Curb the Midnight Hour Cravings

For a lot of people, night time is when they snack the most. This is also the time that your body shuts down, which makes the "snacking hour" extra bad on your fat cells (those poochy areas that cause so much stress in your life day in and day out) because your internal clock is saying it's shut down time, meaning that you store energy (1 calorie = 1 unit of energy) as fat instead of burning it off. SO, when you sit in front of the television and do the hand to bag to hand to mouth routine over & over again, not only are you mindlessly eating (which means that you're not even allowing your stomach to realize it and send receptors to the brain to let the brain know), you're also STORING all of that fat instead of having time to burn it off!

There ARE a few things that you can do for this though:

1. Read a book. When you've got one hand holding onto something and you're in a full focus mode, you're less likely to use the only other hand you've got for stuffing your face
2. Have some tryptophan! One reason why we eat is just because... we're up! So instead of fighting staying awake, have some Tryptophan (which is an essential amino acid which aids in producing Serotonin, a hormone mostly found in the gut that when produced makes you feel happy and content). Great Tryptophan-filled nighttime foods include: Tofu, Seafood, meat such as Turkey & Chicken, Soy Beans, Hummus, Lentils, Hazelnuts, and Sesame Seeds.
   
3. Eat some soy for dinner. Studies show that soy helps the body improve insulin sensitivity, which means that you won't wake up in the middle of the night because of an insulin roller coaster
4. Be active throughout the day. When your body is up n' about physically throughout the day, you're more likely to crash at night, getting the good nights sleep that you need (7-9 hours)
5. Drink water!!!!! Most of the time when you think that you're hungry, you're actually just dehydrated. So before you reach for a snack, reach for the H2O

You can also pick up some habits like I say in the Idle Hands post. There is no reason for you to wake up and wish that you hadn't eaten what you did the night before. Don't let your walk of shame be with food!!!!!