Late night snacking is a bad habit that many adults fall into and don’t seem to be able to break away from. There are a lot of potential contributing factors that could lead to your night time food cravings like stress, depression or boredom.
Breaking free of this habit can help you experience more restful sleep, stop consuming unnecessary calories and could contribute to weight loss. Let’s look at a few tips to help you break free from night time food cravings once and for all.
Free Report: 20 Simple Ways To Make Your Lifestyle More Active4 Ways To Fight Night Time Food Cravings
Try Meal Planning and/or Meal Prepping
According to Torey Armul, spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, “Eating balanced meals and snacks throughout the day provides your body with a steady source of energy to fuel daily activities.”
By planning healthy meals in advance, you can ensure you’re getting filling meals with proper nutrients, so you won’t find yourself as hungry at night. Planning your meals involves sitting down in advance of your weekly grocery trip so you can make sure you have the proper ingredients.
You want to be sure the meals you plan are healthy and packed full of nutrients, but be sure you keep up the variety, otherwise you’ll find yourself snacking to appease cravings. Prepping these meals in advance can ensure you follow through with your healthy meal planning goals.
Snack Healthfully and for the Right Reasons
A big reason for a lot of people’s late night food cravings is eating away their emotions. People tend to either mistake these feelings with that of hunger or try to mask them by eating.
If you’re truly hungry and not trying to cover emotions, you should opt for light, healthy options. These are easier to digest and are healthier overall. Do your best to keep your snacking to a minimum and maintain small portions.
Get Better Sleep
Sleep deprivation can cause you to experience cravings and excess hunger. As strange as it sounds, when we’re tired, we often confuse the feeling of tiredness with that of hunger.
If you find yourself wanting to snack after a well-balanced meal, it’s probably just a sign from your body that it’s time for bed. Getting more restful sleep will also help to decrease the cravings in the first place, but putting an end to the habit can also improve the quality of sleep you experience.
Avoiding Combining Meal Time and Screen Time
Believe it or not, eating in front of the television or computer can actually make you eat more. What happens is that the television or computer distracts you from what you’re doing and how much you’re eating. It can even make you forget that you even snacked in the first place.
Another problem this can pose is that of the advertisements designed specifically to make you hungrier. That in combination with the effect of screens on your memory of snacking and the amount in which you did that makes for a snacking nightmare.
How To Make Your Lifestyle More Active
Breaking free from the dreaded and extremely addictive habit of night time food cravings can be extremely helpful and beneficial to your overall health. From weight gain to eating disorders, food cravings can lead to several negative effects. By following some, or all, of the tips above you’ll be able to deal with food cravings and thus prevent them from ruining your health.
To help you burn more calories and leverage new habits into a lifetime of good health and better fitness download my free report 20 Ways To Make Your Lifestyle More Active. Once you choose a healthy lifestyle, you’ll never have to worry about dieting again.
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