Eat Right at Night

I can't go to bed without dessert. I admit it. It's a bad habit, I know, especially after reading the latest Health issue. Turns out, those who eat after 8 P.M. rack up 248 more calories than those who finish eating after dinner. Well, duh. I actually thought it would be more. That's not the real killer. The killer is that your body wants to burn off fat at night, which is while people who get the full nine hours weigh the least. Your body is like a machine. Even when you're asleep, its gears are still working, but it needs fuel. It's not getting food so it takes fuel from fat. It's a great system.

Problem is this mode can't begin the second your head hits the pillows. It takes time to burn the calories. Health recommends eating dinner late and going to bed an hour later, so you don't have time to eat dessert. The body needs about twelve hours to convert that fat. Basically, eat dinner at eight, eat breakfast at eight. For the summer, sure I can do that. For the rest of the year, not so much. I wake up at 5:45 A.M. and eat breakfast at 6:00 A.M. Then I eat dinner between 6:00 P.M. and 7:00 P.M. I don't go to bed at eight. I usually go to sleep between ten and eleven. So no I'm not one of those people who gets the full nine hours.

Here's my rule: Don't focus on the 12 hours. Focus on the old rule that says no eating after nine. Before that I'm not giving you a pass. Don't eat whatever you want. Try to eat something with a little fiber content. If you get cravings at night, give in, but only a little. If you want chocolate, eat a Fiber One Brownie, not a giant hot fudge sundae. Dessert won't wreck your diet, as long as your careful of the time you eat and the content of your treat.

Tip #14: Always Have a Back Up Plan

The worst thing you can do is fall off the wagon, so avoid it at all costs. That's easier said than done. Imagine your at work. It's around three o-clock. You had an early lunch and you have a meeting in an hour. You're starving and you can hear your stomach rumbling already! What do you do?

A. Hit the conference room for a donut!
B. Grab a Poptart from the vending machine.
C. Eat one of your emergency snacks.

If you were being honest here, you probably said A or B. The conference room is always stacked with sweets and treats, but do you even know where they came from? Someone put them in there and you ate them, with no knowledge of what the nutritional value is. My best bet is that if you knew what was in there, you might just hesitate to eat them. And what about the vending machine? They are often stacked with snacks with ridiculous calorie, fat, and esspecially sodium count. Poptarts, cookies, and pastries are a no-no. If you lack an emergency snack and need to visit the vending machine, go for popcorn or mini prezels. Before you pop those pretzels in your mouth though, try to scrape off a little of the salt on the exterior.

The best answer you could have chosen was C, your emergency snack. These snacks are your choice, to bring from home, and you know exactly what it contains. It should have a low fat count, high in protein, and have between 100 and 200 calories. Stack your desk with FiberOne Bars, which are great because the fiber will keep you full. Fruits is good for the same reason, so try a mini banana or whatever fruit is an season. Any access to a fridge? Bring in Yoplait Light yogurt, which has between 100 and 120 calories and has about 12% of you daily protein. Bonus? A new study published in the September issue of Journal of Nutrition compared three groups of overweight women. Each group had a different amount of dairy products: low, medium, and high. The group with the most dairy products lost twice as much belly fat as the other groups. Craving something sweet and you know a yogurt won't satisfy it? Try WhoNu cookies, which are rather small but pack a lot of fiber to keep you full!

Tip #2: Don't Inhale!

Dear Pursuers,
Everyone has cravings and its perfectly fine to give in to them sometimes! Yes, I am in fact giving you a free pass on this, but before you grab that brownie, think about a few things first:

1. Are you hungry or are you craving?
Ask yourself this the second you think about eating indulgently. If you find that you are craving something, ask yourself again if you really, really need to eat it to be satified.

2. If you answered no to either question, eat something satifying.
Keep a snack on hand that will satify you when you find that you are hungry, rather than craving. If you find that you are craving something, eat the satifying snack, too. If you are already satified, you will crave less and will be happy with a few bites of a brownie rather than the whole thing.

Here's an extra little trick I read about in Health magazine: Think about yourself giving into the craving. Focus on the food, the taste and textures. You can fool your brain into thinking that you already gave into the craving before you actually do. This will lessen the craving so you won't actually have to give into the real craving!