Do you ever get to the end of the day, sit down to relax, but just start eating even if you're really not hungry? And then it's like once you start you can't stop and then before you know it half the pantry is gone and you have no idea what happened. If that's you I want you to know that there is nothing wrong with you. This is actually one of the most common things I see after 15 years of helping thousands of women not just lose 25 plus pounds but also feel calm and in control around food. And in this video I'm going to walk you through all five reasons this keeps happening specifically at night, but then also how to stop it. Reason number one why you always find yourself eating at night is you're not distracted anymore. More than likely from the moment you wake up, you are in go mode, which let's be honest is distracted, which means the busier things that are going on, work, kids, responsibilities, pressure, all that is like this beach ball, where the more pressure you have pushing this beach ball down, you don't notice whatever is coming up. Because the busier you are, think of this beach ball as just being pressed down throughout the day, you don't even realize things like stress, worry, anxiety, anything like that because it's just suppressed because of how busy you are with your day-to-day. But then the second you sit down at the end of the day, all those distractions are gone, which means you don't have that pressure pushing the ball down and then it skyrockets up and then you end up binge eating or just constantly snacking. And then because your brain only cares about survival, as this ball skyrockets up, your brain does the only thing that it knows how to do, which is hide what you're feeling with food. Which is why you may not even be hungry, but find yourself eating, standing in the pantry on things that you don't even really like or that taste that good, like crackers or pretzels or a stale candy that just happens to be there. Because it's not about hunger, it's about your nervous system in the pattern that your body is used to doing. Which then leads us to reason number two, your body or nervous system hasn't wound down yet from the day. I was just talking about this to a client today. The reason she starts thinking about food or even starts mindlessly eating in the evenings all the time is because she hasn't wound down from work and she's still in go go go mode. So I want you to think of it like your hair iron. Once you finish using your hair iron, this is still hot because it hasn't had time to cool off yet. So of course whenever you are done using it and it is still radiating heat, you're careful what you let it touch because it is still very hot. So what do you do? Before you put it away and wrap the cord around the handle, you sit it to the side where it's safe and can cool off before you go put it away. Your nervous system is actually very similar Just assume your nervous system is very similar You may be physically tired at the end of your work day but neurologically you may still be in go go go or work mode. And then when you don't have work to do or you just come home to try to relax, but that part of you is still in either distraction mode or go mode and you just haven't cooled off yet, that's when you find yourself just going to food and eating, whether you're hungry or not, because that's just the mode your nervous system is in and it goes back to your pattern of that's just what you normally do. Now the fix for this isn't just try harder, the fix is to actually do what you do with your hair iron. You give it the space and systems to cool off. The client that I was just talking about, we're having her start with meditation and breath work to cool her system off. For other clients, we may have them go on a quiet walk without music, without podcast, after work. For some, they may do some specific journaling exercises. Regardless of what the best system is to use for you, but this is what we have to get your nervous system to do. Because until it cools down, it is not safe. And that's when we go back into old patterns on autopilot. Reason number three, you're always eating at night, even if you're not hungry, is because you've said no all day to the things you actually want. One of the biggest reasons that surprises our clients, why they have this urge to always eat, is because they say, well, I've been good all day. So I ask them, what does being good mean. And they usually say something like, well, I wanted cookies, but I got something else instead, or I really wanted to eat this, but I said, no, I'm being good on my diet. And then I avoided it, or I kept my calories extra low to be on the safe side. Those are all huge red flags that we work with them on unlearning because this is where people start like a spring like this during the day. But then over time throughout the day, they suppress that spring. And now it's like this. And then when nighttime comes, there is no pressure on that spring. And then it goes boiling. And that's when you find yourself eating whether you're hungry or not. This is why we have to fix the relationship you have with food and make sure you're on a plan that is flexible and adaptable where you can honor your cravings. Like for our clients, we teach them how to master moderation in my program, Dieting from the Inside Out, where if they have a craving for something, we teach them how to eat it in moderation where the desire goes away, but they don't crave it the rest of the day. So this whole spring compression thing doesn't happen because with all cravings, more you compress it and say no no no no I can't have this the harder it is going to skyrocket up whenever it does come time to have the thing that you wanted. And then for most people who struggle with this by the time the evening comes your willpower is gone your gas tank is emptied and a lot of times that whole fuck it mentality comes out and that when the spring skyrockets and you just always eating Which then beautifully tees up reason number four you probably identify as an all or nothing kind of person. See, most people lose it in the evenings because as soon as they have what they would call a slip up, they think that's when the all or nothing switch turns on where they go, oh, well, if I'm off, I've already messed up, fuck it. Then they go raid the pantry because they're already off. You see, the problem with that whole all in, all out, on or off mentality is most people only think about it in terms of the all in or the on switch where they're like I'm on my plan I'm working hard I'm making things happen I'm being consistent and I'm on this the problem is we have to look at the other side to that because if you are all in or on that means as soon as you mess up you're off which usually means spiraling and sabotaging we need to think of this less like an on off switch and I want you to think of it more like a dimmer switch when it comes to food because like I said all ends awesome until you're not perfect then you're all out or off so that's just not practical because your life is not set up like that. So instead of looking at your plan like you were on it where you're perfect making everything happen and as soon as you start to slip up you're off and that's when you find yourself raiding the pantry and eating until two in the morning. We need to look at this like a dimmer switch. You see with a dimmer switch instead of things being completely on or completely off there's all these levels in between and the cool thing is you can hit so many of these not perfect levels and still make progress because you're still consistent. because even in reality, food is not good or bad. There's more nutritious foods and less nutritious foods, just like a dimmer switch has multiple forms of light where it's really bright or really dim, but there's all these layers in between because very few people can run their life being all on or all off. Most people's lives live on a spectrum when it comes to this, and it's not just food being good or bad because there's no such thing. There's more nutritious, less nutritious, but your plan is the same way because if you are on or off you will always be yo-yoing the same 30 pounds over and over again whereas even if you start to fall off your plan you are not off you are deviating a little bit I'm more consistent I'm less consistent but if you start viewing things like a dimmer switch you will stop self-sabotaging because you will have no more moments of that oh I messed up screw it I've already fallen off so I'll start back over tomorrow or Monday Meanwhile, if you look at things through the dimmer switch perspective, you'll stay on track so much more and be able to have more success, lose more weight, feel normal around food without having the pressure of being perfect. And lastly number five the reason you struggle so much eating at night even if you aren hungry is because it just your pattern As in you have done it so many times compared to not doing it You have to understand your nervous system your subconscious patterns always gravitate to what you have done more of. It always seeks familiarity. Think of it this way, you will naturally drift subconsciously, you're not even aware of it, to a familiar hell over an unfamiliar heaven because your brain only cares about safety. And for it, familiarity is safe, even if you don't like the outcome. So if all of a sudden we look at this like reps on a scoreboard. If the majority of the time for the last, let's say several years, you've always overeaten at night or you've only got a couple of days, but then you lose it in the pantry. Your nervous system sees this as this is what we do. This is what we do. This is what we do. This is what we do. It's like a well-worn path in the woods where you not eating or you sitting with what you feel or you being more aware of what's going on inside of you or you, let's say, cooling off your flat iron, so to speak, like we talked about earlier, you don't have as many reps with that. You've got like three compared to like 30,000 reps. Well, it's no wonder your nervous system is going to just gravitate to eating. It's why it feels so natural where you could not even be thinking about it and you find yourself standing in the pantry having no idea how you got there. This is why the solution to all of these is we have to become aware of the subconscious pattern that is secretly running us because once we move it from subconscious, as in you have no idea it's happening, and you go, oh, here's that pattern again, and you're bringing it to your conscious awareness, now we can work with different habits and undo that and start giving ourselves reps in the right direction. And I've seen it time and time again with clients. If you address these five things, your nighttime eating will stop on its own without having to fight this uphill battle. Because trust me, if staying distracted is your main strategy to stop nighttime eating, your psychology will win every single time. Now the reason this is so hard to fix for most people on their own is because none of these are actually food problems. They're psychology, nervous system, and pattern problems. And unfortunately, you cannot fix this with just more discipline, more willpower, or a stricter diet. This is actually exactly what we do in dieting from the inside out. It's a long-term step-by-step process completely laid out for you with the support that is going to help you when you need it the most that's actually going to get to the root cause of why these desires and these patterns are here in the first place. This way you stop fighting against yourself every night and with food in general, where food just becomes food, where it's easy. If you are ready to stop distracting yourself 24 seven, where you are free and normal around food in your own house, not to mention lose your next 25 plus pounds, hit the link below to apply for dieting from the inside out.
