Late Night Snacking Blues...

I've had the late night snacking blues lately. I actually have been eating a lot of blueberries as a late night snack (hence my catchy post title...) but unfortunately these blues are beyond the berries! No, it isn't actual physical hunger. I wouldn't quite define it as boredom either, rather it is a seemingly inexplicable desire to...well.. eat after 9pm. In the winter when I get into one of these phases (and thankfully this does seem to be a phase thing), a cup (or 3) of hot tea or decaf chai usually does the trick. However, in the summer I'm struggling and tea isn't appealing to me (and iced tea isn't my thing). It is usually about 3-4 hours after dinner. I'm usually on the computer, doing work, shopping, whatever- and it hits me: I want to snack! I assess my hunger cues. Am I hungry? No. Do I want to eat? Yes. Do I have the POINTS available? Often I do. Is there something else that I can do (i.e. take a walk) to divert my attention elsewhere? Probably--- but a walk isn't happening at 10pm at night, so I often do turn to the snacking. Unfortunately it can quickly spiral out of control. I usually start with a fruit or veggie snack, but sometimes struggle to stop there. For example, last night it started with a serving of blueberries (1 POINT) then moved to some leftover green beans (0 POINTS), then to 2 small slices of wheat pita bread (2 POINTS) with some margarine (2 POINTS), and then 2 chocolate chip cookies (6 POINTS). Ugh- that was an 11 POINT snack... and notice how it progresses from fruit to chocolate?!? See, there's concerted effort on my part to chose wisely (berries, beans, even the pita wasn't a disaster), but then the cookies were really just not needed.

I recognize it in the moment (that's a good thing), but need to move past that. Last night was the end of my Weight Watchers week, and honestly I had the points in my WPA to do this, but really didn't need to eat 11 POINTS in about 15 minutes, when I wasn't even hungry in the first place! Sigghhhh...

Here's my summer late-night snacking plan:

-Budget for a 3-4 POINT evening snack (that's reasonable to me).
-Recognize when the snack craving hits (I am already recognizing it- check!)
- Next- this part is new- grab my journal (not the computer- need the actual pen/paper kind) and write. I enjoy writing, can journal about my feelings, what I'm thinking about- really whatever. It is possible that I'll even write about my snack craving, though that's not necessary as part of the plan.
-If I'm still snacky after writing, have my 3-4 POINT snack in one sitting. That's the thing- I am not going to leave that door open to continually going back to the kitchen if I still think that I have POINTS left. Rather, I plan to have my snack, and then be done with it.

That's my plan and I'm sticking to it. However, I'm going to check back in with myself in 1 week. If my plan is working-great! Add this to my bag of tricks for the next time the late night summer snacking phase hits. If it isn't working however, I'm committed to changing my plan to find a tactic that does work.

Now I'm got some silly bluesy tune in my head and I swear there's a song about the snacking blues out there somewhere...