One of the keys to maintaining a healthy weight and body is to go to bed without a full stomach. Eating junk food at any time is not ideal but it is especially unhelpful at night when we are preparing for those fasting hours.
Our sleeping hours are the time in which our body rests, rejuvenates and detoxes. The faster our food can be moved through the digestive system before bed, the sooner we fall into those hours of deep, healing sleep. If we go to bed on a full stomach, much of our time sleeping is focused on digesting. If the food in our stomach is junk food, not only are we digesting but we are dealing with an excess of toxins and stress instead of healing.
Here are some helpful tips to enable you to break the habit of couch eating:
- Brush your teeth straight after dinner. Who wants to brush their teeth twice in a night? This is an active deterrent to eating again before bed.
- Don’t buy any junk foods, ie. don’t have them in the house. This makes it a lot harder to eat them when you have a craving.
- Satisfy your sweet tooth with a small piece of fruit or satisfy your craving for salt with a few nuts salted with Celtic sea salt.
- Look at where your cravings are coming from. If you are craving sweet foods do you have a candida overgrowth that needs addressing? Are you adrenally fatigued? Is it a habit left over from childhood? If you are craving fat, do you need more good fats. Use nuts, seeds, avocado or coconut oil.
- Avoid rewarding yourself with food. For example if you have had an active day and feel like you have earned a treat, use something else for that feel good feeling. Food is never the answer as a reward or punishment.
- Use a small amount of will power to form the new habit of food avoidance in those few hours before bed. Distract yourself with a good book or talk about it with your partner or friend. Even better have another person hold you accountable.
