Nighttime eating | Imamother

amother

Sun, Sep 29 2024, 6:33 pm

I'm 40 years old. I have about 10 pounds to loose. I eat healthy all day. Then I wake up at night...just to go to the bathroom or my little one wakes me up...and then I eat. I do it mindlessly. It totally ruins my diet. I am a single mother of a lot of kids, k"ah and my life is very very stressful. I know I comfort eat. I just can't stand how I'm so good all day and then I totally ruin all my hard work. Any advice?

amother

Lemon

Sun, Sep 29 2024, 8:39 pm

It's 3:30 am in Israel and I just ate a waffle.
This is one of my biggest struggles around food. I wake up in the night for the kids or the bathroom and I end up having a bowl of cereal or a couple of cookies. It's like any self control I have during the day completely disappears.

I think ideally I would have a drink of water and go straight back to bed. Or if you feel like you need something on your mouth, maybe a few almonds.

amother

Brass

Sun, Sep 29 2024, 9:07 pm

It is so so hard. I had this at night when my kids would go to sleep. I would suddenly neeeeees a bowl of cereal (or like 5 bowls), and snack bags and cookies and and and… it was a terrible habit.

I have a child who at a young age woke up every single night in the middle of the night and needed food. I believe this child at some point actually was hungry bc it became a habit.

Bh I was determined to break the habit. My eating ends with dinner. I make sure I am nice and full and then that’s it. It became a non option to eat after dinner (like turning the light on shabbos.. no matter what it’s simply not an option). My habit bh is broken.
Bh dc now sleeps all night without needing a snack. It was hard but it had to happen.

Make yourself a chart. Like you would for your kids. Make 7 boxes. When you wake up in the morning and successfully refrained from eating, even though it was soooo hard, you give yourself a sticker (or smiley face)! It sounds babyish but I’m telling you it’ll feel good. And you get a reward when those boxes are all filled in.

Hatzlacha raba. You can do it.