HOW TO AVOID OVER-EATING IN THE EVENING

There is a heck of a lot of advice out there (books, magazines, internet etc) on why we tend to overeat in the evening and a great deal of it involves hormones which are kind of difficult to control on a daily basis. Many advise us to carefully plan our meals ahead of time so we don’t find ourselves in that place where stress levels are all over the place, ghrelin levels are out of control (this is the rather irritating hormone that tells us that we are absolutely starving-hungry and most of us respond in super quick time, sadly!)

BUT… there are a myriad of other reasons… we don’t really fancy what was planned for this evening’s ‘healthy’ meal or we can’t be bothered to cook or we are feeling a bit ‘down’ or there are money worries or our job is in jeopardy or family members or friends are unwell or ‘healthy’ food is just not going to ‘cut it’ this evening… the list goes on.

You may have seen the above image previously on some of my articles or blog posts but lets discuss blood sugar again! Bottom line… if your blood sugar is out of balance (lows followed by highs followed by lows and so on - the black line) your hormones ‘club together’ to ask for more food to get it back in balance (the red line). Simple but true, SO making sure that you keep to the red line is where you want to go - not just some days, but every day. We are living through some very stressful time right now and it is more important than ever if we wish to keep the stress hormones and the appetite hormones from creating havoc and perhaps eating too much especially in the evening despite the fact that we are ever-so-gradually moving out of lockdown!

I continue to advise a good ‘but not hearty’ breakfast, a good and ‘reasonably hearty’ lunch and a good and ‘fairly light’ dinner with a couple of small snacks thrown in (you would be amazed at how very small a snack has to be to get blood sugar back in balance) and each meal and snack should include a decent amount of protein alongside some vegetables and/or fruit and some essential fats. Starchy carbohydrates should never be totally ‘off the list’ but they should never dominate. ie: more pasta sauce than pasta, more fish and vegetables than couscous, more meat and vegetables than potatoes, more curry and vegetables than rice or naan, more filling to your sandwich than bread etc.

Perhaps you may wish to try the following and see whether things improve when it comes to the end of the day and the hormones try to take hold…