Now that we are practicing social distancing and spending most of our time in our houses, we are all left to our own devices when it comes to feeding ourselves. We can’t go out to dinner, and other than the occasional take-out, we are making most of our meals — and snacks — at home. For a lot of people, factors like boredom and loneliness can contribute to overeating or binge eating late at night. This could cause you to gain unnecessary weight and further your fatigue during quarantine. Here are some tips and friendly reminders to help you stop overeating or over-snacking during this stay-at-home spat.
Identify the reason
When you pinpoint a problem, it becomes a little easier to solve. If you find out why you are more inclined to overeat at night, then you can more move forward with a plan to change those habits. Bored? Maybe try your hand at a new after-dinner hobby like reading a new book, painting, even learning a new language. If you overeat because you feel lonely in this time of social distancing, schedule FaceTime or Skype dates with your friends and family for some virtual social interaction. Maybe even host a Zoom happy hour!
Start a Food Journal
Taking note of what you eat can be a great way for you to visually see what you are putting into your body. Start at the beginning of the day and track all of your meals and snacks throughout the day. If you make it to after dinner and you realize you didn’t have any sugar that day, indulging in a healthy treat like dark chocolate can be a sweet reward for your hard work throughout the day. But if you do decide to over-snack after dinner, make sure to write it down. Once you realize that writing down “one bag of chips at 10:30 p.m.” could be the reason for your stomach aches the next morning, you might be less likely to give into that temptation and stop overeating the next day.
Get an Accountability Partner
This could be a spouse, significant other, best friend or family member. Recruit an accountability partner to help you stay on track with your diet. They are not meant to guilt you for overeating, but instead, they can encourage you to reach your goals and stay strong. Communicating through texts, calls or FaceTime can be just enough to remind you that you are better than late night cravings!
Eliminate Your Weaknesses
If keeping ice cream, cheese puffs or chocolate covers pretzels in the house is too temping for you, then don’t buy them in the first place. It is easy to pick these items up at the store and think you will eat them in moderation, but unless you are very disciplined, that plan almost never works. Don’t add those tempting treats to your shopping cart in the first place, and you will thank yourself later.
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