Re: Evening Eating

[Guest guest]

This may be a variation on what others have said. I find I do my best (least calories) when I completely avoid any ad lib eating. This includes amounts consumed. If I typically snack on popcorn at night, plan on it and limit the amount I eat to some predetermined amount... If I'm going to drink beer, plan to only drink 2 :-)... especially with alcohol if you rely upon your judgment after you start drinking you're not going to do very well.

It also helps to be very busy and very engaged in some project, or reading a book, or something... idle hands, find food....

Of course it's not that simple, but just a few personal observations.

JR

-----Original Message-----From: Suzanne Cart [mailto:massuz@...]Sent: Monday, December 30, 2002 3:51 PMCR Support GroupSubject: [ ] Evening Eating

So many good points have been brought forth on this issue since my original post. Thanks to everyone who contributed both on and off list.

While everybody has a different take on the situation, there's a bit of an undercurrent suggesting that the answer will involve some degree of PLANNING. There were posts suggesting ways to plan my time instead of eating. There were posts about planning the daily menu per se...what to eat so as to avoid cravings. There were posts amounting to "hey GET A LIFE woman" which again imply the need for a plan, albeit long-term. And there were some posts which suggested I quit worrying about food issues until after the holiday--and that too is a plan of sorts.

So I've developed a PLAN and am putting it in action TODAY. We shall see. At least I'll be spared the additional stress of indecision about what to eat, and when. It feels a bit regimental, but this is war. I'll let everyone know how it's going when I get on down the road.

Other interesting points were made off list which I'll throw out to the group. Someone suggested that my erring ways relate to lack of faith in the CRON diet. Maybe so. Behavior is a good reflection of our belief. Another person suggested that cutting out all flour and sugar would mend my ways. Certainly would, but that's like telling an addict, "Hey all you need to do is quit shooting up." With regard to relaxing the diet during the holidays, the extra weight I would gain and lose each year would amount to yo-yo dieting. I don't want to go there, which is why I'm so concerned about this in the first place.

Finally, one person sent me the short version of the AA Serenity Prayer. It goes like this: "Control what you can and f**k the rest!"

MOST interesting was the number of people who wrote to me off list to admit that they struggled with the same problem, BUT WERE UNWILLING TO SHARE IT WITH THE GROUP for one reason or another. Think about that for a moment. Why are we here?

Hugs and Happy New Year to all. May 2003 bring us ALL peace and good fortune.

Suz

[Guest guest]

That is a weakness of many of us. I try to save some of my calories for

this. We have our fruit salad in the evening and nothing else. It's

something I can " wait for " and look forward to (yummy fruit) and it's

satisfying.

I recall recently suggesting to someone with this problem to move some of

her " daytime " caloric intake to after dinner.

on 2/5/2004 7:05 PM, Rodney at perspect1111@... wrote:

> Perhaps I am just lucky. But in the past whenever I have wanted to

> lose five or ten pounds to get back to where I wanted to be, all I

> had to do was resolve to eat nothing after dinner. It takes a bit of

> effort, but for me, that was all I needed to do.

>

> Those who tend to snack in the evening after dinner might find it

> instructive, and perhaps motivating, to calculate how many calories

> those snacks contain and then figure what it means over a ten year

> period.