Eat Healthy at Night

Eat Healthy at Night and Ease Out of Bad Habits

Recently, Kelly, a 44 year old woman wrote me concerning how to eat healthy at night. She had developed a habit of eating snacks at night with her teenage daughter, and found that it hampered her attempts to lose weight since she had gotten in to the habit of night eating, even when her daughter wasn’t around.

How to Eat Healthy at Night

For most women over 40, shedding those extra pounds that have accumulated is a daunting task; it becomes even more difficult when you develop a habit of late night eating! How can you eat healthy at night? Here are a few tips that will help you understand what you should do as well as what you should not do.

Forming bad habits is easy to do, whether related to food, alcohol, smoking or other things that are bad for your health. It’s easy to start eating with your children or a spouse late in the evenings while watching a movie or television – but then that habit is much more difficult to break than it was to start.

Eat Healthy at Night- A Gradual Approach Helps

In order to eat healthy at night, a gradual approach will usually work better than trying to stop the bad habit cold turkey. Women over 40 who are determined to lose weight and stop eating late at night know that they should not take in many calories late in the evenings after dinner, but it’s easier said than done.

How can you eat healthy at night? Here are a few pointers that will help you break out of that late night eating pattern and stop the effects of late night eating:

1. Eat often during the day, between breakfast time and the evening meal. The foods you eat should be healthy foods like fruits and veggies; avoid processed and snack foods as much as possible. If you can eat every 3 hours, you won’t be tempted to snack, and you will be satisfied in the evenings and less tempted to snack between dinner and bedtime.
   It’s really important for women over 40 to eat often because this helps the metabolism work efficiently.
2. For dinner, have foods that leave you feeling full and will stay with you. Proteins like fish and chicken are great, as are fiber filled foods like beans, whole wheat pasta and brown rice.
3. Stop your “late night” eating habit gradually. Your success rate will increase significantly if you gradually cut back on the portion sizes of the “junk” food. After a week or two, begin to eat healthy at night by introducing good foods like fruits, raw vegetables and almonds.

While it’s best if you can avoid eating anything at all after the dinner hour, it is certainly healthier and easier for you to lose weight if you replace calorie and fat packed foods with healthy choices!

Eat Healthy at Night- Problems and It’s Good to Overcome Them

Women over 40 have a particularly hard time taking off those pounds that have accumulated for several reasons – metabolism slows down, the function of the thyroid often decreases, and hormonal changes often work against you. In order to lose weight, it is essential that you stop a bad habit that not only prevents you reaching your goal, it’s just plain bad for your health.

If you eat healthy at night, you’re saving yourself hundreds of calories. Think of it this way: If you’re eating an extra 500 calories in chips, cookies and candy each evening, it will only be a week before you have GAINED a pound. Compare eating chips, dips, cookies and candy bars to eating an apple or banana that contains 80 or 100 calories, and you can easily see why making a change is crucial.

Eat Healthy at Night- Think About Your Loved Ones

For those of you bonding with a loved one by sharing in the habit of eating junk and snack foods at night, think about the health of your loved one as well. This habit is not only preventing you reaching your goals, it is setting them up for possible weight and health problems as well.