderate amount of food should satisfy you. White knuckle evening hunger is a sign of not enough fuel during the course of the day.
2) Change your evening pattern: Once you have addressed the ‘stored hunger’ need as in #1, you might find it helpful to create a different pattern of behavior in the evening to break the connection of eating behind tied to certain activities. You may have developed an association of certain evening activities and eating. Pre-empt this connection. Strategies from clients in the past have been to schedule an activity class outside of the home on 2 evenings during the week, after dinner, or even moving evening activities to a different location or focus in their home during the usual time of trouble. This will not be able to override real hunger, yet can help you break the mental association with certain habits you have developed.
You will also benefit from the Holiday food & eating survival guide:
Part 1: “Be choosy”
Part 2: “How eating keeps you thin, aka stay well fed
Part 3: “Eat BEFORE you arrive
Part 4: “What you have is what you’ll eat”
FREE TELECLASS: On December 27 we will have an ENCORE Teleclass with Lani Muelrath & special guest Engine 2′s Natala Constantine in a FREE holiday gift hour long Teleclass! We’ll be talking about:
How the big shift to plant-strong happened for each of us
Why calorie density plays such a huge role in your success
The psychology of weight loss and how you too can master it
To get a ticket to this complimentary call, go to this page now and sign up:http://www.lanimuelrath.com/fitness-programs/free-encore-teleclass-with-lani-muelrath-natala-contantine/
December 27 Teleclass with Lani Muelrath and Natala Constantine.
Even if you can’t make the call LIVE (available also on webcast) be sure to sign up anyway so that we can send you a recording of the call.
