It’s Q & A Saturday! This is a special weekly post of answering reader questions in more elaborate detail.

This weeks reader question, ” I’m calorie counting and know I need to stay between 1200-1500 calories in order to lose the weight I want, and its been going well. I’m pretty satisfied with my food choices, but seem to have hunger pangs in the evening even after I have already had dinner and my healthy snack. Have you experienced anything like that and can you provide me any advice on how to handle it?”

My response:

Yes and yes! When my babies were small and toddler aged I was drained from busy nonstop days of taking care of dependent children who needed me constantly. I would have crazy hunger at specifically 8:31 pm every night.

Why is that time so specific? I remember it precisely as the time all the children were in bed for the night and hubby and I were ready to sit down to watch some TV together. All of a sudden like clock work I would be ravenously hungry! After discussing it at length with some counsel of a wise accountability partner I discovered it was strictly out of habit. The kids were peacefully asleep and it was my time to relax. Relaxing meant happiness, calmness, joy, comfort.  And what did all those feelings bring about for me? Always eating in some way. Getting the picture?

It was HABIT! My body just expected a snack after the kids went to bed in order to relax. You see hubby and I also used to eat snacks in front of the TV all the time before I started my weight loss plans after my first son was born 12 years ago. So what did I do about it you ask?

The Water Test

One thing I did to combat the want and need to eat since I knew I really shouldn’t be hungry having had a snack 30 minutes earlier was the water test. I drank….. no I had to guzzle because I only like to sip, I guzzled a full glass of water then waited 15 minutes. If after the 15 minutes I still had hunger than I could ONLY eat some protein like an egg or vegetables.

Evaluate Your Last Meal 

There have been times I know that I was legitimately hunger so evaluating what I made for dinner was something I had to look at. Fish is wonderful, but often doesn’t fill me up for long. On those nights of having fish for dinner I needed to make sure I had a healthy carb like brown rice, barley, or quinoa and  double up on my veggies.  I then planned a healthy snack an hour before bed. It worked for me!

Talk Back to Your Food

And then there were sometimes for no apparent reason I just wanted to eat at night. On those nights I truly had to talk out loud to myself, fight against the desire to snack on unhealthy choices and talk back to the food. Sometimes you just have to say NO! I will not let food control me! No I will not give in! No I won’t EAT you! I will only feel a few minutes of fleeting joy and regret after!

And the most JOYFUL feeling after is when You DON’T give in. Each time you don’t give in to snacking when you know you don’t really NEED it…..YOU.GET.STRONGER. Those times will build one upon another and it will get easier to say no because you know you’ve done it once so you can do it again!

I hope you can find some encouragement today and take away some tips to help if you also struggle with unnecessary snacking, especially at night.

Share your thoughts with me or questions 🙂

The post Q&A Saturday: Is it Hunger or Habit? appeared first on Sugar-Free Mom.

It’s Q & A Saturday! This is a special weekly post of answering reader questions in more elaborate detail.

Today’s question: ” I’ve noticed on your food journals that you often don’t have morning or afternoon snacks and not much fruit either, why is that?

My response:

It is true, looking at these journals on 1/15/12 and 1/22/12 I did not include any fruit in my day. In the original baked oatmeal recipe I had blueberries within that and in the quinoa chicken cherry salad there were dried cherries so although I didn’t eat any fresh fruit the rest of the day, fruit was already in the breakfast and lunch meals.

Fruit has sugar, although it’s natural, I still need to limit how much I eat of it. For me personally I could eat fruit all day, every day and still want more. I love it, but I would be filling up on fruits all day, sacrificing eating vegetables (and I love veggies). I must be careful how much and how often I snack on it. If it’s included in my meals in some way then that’s it.

As far as snacking goes on all my journals including 1/29/12 I do have a before bedtime snack. Usually that is why I try not to have afternoon or morning snacks. I discovered I was just eating too many snacks. I opened the door too often (my mouth being that door) to excess even on healthy choices.

I’d plan a healthy morning snack and then ate more then intended not sticking with how much I said I would have. Afternoon was the same problem if not a little worse, I would be eating more than I planned and I’d STILL want an evening snack.  I was eating way more than I needed and gaining weight. I was no longer maintaining……….. gaining weight on healthy foods is VERY discouraging, VERY! Being white flour and sugar free and gaining weight……the WORST feeling in the world and I don’t want to go there every again!

Unless I am planning on having a late dinner, I won’t have an afternoon snack. To limit myself to one evening snack was perfect. The kids and hubby and I will sit down with popcorn and a movie and so I don’t feel left out I enjoy that with them.

I limit my snacks because I need to limit my calories. I am not getting any younger and my metabolism has never been in high gear if you know what I mean. My body is maintaining a healthy weight. Though I can’t qualify for model thinness or be anywhere near considered skinny, it is a weight that is easy for me to maintain and I’m comfortable with that.Have you seen my before pics ? This is good enough for me.

Want to take guesses on my age? I may or may not tell you 😉

SO how often should you snack?

It is dependent on your lifestyle, family, and goals. If you are trying to lose weight then calorie counting is the key. Know how much you need to eat in order to still lose weight and snack as much as your calorie range will allow.

If you’re more like me and that opened door of snacking leads to unhealthy choices and overindulging on even healthy foods, then pick one snack a day. But choose wisely the best time to have it.

Do you enjoy a before bedtime snack with your family or will that be something you just can’t handle at this point in life? You need to decide and STICK with it and commit it to SOMEONE, your hubby, partner, boyfriend, girlfriend, mother, whoever. Tell them what you want/need to do and that you need them to help you be accountable.

You can do this! You can make healthy choices, eat healthy snacks and still lose weight or maintain.

Next week I will be talking about HABIT HUNGER! Did you know you can be subscribed for free so you won’t miss a post?

Check here for my list of healthy Snacks.

Please share if you have any tips to control your snacking?

The post Q&A Saturday: Healthy Snacking appeared first on Sugar-Free Mom.