After dinner snacking is a habit that many people I see want to break. There’s just a couple of questions to ask yourself to get to the route of the problem and find a solution. Here’s what to do.
- Are you really hungry?
Often when you’ve done everything that you need to do and you’ve finally got time to be alone with your thoughts, it’s when stress eating or boredom eating can hit. So if you’re feeling hungry just a few hours after dinner, one of the first questions to ask is, are you really hungry? If not, think what the real issue is and work on dealing with that. Whether it’s stress or boredom, emotional eating is common. One of the first steps to stop reaching for food is to delay. Instead of grabbing food, get out of the room you’re in and think what the real issue is. Ask yourself, is food going to help my issue? Think of what you can do to more positively deal with what you’re feeling. If you are really hungry, then look at the next two steps.
- Balanced dinner plate
The second question to ask is are you eating a balanced dinner? At night time, half your plate should be non starchy vegetables. Yup, that’s half your plate. Choose different colours to get a range of different vitamins and antioxidants. You also need a good serve of lean protein, around the size of your palm. Include a serve low GI carbohydrates at dinner time, for slow release energy. People sometimes have the misconception that they should avoid carbohydrates at night time, especially if they’re trying to lose weight. But a small serve of carbohydrate will help keep you feeling full.
- Have something
Finally, if you are hungry, there’s nothing wrong with eating something small. Eating later in the day wont make you gain weight, it’s the overall balance of energy in your diet that matters. Have a small snack, like some yoghurt or a handful of nuts to keep you going.
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