How to avoid late night overeating ?

 It is a known fact that the most critical meal concerning keeping or losing weight is dinner. A big dinner  is very dangerous, because after this last meal, you won’t probably be doing a lot of physical activity, but sitting, watching TV, or going to bed. As a result, most of the calories you ingested at your dinner will not be consumed, but stored. Not eating three hours before bedtime is a great rule, why is it so hard to avoid a big dinner than? The simple truth is that we are very hungry, that’s why, some may want to spoil themselves also with some sweets after it… what can be done about it, not to be so hungry, not to have those dangerous urges in the evening?

 We differentiate 2 situations:

        1.when we have the time to eat properly during the day

        2.when we don’t have the time or possibility to have meals during the day

 First of all, to avoid over-feeding ourselves in the evening is to have proper meals during the day: a normal breakfast that consists of some proteins, fats and healthy, complex carbs; a not too large lunch, also having the necessary nutrients, and two small snacks in between. These small snacks may consist of fruits, because they do have a sugar content and are filled with water, so this may result in diminishing the evening urge for sweets, because during the day you already fed your organism with enough vitamins and fructose (sugars) and because of their water content they fill you and give a sense of sated feeling. You may consume up to half a Kilogram of fruits a day. Do not be afraid of their sugar content because during the day you will use it anyway (for your brain and also for the muscle activity for which you will need energy for). So, with proper feeding even when you get home, you will not run in despair and attack the fridge, because your body has been given the proper nutrients, so it will not scream for food. Than in the evening you can have a stake with a salad, or omelet of egg whites with a big tasty tomato and you’ll be cool. As a desert you may eat a small orange, or a kiwi.

 The upper mentioned was a scenario which you should rely mostly. But we can not exclude cases, when we really don’t have the time to eat properly during the day. Because every one of us, me included, have jobs, and we all know that may occur situations, when we really don’t have any pause. We may have one meeting after another and somehow we manage to get home late in the evening without eating anything during the day. In such cases, we still should have a proper breakfast that would start our metabolism, and deliver our body the needed nutrients. And after it, comes our day, full with meetings or exams or whatever…it goes by and we do get home hungry like a wolf, let’s say at 20 o’clock. What can you do? There are again two possibilities: 1. You overcome your urge and have only a small snack size dinner consisting of lean meat and/or vegetables, without any other carbs may be simple or complex and no fats, consuming around 150 kcals and no way more than 200 kcals. 2. You can not overcome your urge and need to have that “full” feeling. This scenario may occur after the first one or without. If you thought that you can overcome your urge, tried to eat 150 kcals, but you are still craving for more: more food or sweets, you may do the following: eat. Sounds good, doesn’t it?

 Now, the question is, what should you eat? You may do an omelet of 5 egg-whites and make a salad of a big tomato and a cucumber, drop some olive oil and spices on it and eat. After it if you are still craving for something, for sweets let’s say, than take a big mug, put two tablespoons of chicory-caffeine free “coffee” in it with two tablespoons of stevia, fill it with till ¾ with water and the rest with some reduced fat milk (1,5 %), for a richer taste. This will result in a sweet drink that will really fill your stomach, take away that sense of hunger without pumping a lot of useless calories in your system. This you may do even without eating anything else earlier, depending on your mood and how strong you are in that particular moment. Because we all of us are sometimes strong and sometimes weak. No athlete, no business man or famous actress is all the time strong and confident and ambitious. It is important that you generally are, and for your weaknesses you can all the time find help. I’ve been through all these and here to help. Having prepared my 13 ounce cup…just in case…