My experience teaching myself to stop eating while watching tv, specifically at night. I have found this to be a common challenge.
*This is not meant to make suggestions on binge eating. If you are experiencing binge eating, talk to your Doctor and get with a Therapist. It is possible to heal.
First, I had to see that it was causing effects that I did not want: inability to lose weight, future weight gain, trouble sleeping, heartburn and reducing my confidence.
Once I saw that this time period of eating was not coming out of biological hunger, it seemed the most logical way to reduce excess eating. The other meal times were certainly coming out of hunger. The first step I took was thinking I would simply stop. This was more challenging than I anticipated. I found the urge to have a snack very tempting. Sometimes this may turn into a food party of having a sweet snack, then a salty one, and maybe restarting the process.
One of the biggest things that helped me was understanding that the food combination with television was a big part of it. Seeing people eating on tv a few times during one night would often trigger a food urge, like a smoker describes. The mindless eating went right along with it. Due to the challenge of it, I had to reduce my expectation and take baby steps.
The first step would be not eating while watching tv. I set the intention and would hit pause before eating, then return to the entertainment afterwards. This took some real practice and consistency. It is not that it was so hard, it is that I had to watch out for those excuses that came up to ‘just do it this time,’ ‘start tomorrow,’ or wait for some kind of magical change in my life that would make it easy.
As I built my confidence doing this the next step was to work on reducing it. I understand some people focus on choosing something healthier instead. If that works for you, do it. I wanted to break the habit of eating when I wasn’t biologically hungry, so having a healthier snack wasn’t the direction I found worked for me. (It just seemed to start the eating process and focus on food and the kitchen. It also is a great way to gage your hunger level. If you are willing to eat vegetables, maybe you are hungry.)
What actually worked in reducing it? Meeting the real need. If the need is not biological hunger, then what is it? It sounds dramatic, but stopping to label the feeling in that very moment was not easy. After labeling the need and consciously becoming aware that food wasn’t it, it then became easier to let the trigger pass. Most days I was bored, tired. Some days stressed, anxious, upset, so on. I encourage doing this work. I did not think I was emotional eating. I really thought I was just eating ‘because.’ This can help you see what really matters to you.
Taking on the suggestion of what helps smoker’s quit, the momentary urge feels very strong. Giving it 5 minutes to see when it will pass really works. If you are really hungry, you will still be after the time period of your own urge. This can be a great time to check in with yourself, leave the kitchen and do something else. Perhaps you can work on meeting the real need. It wasn’t perfect from day one. If I slipped, I just kept refocusing.
If you eat every day at 8 pm, your body will anticipate that and seek out a snack at that time. You might even feel hungry, you have trained yourself to do this. This programming can be undone the same way.
Once I begin doing those two things I could really put in some practice hours to change my habit. It got easier and easier each day that passed and I am not even sure the day it wasn’t hard anymore. Now, it has to be a conscious choice to make to take up the old eating habit again.
This result of this process is showing you your real need. Often times when we are eating at night without being triggered by hunger, we are missing the opportunity to spend that time on something that we really enjoy. How do you really want to be spending your time? What is something you have said you wanted to do but that you don’t have time?
Around this time period, I found it helpful use the strategies from Mindful Eating. A couple of books I read that include some tips I used:
Am I Hungry? What to Do When Diets Don’t Work by Michelle May
I have mentioned this in other posts as well. Intuitive Eating by Elyse Reach and Evelyn Tribole.
Work book: https://amzn.to/46Df4JT
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*Here is a link to an article about binge eating from the Mayo Clinic.
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/binge-eating-disorder/symptoms-causes/syc-20353627
See also: http://thedowellbewell.com/focus-on-results-besides-pounds/
More tips for checking on actual hunger here or at thedowellbewell.com/different-ways-to-handle-cravings-with-curiosity-balance-and-self-love/