(no subject)

[tugrik]

Every once in a while I pick a tactic to change a habit and try to stick with it for a number of months. Usually it's an eating habit, or otherwise related to weight loss. Much to my surprise, this works pretty well. I swore off fast-food for a half year. Frenchfries in particular for a full year. Silly things like that. One of these days I'll try swearing off of sugary sodapop (and learn to like diet, perchance)... but as that's my #1 vice in this world, that one is a bit hard.

Anyways, another such habit-change just popped into my head, and I'm of a mood to follow it. The goal would be for at least until the end of the year -- which gives me the chance to turn it into a permanent change. It's simple, and safe:

Do not eat anything after 9pm.


The dietary idea behind this is sound, and has been repeated in many medical texts. The basic idea is that you don't want to have a large intake of calories just before you go to bed -- as you burn _none_ of it off, if you do. In fact, the best way to do things is: "Hearty Breakfast, Good lunch, smaller dinner"... with the dinner being more than 3h before bedtime. As I try (though rarely succeed) to get to bed by midnight, this means 9pm is as good a time as any.

I have two distinct advantages here. For one, no matter how much I do or do not eat during a day, I am always the same 'hunger level' when I wake up in the morning. There's some mental comfort in that which I find a little hard to explain. Leave it to say that knowing all I have to do is hit the sack and things will be back to normal in the morning helps a lot. It makes me more willing to both ride out the hunger and go to bed at normal times.

For two, it won't cause much social strife. Most all my non-roomate friends eat dinner between 8-9pm anyways, and all but the nasty fastfood places close up shop by 9 or 10pm. The bulk of my latenight eating is order-in pizza or just grab-bag snacking. Saying "naaah" to offered snacks or 'lets go out somewhere and eat' events after 9p won't really cause me any problems with my current social interactions.

I have this terrible habit of working past dinner and not 'getting around to' eating until midnight or so, then falling right asleep. If I know that I can't eat after 9p, I'll eventually learn to make time for dinner and have it at normal hours. I'll also eat better, as the range of possibilities is far more open. When I'm hungry and it's midnight, the only things left to me are Taco Bell, Jack in the Box, or snacks/deserts left around the house (because I don't want to do any involved cooking so close to bedtime). All bad.

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While only a handful of my LJ-reading friends are local... of those that are I'd ask for your help in this. No, I don't want folks to have to play police and holler at me if they catch me with a late-nite snack. It's rude to make others your enforcers. Instead, I'd just ask that on nights where y'all want to go out and eat, let's try to do so by 8p or so. No more 'what's open this late?' dinner runs. I'm a social creature at heart, and hate doing meals alone... but if nobody else is on a similar schedule I'm going to have to learn to. Of the two folks I eat out with most often (revar and reality_fox), the former tends to not eat until the midnight hours leave only cans of ravioli as an option, and the latter is already gargling down Taco Bell's finest by the time I'm driving home from work. Maybe I could convince you two to meet me in the middle more often? :)

Normally I don't tell anybody about these little 'habit diversions'. They just happen, and usually good things result. But hey, it wasn't until recently that I had a journal to dump this kinda fluff into. LJ pollutes my brain. (Just ask Frang)

Comments

[badjahsensei.livejournal.com]

If you poke around my journal, you can see that I've been doing similar tinkerings there.

Let me suggest a technique referred to as "front loading" meals. Eat the largest proportions of your daily calories within your first 8 hours of being awake (essentially, breakfast and lunch), then sustain it with a light dinner and maybe a snack. The theory is that if you consume the majority of the calories early in the activity cycle, you'll burn them off by the end of the day and burn calories while you sleep.

So far, I've had a LOT of luck with this idea. The discipline is the hardest part, I'll give you that. But once it's in place, you really notice when you deviate.

Like tonight, I decided to give in to a splurge. What I would have gorged on a few months ago, I barely dented tonight. After a few months of front-loading, you'll find that your appetite has adjusted as well.

Hope this helps. :X)

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

Bler. I wish I'd adhered to this tonight. Whilst late at Spümcø finishing up this cartoon (titles, some added sounds, and a few other tweaks remain; music is in and it's tons better with it), I ordered and ate a pizza around eleven o'clock. I feel all bloated and heavy now. Bler.

[scyllacat.livejournal.com]

My dad lost a lot of weight by not eating after 7 p.m. once. Seems like a good idea to me. :)

[perlandria.livejournal.com]

Paka and I semi-regularly do Pho or Indian runs at 6:30 or so. Would you like us to call and ask if you are hungry when we go out?

[calicopaisley.livejournal.com]

This is a great idea Tug. I've been doing it myself for about a year and it's substantially helped the weight I've lost, as well. And you're right -- it won't psychologically be that hard to combat. If you do get so hungry that you really can't help yourself, try drinking a glass of water -- actually, I reccomend drinking a bunch of water as much as possible every day -- as it will both ease your hunger and clean out your system. I've also heard a theory that very often when you feel 'hungry', it's another way the body is telling you you're actually dehydrated... which makes sense in its own way. =) Just a factoid.

Pop substitutes.

[(Anonymous)]

I used to drink unhealthy amounts of pop. I got around this by two methods.

First, have something else to drink on-hand, and drink it habitually. At my old job this was water; at the university it's juice boxes from the other lab.

Secondly - learn to notice the sticky, gummy crud that's left in your mouth after drinking pop. This helps worlds with motivation };>. It got to the point where I'd have a glass of water after every can of pop, and started noticing the pop was redundant...

A similar tactic works with most fast food (learn to notice grease).

Lastly, I support allowing yourself to binge once in a while, but exercising discipline in keeping this rare. YMMV.

Good luck }:>.

Ttyl,
-Deuce

a tool to help you

[cenedra.livejournal.com]

Go to <a href="http://www.fitday.com> FitDay.com</a> and make an account. You tell it what you ate and it'll keep track of your intake, calories, protein and fat, tell you what vitamins you are lacking or need to back off of. That'll help you balance things even more as well. Take a looksie around :) -Polgara@FM