Week #2 Strategy

Now that you are all getting ample sleep...on to the next tip from Deanne!

Step #2 – Close the Kitchen After Dinner

One of the best changes you can make for your health and waist line (and believe me it is a really deeply ingrained habit for most people) is to stop any late night snacking. The first thing I need you to do is to make a list of those "things" that you need to accomplish this week (writing thank you notes, cleaning out a closet or drawer, filling out paperwork, putting pictures in photo albums, returning a phone call etc.)

Next, I want you to make a list of things you enjoy doing (reading a book or magazine, talking to friends on the phone, searching the internet, taking a bubble bath, doing a yoga tape, playing cards with your husband, getting a back rub from your husband, knitting, making a new playlist to put on your ipod for your next workout etc.)

Immediately after dinner, I want you to brush your teeth, floss and mouthwash. This is a lot of work, and believe me you will think twice about putting something else in your mouth and having to do it all over again.

Then, I want you to "close" the kitchen as soon as you're finished cleaning (yes, I do want you to brush your teeth before you start doing the dishes as this is often a time where we pick at more food). Clean the dishes, put the food away, turn out the lights and get as far away from the kitchen as possible. Try to arrange the rest of your night's activities outside of the kitchen. This goes for other meal times too. And, by the way, the only place where you should be eating is your kitchen or your dining room at the table, and not while you’re doing anything else (more on that later).

Once your kitchen is closed, get out your lists of "To-Do's" and dive into one of those instead of diving into the pantry or refrigerator. Sometimes I find it easier to work on my projects at night upstairs - the further away from the kitchen the better. Tell yourself once you finish x number of things on your to-do list, then you get to pick something from your "enjoyment list".

After all of this, it's time for bed. And yeah, you're probably starting to feel really hungry right about now. Great!!!! Go to bed and you'll wake up ready to eat a good healthy breakfast. If you go to bed and you're not hungry at all, that should be a signal to you that you ate as many calories as your body needed that day, hence no weight loss. Those little signs of hunger late at night are your body's way of telling you if you don't give it something to eat soon, it will have to dig into that stored fat (oh darnn J).

That urge to eat something at night is only partly hunger. Often, it is the way we reward ourselves at the end of the day, but we should recognize when we are using food for physical hunger and when we are using it for emotional reasons. When we use food for emotional reasons, we don’t make great choices. We tend to choose those food that are overly sugary, fatty and salty because the brain releases more dopamine (the feel good chemical) with these foods. Eating at night is often just a habit, and an enjoyable one at that, but only in the short term. You will eventually learn to get even more enjoyment out of checking things off your to-do list and treating yourself to an enjoyable activity (that doesn't involve food). This is a hard habit to break but one that can give you big results. Keep in mind, when it comes to reaching goals, the reason most people fail is that they sacrifice what they want most in the long term for what they want in the moment. Keep telling yourself this and soon you will find yourself passing on the short term satisfaction for the greater satisfaction of reaching your long term goals!