Weight Loss And Late Night Munchies

The day has gone well and you have not over eaten.  You ate a sensible breakfast, a sound lunch and you even went to the health club and completed a pretty good exercise routine.  As you are driving home you decide on the meal you will have for dinner to continue your dieting journey to a thinner and healthier you. 

After dinner as you are putting away the cleaned dishes and are fairly smug with satisfaction that today was a good day.  Today was a day that you could put in the column where you lost weight.  You take a shower and then plant yourself in front of the television.  You owe yourself this night of relaxation because today was a good day of dieting.  As the time ticks by you see all the commercials flashing before your eyes showing you examples of meals and drinks and snacks that are all seemingly forbidden.  Restaurants advertisements have fried shrimp bouncing off the table and crispy fried chicken tumbling onto plates.  At first you are rigid in your determination to stick to your diet and steadfast in your resolve.  Unfortunately after seeing a commercial for a chocolate swirl malt your resolve begins to falter.  You begin to doubt the fact that you ate a full meal not too long ago. You start to reason how well your day went and that you exercised so you rationalize that a snack will not topple your cart of today’s dieting success.  You patiently await the next commercial break and you head into your kitchen for the infamous "Late Night Munchies". You have given into your cravings!

Does this fictitious story sound as if it came from a night in the life of you?  Does it make you wonder if someone has been peeking secretly through the windows of your home?  Do you beat yourself over the head for having ruined your diet?  Well, you shouldn’t beat yourself too hard because there is nothing wrong with the above scenario, as long as it is handled correctly.

A Diet or a Lifestyle?
The concept of snacking is too important to think you can go without having snacks in your diet.  The first thread of fiction you must throw away is the notion that you will lose weight by going on a diet.  If you are attempting to lose weight via a diet you have already set yourself up for a dismal failure.  The fundamental flaw of a” diet” is that it has a goal attached to a date.  An example of this is that you will lose fifty pounds of flab by February 1st.  Let’s say your “diet” is a success and you lose the weight.  What happens after the goal has been reached?   A “diet” will leave you in the dangerous zone of deprivation and denial.   After your goal has been reached you will reward yourself and the future will hold no guidelines because the “diet” has ended.  This is when many people gain much of their weight back and a few pounds more and you are fatter than when you began your diet.  If you were to forsake a diet and attempted a change in lifestyle you would be able to venture into the kitchen and munch without guilt.  A lifestyle change has no ending date, even when your weight loss goal has been achieved.

A New Lifestyle
We could list an entire book here on recipes or snacks a person could indulge in that would not bend the weight loss scale in the wrong direction.  The point is that if you change your lifestyle and forget about going on a diet your choice for munchies is wide open.  An example of this is portrayed by a recent personal success.  The other day was a day in the life of a healthy lifestyle.  A typical healthy breakfast consists of a whole grain cereal with 1% milk with a banana thrown in also.  For a mid meal snack there was a yogurt and a low fat cheese stick.  Lunch consisted of two George Forman grilled turkey burgers.  The burgers had low fat ranch dressing mixed in and were garnished with ketchup, pickles, tomatoes, onions and low fat cheese.  After lunch there was a thirty minute break for cardio exercise.  For another snack there was an apple followed up by a cup of coffee at Starbucks in the new down town mall.  For dinner there was some oven baked breaded chicken with oven toasted potato slices with a corn on the cob.  After dinner the entire family decided to sit down and watch a late night scary DVD.  While watching the movie six low fat cinnamon graham crackers were consumed with a small bag of dehydrated fruit.  Of course the entire day was occupied with drinking water pretty much non stop.  The net result for the day was a loss of .8 pounds.  The above may seem like a lot to eat and it was, even for me.  I am a male that is 6’1” tall and it was my day off from work which caused me to have the excess free time to munch.

Will the above daily dose of food work for everyone?  Probably not.  The point is that for you to lose weight and be a success you need to change your lifestyle.  You need to get rid of the notion of going on a “diet” and gain the notion of changing your lifestyle.  By choosing healthier foods you will not have to deprive yourself and feel negative about your food habits.  If you change your entire menu you will be able to join the family in the kitchen and eat munchies with everyone else.  The interesting part of a lifestyle change is that after the weight starts to fall off the motivation will kick start your now altered taste buds and you will really look forward to the daily late night trips to the kitchen.  You will no longer fear the refrigerator and look forward to having a snack when you want one.

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