revmadre2 Posted April 3, 2014 Share Posted April 3, 2014 I think I'm doing pretty well. This is my second whole 30--the last one finished Feb. 20 of this year and then I fell off the wagon. It hasn't been difficult to get back on and the benefit of feeling AWESOME is only more fuel to this fire of determination. My issue, however, remains: I CRAVE crackers and cheese, not much else frankly between 8 and 11pm at night. First question: what is going on! Second question: what can I do to satiate this overwhelming crack addiction-like craving. (BTW--I have just muscled through it, using a handful of almonds to take the edge off.) Finally, sometimes I get a spoonful of almond butter and put a few crystals of himalyan salt. This helps, but about an hour later, if I'm not already asleep I'm in the same boat. Thank you for any help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whole30 Certified Coach littleg Posted April 3, 2014 Whole30 Certified Coach Share Posted April 3, 2014 I am no expert but here is my take after dealing with my own dessert addictions. After dinner snacks are a habit - just like many of our behaviors. Your brain has connections that make this habit almost mindless for you (like stepping on the brake pedal when you are driving - you don't really have to think about it - it just happens). So, to undo a habit you (a) have to be aware of it - which you are and then ( don't engage in it. That is the hard part. You may need to white knuckle it for a while - don't go near the kitchen, brush your teeth, whatever it is. As the brain wiring that says "its 9 PM I get cheese and crackers" doesn't get used - the desire should diminish. If you look at my journal you can more gory details but I have been a binge eater for 20 years. My binge eating took place at night. After dinner. And always started with chocolate. I could not function without my dessert - or so I thought. Couldn't focus, didn't want to be distracted - it was awful. Then I decided to do W30. I thought I'd make it to lunch (like my first attempt 3 years ago). But I made it one day without dessert. And so I thought, ok, I'll try again tomorrow and see what happens... and that went on. And here I am on day 26. I haven't binged and have only had desserts a few nights. And none of them turned into a binge. The HABIT of eating after dinner was stopped and now the urges for it have diminished as well. The other thing that helped me was eating to satiety during the day. I was always in the habit of "saving" calories for my daily dessert binge (I have no idea if you do this) so I figured - well, if I'm cutting out 750 calories of chocolate a day I'm going to eat those calories. So I ate to fullness at each meal. I totally followed the template. I can't tell you how many avocados and sweet potatoes I've eaten. And I've gone through almost 16 oz of lard in 30 days for cooking. I've eaten TONS of veggies. I think that my giving my body all it needed during the day helped diminish the cravings at night. If I had deprived myself daily of other tasty foods I don't think this would have worked for me. I'm not sure if this is at all helpful for you but those are the things that have helped me make some significant progress towards breaking a 20 year addiction to sweets and binge eating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Tom Denham Posted April 3, 2014 Moderators Share Posted April 3, 2014 Littleg is offering great advice. The basic idea is to starve cravings by not feeding them. Drink a cup of herbal tea, but don't eat anything crunchy or creamy after dinner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
revmadre2 Posted April 8, 2014 Author Share Posted April 8, 2014 The habit idea I think is right on. I'll try a glass of water first. Thx!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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