Re: Needing advice on how to handle a particularly challenging time of the day...

[Guest guest]

>

> I know everyone has a time of the day that can be especially difficult. I

feel as though IE is easier in the morning and at lunch. It's dinner time that

is VERY hard for me.

>

> Cooking and eating are two great pleasures in my life, and they are my reward

after a long hard workday. This is the time of day when I have the hardest time

limiting my portions and stopping when I " m full. Even though I'm approaching

the meal hungry (most of the time anyway), I have a very hard time being

mindful. I could eat from the minute I get home until the minute I go to bed

every night!

>

> Anyone have any suggestions on what to do at this time? Or at YOUR own

particularly difficult time of the day? Thanks for your input!

Boy do I hear you! I was exactly the same! Now it's only the night time (after

supper to bed time) but in writing this I realize that too is improving. I used

to start thinking about my supper at work, it was like my reward or something.

And let me tell you I over-ate! And, even though I was stuffed I would continue

to eat right up to bed time. This was pre-Int Eating. I am still very new at IE

(2 weeks in) but I am getting into the habit of eating mindfully and the more I

do that, the better I get at it... usually. There are definately good days and

not so good days, but I'm starting to " feel " a most subtle change start. My

hardest time now, like you, is during the evening, when my mind wanders to what

yumminess lurks in the cupboards. I have started to do two things and it's

helping me... maybe you can somehow try/apply to " fit " it to you?

The first thing I do is save some hunger at supper for my lovely very special

dish of ice cream, which I eat in complete mindfulnes... so very easy cause I

LOVE ice cream. This replaces my past habit of eating at least 4 times as much

in front of the TV at night.

The second thing I try to do (and am constantly working on) is when I

get the urge to night nosh (and I'm not hungry yet) I try very hard to think

about what it is that I really need. That's easy to say ... extremely hard to

do, at least for me because I'm quite the master at " blocking " stuff. At first I

didn't think it was helping but now I'm starting to feel a very soft difference

in my attitude towards eating and I believe it will grow and get stroner in

time.

It's not easy , but keep working at it. I do believe we're on the right

track here... it's just not a quick fix. No matter what I completely hear you

and am there with you.

>

[Guest guest]

I'm not usually in the mood for a big meal in the evening since I tend to get

home quite late and don't have time to cook and eat a big meal before bed. But

I will find myself grazing - a bowl of cereal, a piece of toast, a handful of

nuts, etc. I think it's just that I'm trying to wind down since my days tend to

be very hectic.

Personally, I find that I just have to get away from the kitchen. My house is

small and has a very open floor plan, so if you're on the first floor, you're

either in or looking at the kitchen. If I'm having issues, I just turn off all

the lights and go upstairs. In my guest room is where I have my computer and a

tv, so I'll surf the web or watch tv, then just go to bed. Once I have to go

all the way back downstairs and turn on all the lights, etc. I find that it's

not worth the effort and I'll stop eating. Also, I usually just get engrossed

in something online and then I'm not thinking about it anymore.

Josie

>

> I know everyone has a time of the day that can be especially difficult. I

feel as though IE is easier in the morning and at lunch. It's dinner time that

is VERY hard for me.

>

> Cooking and eating are two great pleasures in my life, and they are my reward

after a long hard workday. This is the time of day when I have the hardest time

limiting my portions and stopping when I " m full. Even though I'm approaching

the meal hungry (most of the time anyway), I have a very hard time being

mindful. I could eat from the minute I get home until the minute I go to bed

every night!

>

> Anyone have any suggestions on what to do at this time? Or at YOUR own

particularly difficult time of the day? Thanks for your input!

>

[Guest guest]

,

Many of us on this group have been challenge by night time eating! I realized

that after work, I really wanted to " zone out. " So, when the more

conscious/rational part of myself went on break, my unconscious/compulsive

eating habits would come into play at night. That phase was a great opportunity

to really witness myself and be-friend the confused parts of me that were still

using coping skills that I developed as a child (i.e., eating to self-soothe).

The more you respond to your hunger with IE, the more and more your body will

give you clear signals that you are not hungry and that you've had enough. It

took longer for my fullness cues to come online and I didn't force the process.

I simply made sure that if I did eat past fullness, I definitely waited until I

was truly hungry to eat again.

I know that I didn't want to let go of the pleasure and distraction of the

activity of eating at night because I was confronted with this large gaping

whole of time. Eventually, I developed enough trust with my body again to know

that I would feed myself again when I was truly hunger. I get so much more

pleasure from food when I'm truly hungry than when I eat past fullness!

It's very difficult, if not almost impossible for me to eat past fullness now! I

really dislike that overfull feeling now. I'm so grateful to be in this stage.

Keep at it and you'll also find yourself experiencing a wonderful and more

balanced relationship with food!

As I was still working through my compulsive night-time eating phase, I tried a

variety of practices:

1) Before getting out of the car, after returning home from work, I would

breathe deeply and set an intention as to how I wanted to experience my night

(e.g., I want to eat to satisfy my hunger and respect my fullness)

2)I created a master self-care list, which I've made available as a worksheet on

my transformativeeating.com site: http://bit.ly/aPUNYp

I kept my customized self-care list on the coffee table in the living room. I

bought some cool 100 piece puzzles to complete to distract myself, I found games

online that I loved (there are links in that worksheet), I bought word finds,

old style jacks, had crayons and mandala coloring books, whatever

distracting/self-soothing idea that appealed.

3). I'd also do breathing exercise, go for a nice walk, lay on the floor, make

it a ritual to go take a shower first, or lay on the floor...anything to prevent

myself from going into my night time trance!

Best,

Latoya:)

Practicing IE since January '08

>

> I know everyone has a time of the day that can be especially difficult. I

feel as though IE is easier in the morning and at lunch. It's dinner time that

is VERY hard for me.

>

> Cooking and eating are two great pleasures in my life, and they are my reward

after a long hard workday. This is the time of day when I have the hardest time

limiting my portions and stopping when I " m full. Even though I'm approaching

the meal hungry (most of the time anyway), I have a very hard time being

mindful. I could eat from the minute I get home until the minute I go to bed

every night!

>

> Anyone have any suggestions on what to do at this time? Or at YOUR own

particularly difficult time of the day? Thanks for your input!

>