after-work munchies...but I'm not hungry

[SusanB.]

Pattern: I get home from work and want to snack. On things with sugar. But....I don't think it's the call of the sugar dragon.

 

 

When I'm not eating clean, this is the time in my day when I overeat junk food/sweet things. Often to the point where I wouldn't want dinner that night. When I'm not eating mindfully, I would frequently snack around the office and not actually have a proper lunch - which led to coming home genuinely hungry - which begat the "forage for things with quick energy anywhere you can find it" pattern. This is how I ended up with ice cream for dinner so many times - never intended, but after-work snack turns into not hungry for meal. (I know this is dysfunctional - that's why I'm here doing the 30).

 

 

I don't think my mealtimes or portions need adjusting, because I am distinctly not hungry when this happens. In fact, I'm rarely hungry - but that's another topic. 

 

 

I've been doing okay through this - the few times I've lost the battle of willpower, it's been a handful of nuts (to which I then say, usually out loud, "I am not hungry - why am I eating you?"). Some unsweetened coconut once or twice.

 

 

I'm on day 15, and I really don't feel like this is a sugar craving. I've had those on previous 30s, and that is a waaaay different feeling (it was like I felt when I craved nicotine after quitting smoking, really). This is just...I don't know how to better describe it. A behavioral thing? Like, I've lived like this for so many years that it's automatic?

 

 

Any hints from the experts? I have learned that the earlier I get home the more danger I'm in - a good argument for working late, I guess

[ladyshanny]

Could totally be a behavioural thing.  I know that if I am home on a day off or sick in the middle of the week when I would normally be at work, all I want to do is lay on the couch and eat fistfuls of chocolate covered almonds.  Because that's what I used to do in my past life.  And to be honest, I loved it.  Obv now I don't binge eat chocolate covered almonds (or anything, really) but that association is still really strong and sometimes I feel like it's going to consume me.

 

Although you say you aren't genuinely hungry I would still recommend you post a couple days of meals that we can take a peek at...especially since you say you are never hungry.  That either means you are eating enormous meals, too large for you or you are undereating and your body has just accepted that as normal and has stopped sending the hunger signal.

 

If your meals come out to look fine I would think it's behavioural and you need to redefine your "home from work" routine.  Maybe in the first 45-60 minutes of getting home it looks like changing clothes, making a cup of tea and reading 15 pages in whatever book you have on the go.  Or maybe it looks like hopping right in the shower/bath and putting on a nice lotion afterwards.  Maybe your snacking is actually your brain still being in overdrive and needing that time to decompress so that you can think clearly and allow in your "at home" personality.

 

Are you prepping meals in advance on the weekends so that you have quick compliant meals available?  Or are you having to decide what to make and then do it from scratch?  If it's the latter, perhaps your after work brain just can't deal with having to work on another "project" and rebels by snacking so that you can then talk yourself out of making dinner?

[LadyM]

I agree that it sounds like a habit. It took me quite a long time to break the desire for eating in a manner that I call "hand to mouth." It worked really well for me to simply not eat little nibble things, even compliant ones such as nuts, dried fruit, fresh fruit, even crudités. It's like a trigger for me. So, I do much better with sit-down knife-and-fork meals with no distractions. For me, changing how I eat has been as revolutionary as changing what I eat.

[SusanB.]

Thank you both for the input, I appreciate it very much.

 

I have been spending the weekends prepping, so making dinner when I get home either means heating something up, or doing minimal cooking with already-prepped ingredients. That has been a lifesaver. Living alone does have a bonus - if I make a big crock pot of something on the weekend, I can freeze individual portions and have one a week for over a month. Keeps me from burning out on the same things.

 

I think you are on really to something with changing routine idea - since it's winter, maybe it should be exactly a cup of tea and a little reading (both things I save until right before bed - and more than half the time don't get to).

 

And I totally eat hand-to-mouth (a good way to call it). Hey, I live alone! Any dish I don't use is one I don't have to wash, right? I can definitely put some effort into making the ritual of eating dinner more formal at home. Distractions is a tough one. I would far rather have some good dinner conversation, but since I usually don't, I tend to eat while dithering about online. I know that's not a great thing to do, but when the option is sitting and eating in silence (which reminds me that I'm eating alone), I'm not sure if it's mindfulness-overload - like, I think it is possible to think about food/eating too much, and as someone with OCD tendencies I wonder if focusing on eating so much might be doing myself a disservice? I don't know.

 

The not-hungry thing is not that big a deal - whenever I've gone off sugars (years ago with Atkins, then South Beach, and in previous 30's), I find that I'm rarely hungry. I think that once my blood sugar spikes level off, I just don't feel the same sort of feeling that I would get previously. Or, maybe more likely, I don't have the same hunger signals that I used to use to tell me that I'm hungry, and should look for new ones.

 

Although some of the not-hungry I think comes down to...not food boredom exactly, but eating boredom. As in, I have a limited amount of time between when I get home from work and when I go to bed, and sometimes I just don't want to spend it cooking (even if it's just reheating) and eating - like, the process itself becomes onerous. Times like that I wish I had a meal replacement - an opt-out, so to speak. But I recognize, this is all part of the process.

 

I've been posting a food log, although I think I missed a few days. It rambles a bit, though.

[LadyM]

I totally hear what you're saying, Susan. This is part of the revolution of changing how you eat as well as what you eat. Make yourself a priority. Take 15 minutes to eat your reheated food while sitting down and without distraction between work and bedtime. Treat yourself as you would a beloved. That's my best advice. You are worth the effort. And if you don't believe it now, maybe you will after putting it into practice for a while. Sometimes that's how it works.

[SusanB.]

I'm taking all of this in. Sometimes it's good to be reminded - and to stop doing things like eating lunch at my desk

 

I'll give it a sincere try.

[ultrarunnergirl]

I found it helpful to take the "snacking" advice literally: Are you hungry enough to eat steamed fish and broccoli?

 

I keep a fork and a can of wild sardines in water at work, at home and in my car so that's what I eat when I decide I need something between meals.

 

If you don't keep other snacky items around, this helps immensely.

[kirkor]

Alexandra Stoddard has some good stuff on eating with self-care and mindfulness, creating a serene environment for dining, etc. There's a couple snippets online but I read a couple of her "Living Beautifully" books.

[SusanB.]

If I was snacking because I was hungry, that is something I could cope with. Answer: adjust things so that I don't come home hungry, or eat dinner sooner, or whatever. But I'm distinctly Not Hungry. I don't think it's a matter of having snack things around - I'll find normal food and graze on it, even when not hungry.

 

I haven't heard of Alexandra Stoddard - thanks, I'll check her out. I could most certainly benefit from a more serene environment for eating, because my dining room table is my de facto workstation when I'm home.

 

This week's goal was to add more veggies, and to work on trying to make my individual meals balanced to the template better. Next week's I think is going to have to be focusing on building an entirely new home-from-work routine.

 

Thanks for the input, folks. I wish all of this wasn't so difficult to figure out. I also wish I had addressed these bad habits at 20, instead of waiting until 40+.