Day 17 and Struggling with Nighttime Hunger

[DailyMusings]

I'm on Day 17, and I'm a night owl so I'm usually not in bed before sometime between 1-3am. I usually have dinner around 7:30-8:00pm after I get home from the gym. One of the biggest hurdles that I'm trying to overcome with my program is not eating after dinner but sometimes I'm finding that it is a serious battle once the wee hours of the morning hit and I'm still up. When I say a battle, I mean serious "white-knuckling" trying to recite mantras in my head kind of battle.

 

On the flip side, I get up around 10am and try to eat breakfast within an hour or so after I get up. Sometimes it's a little longer than an hour but I have a full breakfast with plenty of protein, veggies, and fat. I'm finding that I have a serious energy lull though until after I've eaten lunch. It's like I just have a really hard time getting going and feel kind of brain fogged, but then almost immediately after I eat lunch, the brain fog goes away and I feel better. Lunch for me is usually around 3-4pm. I got to the gym at 6pm.

 

I will admit that I don't eat within that 30 minute window right after exercise because typically during that time, I don't even want to think about food. After chatting with friends I typically come home and have dinner around 7:30-8:00pm. My exercise is CrossFit about 4 days a week.

 

Can anyone shed a little light here or offer some advice? I feel down on myself if I cave and have that bedtime snack and I'm really trying to break the habit because that's also when my sugar and salt cravings tend to go crazy. I'm really trying hard to keep it at 3 meals a day but I'm guessing that I need to go ahead and add that bonus meal because of working out but the question is when during the day do I add it?

 

Again my main goal for doing the program was to get rid of my sugar cravings and bedtime snacking. I've cut fruit throughout the program with the exception of a squeeze of lemon, lime, or orange into something I'm cooking to really try to cut the sugar.

[missmunchie]

It seems like you're eating dinner a little early for your schedule and having to do a long-ish fast (8pm - 10am) which is making you hungry. Maybe you would do better with a post w/o mini meal at your usual dinner time and a later dinner a few hours before bed? If you don't go to bed until 1-ish there's nothing wrong with eating a meal around 9 or 10pm. Your clock is just on a different time zone than everyone else's, and as long as it's working for you then I don't see a problem with going to bed and waking up later.

[KitchenWitchy]

I agree with missmunchie's advice to eat more after dinner. 8pm to 10am is 14 hours... Way too long to go without fuel. Since you feel hubgry, you should add a meal or mini meal, at least and eat something after working out. No need to starve yourself!

[DailyMusings]

Thanks! I never really looked at the fact that there's 14 hours between the time I'm eating dinner and having breakfast the next day. No wonder I'm always starving late at night!! 

[Physibeth]

On the morning brain fog, you may want to try adding some starchy carbs to your breakfast. You have not posted what your meals are so assuming you are eating the template. I would agree with the eating a mini meal 1-2 hours before you go to bed and/or postponing your dinner to 10pm and eating a post work out snack. I used to be pretty good at doing a 12 hour fast between dinner and breakfast and that worked really well for me but don't think it would have been good to do another 2 hours on that.