Help I am A night Owl

[LAPBANDJERSEYGIRL]

Ok here is my deal. I do good all day I log my food hit my calorie mark (1,000-1,100) and then it happens I wake up in the middle of the night and start grazing. I pray, I try and talk myself out of it but it is like someone is holding a gun to my head saying eat it. Ok thats a little extreme but not to far fetched. Believe me I will walk in and out of my kitchen several times before I give in but nothing that I do stops me. I am getting my protein in. The only thing is up until today I have been drinking crystal light instead of water. (Today I am back to water and I am doing liquids today and tomorrow to try and jump start me). Anyone else out there with this happening to them or has had it in the past. I NEED HELP PLEASE!!!!!!:sad:

[bandaide]

Jerseygirl, I can try to help. I was a night eater before the band and this was the toughest habit to break after being banded. These are tips that helped me.


I eat supper a bit later like 6pm.
I'll have a Sugar Free popcicle if I do get up. The sugar free popcicles at Wallyworld (Wal-mart) are tasty and for some reason fill me. I've tried other sugar free brands and do not have the same filling affect. Maybe it's just me. ???
No TV at that time. Darn food commercials make things worse.
About 9pm or so I have a sugar free, low calorie hot chocolate with 1 tablespoon of flax seed. The flax seed seems to fill me and helps with my hunger later on, plus it helps the digestive system.
Before giving in to a snack try a Chamomile tea. I use the Sweet Dreams brand and definitely gives me a relaxing affect and will put me back to sleep.
I asked my doctor for a prescription of ambien to stay asleep. I use the ambien 3-4 nights at a time until I establish a natural sleep time pattern. Ambien is highly addictive so you want to be careful with it.


It took me a few months to finally break the night eating habit and it can be done. My night eating case was severe and if I can do it, I know you can too. Jake

[LAPBANDJERSEYGIRL]

Jake Thanks for all the tips. I am going to try them tonight. I'm going to walmart now to get the supplies. I will let you know how it turns out.

[MoOrLess]

I have more like a 2nd shifter's schedule lol - but I totally get where you are both coming from. I found "mini" Clif bars and they are so filling - you have to chew them slowly. After I eat one of these I stay full for HOURS. They are dense, not sweet like some protein bars and only 100 calories. You just might not be getting enough solid in you if you then drink tons of liquids prior to bed. Liquids drank too late may actually be waking you up so to go to the bathroom. So perhaps eating something extremely dense and very little water the 2 hours before bed would work.

Let us know how things progress, please.

[BeyondAnanda]

Even though it's been a few months since there was activity on this thread, I'm a hardcore nightowl so I thought I'd throw in my two cents. Once I discovered that nighttime boredom eating was one of my things, I just worked it into my meal schedule. As I said, I'm a hardcore nightowl and don't even get up till noon, so my first meal of the day is sometime around 2 to 3 p.m. No problem. 300 to 500 calories allows for a good midday meal -- even if I meet girlfriends for lunch, Chili's Fajita Trio is only 510 calories (just don't eat the guacamole LOL). My husband and I are sort of European in that we eat dinner at 8 p.m. That's the one meal we eat together, and it's usually meat, green vegetable (asparagus, zucchini, green beans, etc.) and salad. Salad is one of my favorite things so I often save it to eat later.

Then comes the night. Tom works so he goes to sleep and I'm awake on the computer and watching TV. I've already allowed for this. Now, your daily calorie target of 1,100 is lower than mine, which might make it harder. Mine is 1,400 -- and I make sure there are at least 300 calories left for my nighttime meal. There might be that salad that I mentioned. But in addition there's usually an Odwalla chocolate protein drink or a ZonePerfect chocolate peanut butter protein bar. There are nights when I don't even feel like having this, but I always allow for it. I think you can see from my ticker below that this is working well for me. Identifying the late night eating as a regular pattern was the biggest and most important thing to do. Then making a plan to handle it was simple.

I hope you come up with a plan that works for you. I myself don't believe in just will power and deprivation. I believe that if something is inevitable, and nighttime munchies for some of us are just that, you prepare for it. You wouldn't go into the ocean without knowing how to swim. Don't go into the night without a couple hundred calories to spend.

[MoOrLess]

My lifestyle is exactly like yours when it comes to being a night owl. It's about to change when I begin watching my new grandbaby after she arrives at the end of June. But for years now I have been the same - I always consider my 3rd meal of the day to be sometime after midnight. Recently, that had to change so I could take insulin before bed so my blood sugar would improve in the morning. So by 10pm I just head upstairs and read, play games on my phone, etc. but I really think you are right - we have to build in that 3rd later meal so we stay within our calorie/protein goals.

[BeyondAnanda]

New grandchild -- very exciting! Especially knowing you will be such a big part of her life. That's the dream of so many grandparents -- to be wanted and needed by their families. You've got a good thing going. :-D Hope the schedule changes are manageable for you.

For years I worked in aerospace and my schedule was 6 a.m. to 2:42 p.m. I've heard people say, well, I was a night person but after so many years of getting up early I do it automatically now. NOT ME! LOL. Vacations, periods of unemployment, whatever, I immediately switched back to getting up late and going to sleep late. And so it is now that I don't work anymore, and so it will most likely always be.

[MoOrLess]

It's so odd, isn't it - this "night style" living lol - my body is very happy with a 2nd shift way of living, so I can't wait to see what getting up early does for THIS grandma lol - I'll probably lose weight easier, something tells me. And yes, I am very very blessed - I have a wonderful relationship with my daughter and my son-in-law so it's all good :)