2520: How To Stop Eating At Night AND Overcome Emotional Eating by Chalene Johnson on Mental Fitness

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[00:01:42] This is Optimal Health Daily, episode 2520, How to Stop Eating at Night and Overcome Emotional

[00:01:51] Eating both by Shalene Johnson of ShaleneJohnson.com and I'm Dr. Neil Mollick.

[00:01:56] Hey there and welcome back to Optimal Health Daily where I read to you from some of the best

[00:02:01] health and fitness blogs for free. I cover fitness, nutrition, stress management,

[00:02:06] weight management, and lots more just like an audiobook but from a bunch of different

[00:02:11] authors and always with permission from the sites and always with a bit of my commentary at the end.

[00:02:16] And with that let's keep this intro nice and short and get to today's two posts as we optimize

[00:02:22] your life. How to Stop Eating at Night by Shalene Johnson of ShaleneJohnson.com

[00:02:33] Has eating at night become a problem for you? I know you've heard some common remedies

[00:02:38] like just take a bubble bath, paint your nails and enjoy a nice walk. Those are great suggestions,

[00:02:45] sure, but we also know they are replacements, things that are basically a temporary fix like

[00:02:50] a band-aid. Allow me to mention that this blog is about the average person who from time to time

[00:02:56] stuffs their face at night. However, this isn't about binge eating, that is something very

[00:03:01] different. If you suspect that you do in fact struggle with disordered eating, binge

[00:03:06] eating, or problematic nighttime feeding, please consult with a professional. But with that let's

[00:03:13] dig into some habits that will cure your late night cravings. Number one, go to bed. Have you ever

[00:03:20] gone to bed and thought why did I eat all of that? I'm not even hungry. Not only are you

[00:03:26] uncomfortable physically but you're uncomfortable mentally. Go to bed earlier and remember

[00:03:31] that you need to show respect for your body. Treat yourself well in the hours before you go to bed.

[00:03:37] Number two, have something neutral. You don't need the extra sugar or fat or carbs or protein.

[00:03:45] Enjoy something that's preferably low in sugar and calorie-free. Water would be ideal.

[00:03:51] Put something in your body you don't need physically but rather emotionally.

[00:03:56] Make wise choices. Instead of having a cocktail, have some decaf hot tea or maybe a cup of bone

[00:04:03] broth with a squeeze of lime. That's one of my favorites. And number three, change the habit

[00:04:09] which makes eating too easy. Do sitting on the couch and watching TV sound all too familiar?

[00:04:15] Instead you can still sit on the couch and watch TV if that's your evening routine

[00:04:20] but do something with your hands. Maybe use that time to fold laundry.

[00:04:25] What I've started doing with my last hour of the evening while the TV is on

[00:04:29] is using it to prepare for the next day. That's when I'll fill up my three water bottles,

[00:04:34] take my supplements, write out to-do lists in my push journal, get the coffee ready for

[00:04:40] the next morning and take out everything I need for my morning workout. Basically,

[00:04:45] I keep busy. In essence, what I've done is attached a healthier habit to a pre-existing habit.

[00:04:53] I'm still watching a documentary with my partner for example but now I've attached

[00:04:57] something more productive to it. Whatever your habit is, figure out what other

[00:05:02] habit could replace the not so healthy one.

[00:05:09] Overcome Emotional Eating by Shalene Johnson of ShaleneJohnson.com

[00:05:13] We all have moments of emotional eating and it's different for all of us. Some people eat when

[00:05:20] they're bored, some eat when they're afraid, we eat when we celebrate, sometimes we eat when

[00:05:25] we're lonely or nervous. Well, you get the idea. Find something other than food to cope with

[00:05:31] your feelings and overcome emotional eating for good. Step one. The first step to

[00:05:38] overcoming emotional eating is to understand it. When you feel like getting a snack,

[00:05:43] ask yourself what you're feeling and why you're eating. Has it been a couple of hours since the

[00:05:48] last time you ate? Are you actually hungry? Does your body need fuel or is this emotional

[00:05:55] or random eating? Consider writing down your feelings to learn your triggers. Is eating

[00:06:00] a distraction from a project you really need to tackle? Do you eat when you're feeling

[00:06:05] anxious? Are you confused or upset? Whatever your trigger is, you have it within you to end emotional

[00:06:11] eating. And step two. Once you know your trigger or triggers plural, devise some productive alternatives

[00:06:19] to eating. Make a list of options. Some suggestions might be to take a quick walk,

[00:06:24] take a bath, journal and break a project or problem into manageable parts by making a list

[00:06:30] or doing a brainstorm. Instead of avoiding the feeling, confront it with a tactic that's actually

[00:06:36] going to help resolve the feeling and create more peace. When we eat emotionally, we are delaying

[00:06:42] the feeling that triggered the snack attack and we're consuming calories we just don't need

[00:06:48] or want which cycles into feeling like you're out of control. Commit to eating when you're hungry

[00:06:54] and when you have planned to eat and don't let random eating sabotage your health.

[00:06:58] We are all works in progress and we continue to learn and change. Be alert to your feelings

[00:07:05] and the way you let them play out in your life.

[00:07:11] You just listened to the posts titled How to Stop Eating at Night and Overcome Emotional Eating

[00:07:17] both by Shalene Johnson of ShaleneJohnson.com and I'll be right back with my commentary.

[00:07:23] Dr. Neal here for my commentary. In Shalene's first article she talked about how to stop eating at

[00:07:29] night. I don't know if you caught it, but her suggestions for not eating at night had a common

[00:07:35] theme and in fact in her second post the theme kept going. Instead of just not eating and

[00:07:42] hoping that the habit will stop automatically, she recommended behaviors to substitute in place

[00:07:48] of eating. Scientists are finding that this idea of substituting behaviors is very important when

[00:07:54] trying to break a habit. So let's say we stop eating at night but then we need to add in a new

[00:08:02] healthy behavior in its place. Shalene recommended we could drink water or decaffeinated tea or

[00:08:09] we could do chores or we could prep for tomorrow. This is so important because if we stop a

[00:08:15] behavior like eating at night and don't substitute it with a new behavior we're going to feel like

[00:08:21] something's missing. There will be this sort of emptiness so to reduce the chances of us feeling

[00:08:27] that emptiness find a new behavior to add or substitute in its place. And oh by the way

[00:08:34] this substitution idea works for any behavior that you're trying to stop not just eating at

[00:08:39] night. All right that'll do it for today thank you so much for being here and listening

[00:08:43] every day. I hope you have a great start to your week and I'll be here reading to you tomorrow

[00:08:48] where your optimal life awaits.