What Is Your Night Vice?
Are late-night snacks holding you back from reaching your goal weight?
Oftentimes, when someone wants to lose weight, there are a few bad habits that make it harder to accomplish their goal. One of those habits is snacking after dinner.
I know how it goes. You have dinner and you feel good. But after a couple of hours you want a little something more. Maybe it’s your sweet tooth. Or you want a little salt and crunch. Regardless of what it is, these are usually calories you don’t need, and they’re coming in at the worst time!
Years ago, I had a member who wanted to lose weight and after several conversations finally came clean. She asked me, “Well, how bad was it to eat a cup of Betty Crocker frosting after dinner... every night?”
The WHOLE cup!
“BAD!” I told her.
Maybe you can relate.
Personally, I love dark chocolate! It’s almost embarrassing how much I like it. Rachael and I love to have a couple of squares after dinner. It's a relatively "healthy" dessert option. However, we started having it every night, without fail. Two squares can easily be 120-160 calories.
That may not seem like much, but think about it this way. Those calories could be the difference between ending your day in a calorie deficit...or ending your day in a calorie surplus. Not to mention, having it an hour or two before bed isn’t helping me lean up.
There are several problems with our late-night choices (chips, crackers, 2nd dinner, ice cream, or dare I say chocolate) or drinks (wine, whiskey, beer, soda):
- Many of our late-night choices are empty calories.
- It increases our blood sugar at a time when we won't have any activity, making it a great opportunity for our body to store it as fat!
- We probably don’t need those calories! We’ve eaten enough; we just have bad habits.
Tip: Replace your vice with something like sparkling water. No calories, and it still gives you something to fill the void other than empty calories.
So, what do we do about this?
It depends on you. Are you an "all-in" type or an "all-things-in-moderation" type?
Would you be better off abstaining altogether? Or just decreasing the amount or frequency?
Here’s what we did. Rach and I are usually "all-in" types. We thrive in extremes; it’s just easier for us. However, in this case we decided to just have our dark chocolate on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. The first couple nights were hard. But honestly, by the end of the week I was already getting used to it. By Friday night, the dark chocolate was even more of a treat.
Here are my questions to you:
What is your late-night vice? What are you going to do about it?
You can let it keep you from a better, healthier, leaner you. Or, you can do something about it.