Late Night Eating (After Drinking)

by | Oct 30, 2017 | Blog

I’m not much of a late-night eater. Fortunately, through practice, I’ve changed that pattern of behavior. I like my overnight fasting period to be as long as possible.

However, this past Saturday night I was legit hungry around 11pm.

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We had gone out to lunch earlier in the day but hadn’t eaten since then. I had two drinks at a Halloween party and when we returned home, I was both a little buzzed & very hungry.

Things could have gone downhill quickly. I could have rummaged around looking for a bag of chips or suggested we order a pizza.

In my head, I went through a strategy that I do with my Fat Loss Fast Track clients. I challenge myself to define what good, better and best options would be.

Before I did that, I got really clear on the most important thing. I asked myself:

Elizabeth, what is sure to make you feel like garbage tomorrow?

The answer was clear: drinking more and/or eating a bunch of sugar & starch.

Once I identified what would make me feel awful in the AM, it felt pretty easy to avoid those choices.

From there, I moved on to thinking about my good, better & best options. (This whole internal dialogue took less than 30 seconds, by the way.)

Best was clear: go to bed. Don’t pass go, don’t get a snack, just sleep. You’re exhausted.

Better was keeping it small & fat loss friendly. Have a bite to eat, have it be aligned with your goals and then go to bed.

Good was harder to define – maybe just “don’t overdo it? Don’t eat anything you won’t feel good about tomorrow”.

We decided to make bacon & eggs.

I felt really great about that choice because though it was late, I can honestly say that I was both hungry and my body needed fuel. It was delicious, I enjoyed every bite and it wasn’t a choice I’d regret the next day.

Sometimes it just takes a little thought & intentionality.

A client emailed me today and said that when she has more than a drink or two, she inevitably ends up overeating. I call BS. She’s telling a story like she’s not in control of what she is eating when she is drinking.

Here’s how I know that’s not true: would she dance in the street naked? No. Would she rob a liquor store? No.

Why not? Because she is in control. She knows those are terrible ideas & would have disasterous consequences. She has that processing ability, which means she has the same processing ability with food. The difference is her story. Her chosen belief.

She tells herself that she has no control when she’s drinking. She does. She just needs to make sure she’s telling herself that version of the story.

Food for thought!

I woke up with a very stiff neck & back. Either I slept on it wrong or messed it up at the concert last night.

Either way, I opted to go to the afternoon workout instead of the morning one to give my neck some time to loosen up.

The workout looked like a challenging one – thrusters and lateral jump burpees over the bar are both intense movements!

Thruster
Heavy Set of 5

“Hopped Up”
AMRAP 7:
3 Thrusters (95/65), 3 Lateral Burpees
6 Thrusters (95/65), 6 Lateral Burpees
9 Thrusters (95/65), 9 Lateral Burpees

I will tell you this: I was so glad when it was over!

On the food front:

I started the day with a whole bunch of coffee! I was out really late last night at the Imagine Dragons concert in Boston and I’m feeling it this am!

After my workout I made up my fall coffee treat but this time I left out the stevia. The coconut butter adds a great sweetness so I didn’t want it any sweeter.

Did you see my amazing football spread from Facebook yesterday? I made up another one for dinner tonight to enjoy with Monday Night Football!

Eating for fat loss shouldn’t be a sacrifice!

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