Taming Your Late Night Snack Attack

This week we are chatting about the well known nighttime snack attack. We are going to dive into how this habit could be impacting your metabolism. We will dig into some common triggers and give some strategies for how to manage this.

If you have questions, or topics that you want to hear about, head over to our Instagrams https://www.instagram.com/nucrewnutrition/ or https://www.instagram.com/brianna.dietitian/ and send us a DM!

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Featured Mocktails:
Heywell - https://www.instagram.com/livingheywell/
Olipop - https://www.instagram.com/drinkolipop/

Click play, sip back, and be empowered.

Transcript

Baylee: 0:23

Hello everyone, welcome back to this week's episode of Mocktail Minutes. This is Bailey.

Brianna: 0:27

And this is Brianna.

Baylee: 0:29

This week I am drinking a Haywell. I haven't had one of these. It's for energy and focus. So it's caffeinated sparkling water with adaptogens, antioxidants, and super herbs. It's not bad. It's like, not something I would sit and drink all the time. Like, I could drink my Cherry Limeade. Poppies all the time,

Brianna: 0:49

Mm hmm.

Baylee: 0:50

it's not something that I hate. I don't know. There's like a weird I do not explain it. There's a weird initial taste and then you're like, oh, okay. This is kind of good.

Brianna: 0:59

Does it have like ashwagandha in it?

Baylee: 1:01

You know what? I bet it. Yes, it does

Brianna: 1:06

I feel like that's how all the drinks with ashwagandha have. It's like a weird, like, when you taste, it's almost like you smell it. I don't know. And

Baylee: 1:16

fart almost

Brianna: 1:18

then it goes away. I think that's just ashwagandha. I don't know.

Baylee: 1:22

okay. So I usually don't buy a lot of drinks with ashwagandha in it But so maybe yeah, that's it.

Brianna: 1:29

Yeah,

Baylee: 1:29

You get a musty fart taste

Brianna: 1:31

you're and then it goes away. And you're like, okay, yeah,

Baylee: 1:34

I go. This is pretty good

Brianna: 1:35

you smell it, but you don't. I don't know how to explain that.

Baylee: 1:39

like it's almost like you feel like the can is maybe dirty. We're not hyping this up very well I mean, like I said, it's not

Brianna: 1:46

it sounds good. I'm going to try them because my store has them. My grocery store has them because I saw them when I was picking up mine and I was like, Oh, all right.

Baylee: 1:53

I did the strawberry lemon flavor. So like you have that musty taste and that's like oh strawberries So maybe that is it. But yeah, it's not terrible It's good, but not Not an all the time favorite type of thing

Brianna: 2:08

Shall we or not? Um, I got the new crisp apple, like fall flavored Ollie pop. It's pretty good. I like it. It tastes a little bit like apple cider.

Baylee: 2:19

I was just gonna ask is it like apple cider? I like apple cider.

Brianna: 2:22

I do too. I was thinking like how fun this would be. And like a nighttime mocktail with like, I don't know, Like a cinnamon stick or something, but like something just to make it like a, it's almost like a mule. Like it could be used in a mule type thing, but it's good. I like it. Yeah.

Baylee: 2:41

I don't know Oh, it wasn't those. There was some protein shakes. The T O C A I don't know how to say it. It's like K I O L A, I think. They're like, they're ready made protein shakes. But they, I just saw a post now. They have like all these different flavors coming. Like fruity cereal, cookies and cream. And usually those, they have really good ingredients. So I'm curious to see how these ones look. Because they have them at the Target next to me.

Brianna: 3:06

I'm going to try like a fruity cereal one. I'd be interested in seeing like what's in it and how good does it actually taste?

Baylee: 3:12

Yeah. I mean, it's like, it's probably natural flavors. Which, I don't know. Like, to me, I don't worry too much about natural flavors. I guess I'm not that crunchy yet, because, just because it has natural flavors, I mean, doesn't mean it's, like, a bad thing. Like, it could literally be from strawberries.

Brianna: 3:32

And I was putting together this like food reading food label type thing training for someone and In it, I was telling people, like, you can usually go onto people's, like, companies websites and see what they're using for natural flavors, because, like you said, it doesn't always mean that it's bad. It's just how, I mean, natural flavors can be a whole lot of different things. So, most companies that are, like, trying to be transparent, they'll tell you what's in it. Like, it's on their website, so you can go look and see if you agree with it. But

Baylee: 4:00

Yeah. I feel like I'm more of a scrunchy mom, is that what they're called?

Brianna: 4:04

Yeah, I, I call myself scrunchie, like I care, but there's some things I'm like,

Baylee: 4:09

That are not worth the headache.

Brianna: 4:11

and it's also really hard to find it. Like even like some really good, clean, like products are going to have, so it's really hard to find stuff that doesn't have things that are labeled as natural flavors. So

Baylee: 4:22

Yeah, and I I don't have the time to look through all that. I don't have the budget Like there's just a lot of factors. So, you know, we're just out here doing our best. I'm personally okay with natural flavors

Brianna: 4:33

like, you know what I'm not going to do? I'm not probably not going to go make my own snack bar right now. So

Baylee: 4:39

I did it one week. And they were pretty good. I could but I'm choosing to do other things during that time It's actually so I had a pampered chef party and I got all these great goodies It was like four boxes delivered to my house for the host rewards. It was bad, but we have all these cool things now And so one of the things I got it's like a bar pan, I guess you call it, but it has like the rectangles and it's just like a little divot in it so you can form your bars in there. So my goal is to make my own little like protein bars that are kind of similar to like the perfect bars. So we shall see how that goes. I'm

Brianna: 5:18

make a copycat go macro bar the other week and it was very good. It was insanely easily. The problem was it just didn't make a lot. So it didn't last very long, but it would be very easy for me to do again. But it just depends. Like some weeks I can do it. Other weeks I'm like,

Baylee: 5:35

not happening. I have other things I need to do.

Brianna: 5:38

I'm not prioritizing this. And so, yeah, natural flavors. It's fine. I think this might have natural flavors.

Baylee: 5:43

I mean, so many things to do, probably.

Brianna: 5:46

Right? Yeah.

Baylee: 5:49

This one does, yeah.

Brianna: 5:51

Yeah. natural green apple flavor. Extract.

Baylee: 5:54

Okay.

Brianna: 5:55

Okay. Now, well,

Baylee: 5:57

got on that tangent I guess a quick life update. Anything fun, anything that you've done new recently?

Brianna: 6:04

I mean, we were talking right before we got on about how I did hot yoga this morning. I haven't done hot yoga in a very long time and I forgot how hard it is, but I've been on my, like my strength training game. So I was like, I need to like split it up. I need to do more like kind of recovery, relaxing things. I'm definitely not going to pick hot yoga again as my relaxing thing. Cause it is not. I was shaking like a leaf. We'll just do a more flow. But it was, it felt good to do something different.

Baylee: 6:32

I tried hot yoga one time and I'll never go back. It was No, I get overheated really easily. And so I was yeah, I got like super shaky and light headed. I was like this sucks Type of feeling but I do like I've worked out at hot works before And they have like the I think it's the infrared saunas. So they're different from what I understand It's more it's different than the hot yoga because the hot yoga is more like skinny these it's like a different dry heat, I think. But, so I do like hot works.

Brianna: 7:03

I should try it. We have a hot works here too.

Baylee: 7:05

one day I'm going to have a membership there, but, because I also like that they have the weights too. So if you're doing hot works, I don't recommend doing the hot, doing the sauna workouts every day.

Brianna: 7:16

No, I'm gonna get dehydrated. Probably gonna feel horrible.

Baylee: 7:20

It's a lot of stress on your body.

Brianna: 7:22

Right. So I know. So I was like, maybe just like some warm yoga, maybe just some normal yoga, but I'm getting back into it. I am not. I am neat. I need to work on my flexibility. I was like, how are these people doing this? Yeah. They were

Baylee: 7:42

my flexibility is not there. I can't touch my toes.

Brianna: 7:46

like, you know, like do your hands behind your, like, how are people's hands touching? What are you talking about? Mine are like so far away.

Baylee: 7:53

Yeah, like, I'm not there.

Brianna: 7:55

That's interesting. Yeah. I'm doing that too. No big deal. No big deal. Yeah. So that's my update. My hot yoga. That was way harder than I thought we had.

Baylee: 8:05

So, yeah. I feel like I haven't done really anything crazy. I gave myself a lot of Like downtime, I guess last week, just, I went back to like strange training and trying to get like back to my normal ish routine. And then I got sick. So I'm like, okay, we're just going to give my body some time because I feel like starting back at work full time plus getting my walks and plus spending time getting my time with Dan and plus trying to get my workouts in, like all these things are piling up. And then I got sick. So I took a week to just give my body some rest. And I feel like that's been really good. So getting back to the strength training this week, we'll see how that goes. But Josh and I, we did have our first kind of like not night out without Gannon. We had a wedding. It was weird. I feel like I should either be like, Rocking a kid or feeding him.

Brianna: 9:00

Yeah. And it's like one of those things you're like, I'm looking forward to it. And then you're there and you're like, I think you're ready to go home. You're like, wait,

Baylee: 9:07

it's it's five o'clock. I'm supposed to be feeding a child right now So it was weird, but it was good. And I don't know. I've kind of realized this week I'm just at a place where I just like I just feel at ease which is very Weird for me because I'm a very high strung Let me run off cortisol until I die type of person usually but I was like thinking about this yesterday and I was like, I just feel really at ease and I feel like i've been really good at setting boundaries. I don't know if it's like This is what lightens up on you when you become a mom. I don't know But I feel like i'm just like I don't really care what other people are thinking just setting my own boundaries. I'm living my life. I'm just like content. Like I don't know how to explain it it's just like I

Brianna: 9:58

like, sure. Like, this is it. This is what I like. This is what I'm doing. Good. I like it.

Baylee: 10:04

don't, yeah, I don't know what it is.

Brianna: 10:06

You have too many things going on to just not,

Baylee: 10:09

Yeah,

Brianna: 10:09

100%. I like it.

Baylee: 10:11

little life updates for you. Alright everyone, let's get into our topic of the week. late night snacking. We just got done with our three part series on work life health balance. And when coming up with this week's topic, it kind of rolled in nicely because I feel like it's a lot of my busy professionals that are falling into like that late night snacking trap. And, you know, I don't know if, if you agree with us or not, but I feel like a lot of times when we get so hungry at night. Not only is just we're not eating enough throughout the day But i'll I hear a lot of like i'm just not hungry during the day and then it's at nighttime. I am hungry My thoughts are it's because most busy professionals that I am working with are kind of like me run very high Strong or go go go that our body is so focused on the busyness going on that We're just we're not picking up our hunger signals or anything So then when we get home, we're kind of winding down and then our bodies like oh, she's gonna pay attention to me now I better tell her to eat because I'm not sure from the eat tomorrow. I don't know

Brianna: 11:18

Well, yeah, because I get this a lot, the, I'm just not hungry throughout the day. And then that's usually when people are like, I have bad habits at night. I'm like, well, there's, there's more going on. And yeah, it's, your body has finally calmed down. You're not running off cortisol anymore. You can take a breath. All your boxes have been checked. It's maybe the first time that you're allowing yourself to like, sit down, relax, you know, and take a breath. And then it's like, Oh, now I'm hungry, you know, and that's usually when people eat more, or they get into the habit of eating the majority of their calories at night, and For me, it's like just thinking about like the concept of the circadian rhythm, and how your circadian rhythm is a little bit off, you know, it's not normal to not feel hungry all day, or it's not even normal really for, you know, to wake up and be like, I'm just never hungry for breakfast. Like that's not a normal, a normal like thing that your body should be feeling just like you shouldn't feel exhausted all day and then feel super wired at 10, 11 o'clock at night. Like you can get up and do all the things, you know.

Baylee: 12:20

Yeah, because I mean, during the day, our bodies are in an active state, we are burning calories to fuel our activities. And, you know, every time I bring up calories, I feel like we automatically just go to clue to towards, we automatically think about calories in terms of like weight loss and weight gain. But at the end of the day, calories are just energy sources for our body to work. So, throughout the day we're just burning all these calories to fuel our activities. And then at night, or as nighttime approaches, we're preparing to go to bed, our metabolism actually, naturally begins to slow down. And this is because our energy needs decrease when we are at rest. So, Your energy burn is broken down into like four different categories. So like your EMR is your basal metabolic rate. That's how much energy you need. If you were literally just to lay in bed all day long. And then we have other areas where our body uses energy, like when we are working out or when we are moving throughout the day, or when we're eating food, our body's using energy, we're not doing those things when we're sleeping. So yeah, our metabolism slows down. And. You know, I think this is kind of where the concept of Don't eat after 8 p. m. Maybe came about because I mean ideally we're going to bed at 10 o'clock So it makes sense. Okay, eight o'clock with about two hours to four bedtime. It gives our food time to digest It's like a good time frame But I like I said, I think there was good intentions with that guideline But we took it to literal, and if you're not eating enough throughout the day, or if you're hungry and it's like 9 o'clock, you actually might need an intentional snack, so that you can sleep better. But, I'm sure the idea was, you know, our metabolism slows. If we're eating enough throughout the day, we really don't need anything later on. I would say a majority of the time. And then, yeah, maybe you can sleep a little bit better. But it's also not like, once it's 8. 01, your body just stores fat up or anything like that.

Brianna: 14:27

Well, I had one client, she was like, my doctor told me like, we don't use calories at night. I thought that was interesting.

Baylee: 14:35

We just don't use them.

Brianna: 14:36

We just don't use them. I was like, I knew the name of your doctor. Cause clearly no. And I don't. And again, it's like, I don't know.

Baylee: 14:43

dying every night?

Brianna: 14:44

I don't know. I'm like, well, if you do like, there's a lot that happens at night, you know, your, your brain is like covering your muscles are recovering. Your digestive system is like resetting. Like there's things that are happening. Yes. We don't need a ton of active energy to go get up and do all the things for the day. But I mean, we're doing stuff at night. And I think doctors tell people this because we're a couple of reasons, right? It's like, we know that if you're eating or consuming the majority of your calories in the evening, that is tied to weight gain. So we know that. Doctors are usually pretty concerned about weight gain that. And we are a little bit more insulin resistant night. So if you are, you know, not really eating throughout the day and then you have your biggest meal at night, which I'm going to tell you, if you're under eating throughout the day, you are going to have a larger portion at dinner. That's just, what's going to happen. It's going to take longer for your gut and your brain to kind of talk to each other. You're going to have a bigger portion. You're usually going to have a larger portion of carbs and then you're a little bit more insulin resistant. So of course. You're going to store some of that because you're not using it. Most people are not going and doing things after dinner for the most part. You know? So I don't know if they were just like trying to be like, okay, biggest thing for her buck is telling people you don't burn calories at night. I don't know, but that's a little misleading. You definitely use calories at night

Baylee: 16:01

Yes, and so yeah, I mean if we're thinking about late night eating and weight gain kind of like you mentioned Yeah, when we are consuming those calories later at night, your body it's not going to use those calories efficiently or effectively because of that so slowed metabolism, you're just less likely to burn them off because you're not using as much calories to live at this point. And several studies have kind of showed this connection. There's a study in the Journal of Obesity that found people who frequently snack late at night tend to consume more calories overall. I mean, one of the studies has shown that participants who ate late at night consumed an average of 200 calories more than those who ate earlier in the evening. So It's 200 calories in one night. It's not really going to do much. But if you do that every night when you don't necessarily need that, then that's where it can add up. So, like, kind of knowing that, it goes back to exactly what you were saying. If we're eating enough through the day, we're not going to have as many cravings. We're going to be able to space it out a little bit more when our body is utilizing all these calories and energy. You're going to feel a lot better, and you're going to see some changes with that weight loss. Because even The other, other studies have also shown when we're snacking late at night, they're usually not, like, healthier options. They're more calorically dense, not so nutritionally dense. Like, it's not like a lot of times you're at 2 a. m. eating broccoli and ranch. It's more like, we're gonna grab a bowl of cereal. Because, if you're in that situation where you haven't ate enough during the day, yeah, it makes sense that you're hungry, and you're probably hungry for anything, like, you're, you know, biological response when your blood sugar is dropping is you're going to crave carbs because that's going to quickly bring it back up. So it makes sense, but we just got to fix what we're doing during the day.

Brianna: 17:58

that. And if you start to think about like. What are people's moods at the end of the day? Right. And this kind of leads into a little bit of like, not so much emotional eating, but just looking at our habits. A lot of people use food as like a de stressor or we're, you know, I deserve this. I need a little bit of me time. It feels good. Right. So yeah, like most people aren't like having a nutrient rich meal to feel good. It's usually like those refined carbs, high sugar. Things like that. And so, if you're going all day, not eating a ton, you're running off cortisol. And then all of a sudden you finally stop, you're done. You want to feel good. You've been stressed. You've under eight. Yeah. That leads to like a really not fantastic habit. Not only in terms of like weight loss, but also just like health, you know, you don't want to be consuming a ton of sugar right before you go to sleep.

Baylee: 18:48

I was looking at a bottle of soda. 65 grams of added sugar. Also,

Brianna: 18:54

It's a lot.

Baylee: 18:56

I would feel terrible. That's like as much sugar as I get in four days. I think

Brianna: 19:02

Yeah. No, you, you will feel terrible. And then the

Baylee: 19:05

it'd be like three, but yeah.

Brianna: 19:06

too is like, It's impacting your sleep. That's the other thing. And then having that impact your sleep is impacting your circadian rhythm. It's impacting your blood sugar balance. It's impacting all the, and then it's like a rinse and repeat thing. And you get into this vicious cycle of like this one little habit that you're doing is not really serving you, but yeah, most people are having high sugar in the evening and yeah, you're going to feel. I would feel horrible. You're not getting good sleep if you're doing that.

Baylee: 19:34

absolutely not. And thinking about what is triggering this late night snacking is going to help you decrease it. So you mentioned the emotional part of things, is that every night you're coming home from work, like, Oh, it was a tough day, I gotta, I gotta get some ice cream, whatever it is, we are coming home every day, and every day is a tough day. Either A, manage your tough days better. I would say, let's go with A. Why are they so tough? Make them better. B, do we need to like evaluate our stress response? Are you stressing out things that you don't actually need to? C, do you need to get a new job? I was listening to a podcast the other day and they were talking about stressors and, oh yeah, we have some stressors that we cannot control, but there's also a lot that we can't control. Take your job, for example. If your job is really causing you this much stress. Get a new job and you might feel a lot better. It's I was actually telling one of my clients last week because she was talking about her job and she's like, I think I just need a new job. And I'm like, no, it's funny you say that. I've had three people this year. I would say that, yeah, this year past six months, I get, Oh my God, we're in October. So yeah, past six months. They have quit their jobs and got a different one. Like, it just feels a lot better. So I don't know, I don't know what happens, why people quit their jobs and change their jobs and people start working with me, but I've heard it from other dietitians within metabolism. They were like, people just tend to quit their job.

Brianna: 21:12

Because they start because we focus a lot on like overall your stress your management how you're through the day And then I think people really realize Wow, this is stressful. And like, I don't know if I need to be doing this. It feels like we do. And I know I used to be one of those people that's like, just quit your job. You can't do that. But now it's like, well, you can actually,

Baylee: 21:31

no, you actually can't.

Brianna: 21:32

we can, you know, because then you have to start to figure out, like, is it worth it? Like, obviously you still need to make money, right? But you can go do something else. But like, is a higher paying job that requires more stress doesn't allow you to, you know, You know, it's impacting every area of your life. Is it worth it? I mean, yeah, if you're coming home every night and you're like, yeah, I'm drinking a glass of wine and having my snacks because I just need to recover from the day. It's like, well, okay. That's been great. That's been great.

Baylee: 21:59

That's a great thing. So those are first things to identify with emotional triggers, but also social influences. Is it, you're making these choices because every time you sit down on TV, you need to be eating something? Okay, let's, let's break that down a little bit. Can you form different habits? Can you swap out a different activity for watching TV? Is there something else you need to get done? It's so easy, I think, to fall into the habit of just watching episode after episode at night. Where I honestly, like I used to watch a few episodes of Night of TV and then lately I get like two episodes a weekend of something. And I just decided I was obviously much more productive when I'm not sitting on the couch. But I just felt better when I had a plan on how to get things done. So that helped a lot. I just felt better overall. I know. I feel like I'm like Kourtney Kardashian. I don't watch TV.

Brianna: 23:00

People are dying, Kim. No, but I think it's something that's interesting to notice because, and I ask people this all the time, like when I'm working with people and they're like, I just, I have to have ice cream. I have to do this. Like, is it a habit? Like, have you just Gone into the habit of this is what I do. And we do this as humans. We do this, right? Like for example, every time I go to my outpatient job, there's a coffee thing right across the way. And I'm like, I have to, I'm buying coffee and I don't even really like that coffee, but it's like, so why the heck am I doing this? You know, it's like something I'm doing. So it's like

Baylee: 23:34

It's your trigger.

Brianna: 23:35

yeah. Like is my, when I watch TV at night, that's when I snack. If so, like definitely try to do something to change up that habit because it's. It's hard to get over and I've talked to so many people, they're like, honestly, I don't even think I'm hungry. I just do it. Or like my husband's getting something. So then I feel like I need to get something and it's like, well, let's like really focus on why we're doing stuff. Is there a connection? And there's always a connection. Like I do this when I do this or I do this when I do that, you know, like that's just how we are. So. Kind of identifying that.

Baylee: 24:09

Well, also, like, understanding that why part of things and understanding how your body works, which we talk about in so many different episodes, it makes it so much easier to identify what you want. Like, Josh's person, he does have a snack, like, before bedtime. Again, he's an adult. He can do whatever he wants. I'm not eager to food police him because he lives with me. But, yeah, it could be a thing because I do have people mention, like, well, my husband will grab a snack. I kind of just feel like I need something too. But, now I'm just like, I don't need it type of thing. So I don't really want it. I'm full, I'm ready for bed, I'm good to go. And then there's some nights where, yeah, we'll have ice cream together. But it's, when you're able to kind of feel that control and be able to make your own decisions, it does feel really good to be able to be in the driver's seat. Haha.

Brianna: 24:58

get off that autopilot and kind of ask yourself like some more mindful eating. Like, is this something I really want right now? Am I going to actually fully enjoy it or am I just doing it to do it? Like that makes a big difference. Definitely like some biological triggers, right? So like hormone fluctuations, hunger cues as like, we were kind of talking about the cortisol, just not feeling hungry all day and then feeling hungry, even things like, having your blood sugar kind of be all over the place. Those different types of hormone fluctuations will make it to where you have odd eating times or odd craving times. So kind of really trying to assess like, why am I doing this? Like for me, I know, like if I'm have a really high stress day, I can almost guarantee you I'm going to feel snacky at night, especially if I've under eaten. Cause it's been high stress. I haven't done it. And so sometimes just knowing is very helpful to be like, wait, why do I feel like this right now? No, it's not. Cause I have bad habits or it's not because like, this is just what I do. Or I have no self control. I'm thinking like the heck did I do to my body today? You know, what the heck did I do to it? What does it need? Why is it acting like this?

Baylee: 25:59

And I'm actually the opposite if I'm stressed out, I don't have an appetite and I don't really eat So that's when I have to like force myself to eat a little bit or i'm doing meals Like a little bit easier. So it kind of takes away that barrier I'm more of a person. I will Kind of fall into that late night snacking more if I don't eat enough during the day

Brianna: 26:20

Oh,

Baylee: 26:20

and when I'm starving or so I usually plan an afternoon snack because if i'm working at the office, I don't get home till about 630 ish. And I mean, if I'm eating lunch at one o'clock, that's kind of a long time period. So I usually plan a snack when I'm leaving the office So then that helps me not to be so hungry. Once I get to dinner, I fill up on dinner and then we're good to go. Otherwise, I come home starving, I'll eat dinner and then it's like, I can't stop eating. So then it's like, What can I scrounge up in the pantry? We have more cravings. So that's what I know for myself if I don't eat enough throughout the day. Or if I go to boxing and I don't do a pre workout snack, look out pantry. We're

Brianna: 27:03

Yeah. You're going to come home and be like, I'm starving. Oh, 100%. And so I think it's just important to realize what these triggers could be. Why am I kind of in this habit? What's really going on? You know, is it emotional? Is it social? Is it, you know, hormonal? Kind of like taking a step back and assessing like, why is it that I'm just stuck into this routine? And then trying to help whatever area that is. I will say there is going to be times where you just do have a later night snack, right? Like home late, maybe, you know, whatever it is. I've talked to so many people who are like, I thought it was good to go to bed hungry. That means my body's burning fat. I'm like, that's your body's not burning fat when you go to bed hungry.

Baylee: 27:46

buddy's hungry.

Brianna: 27:47

Everybody's hungry. It's definitely burning fat. So, you know, it's okay to eat. I would say like get strategic with, with it, right? Like if you're on a, like a weight loss goal or you want something to kind of support your metabolism, keep your hormones happy. I would say choose a high protein snack, something like Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, you know, have some healthy fats, nuts, avocados, you know, fiber, veggies, hummus. The, the thing here is just to think like, if I'm truly hungry, I need to honor that, but I'm going to do it in a goal supportive way. And I'm going to do it in a way that's really setting myself up, not just, well, I'm hungry. So I'm going to have whatever I want, like be strategic about it because unless you don't want to, right. But the majority of people, I feel like want to be strategic about it rather than just the either or option. So. You know, do something that's PHFF, it's blood sugar balance. And then I think the biggest thing here is to portion it out, give yourself a normal portion, eat it, be done with it. I think sometimes we try to avoid and then we turn into like these late night grazers where like, I'm just going to get up and get a little bit of this. A little bit of this, like stop doing that. I think that's like our way of avoiding snacking. I've talked to so many clients that do that. I'm like, just put it on a plate, get a normal portion, eat it, be done. And then that's also healthy, helpful too. If you're someone who's like, well, I'm overindulging. Don't bring like the whole package of whatever you're eating back to like the couch or your bedroom with you. Cause yeah, you're just going to sit there and mindlessly eat. You're busy doing things. Odds are pay attention to what you're doing. This is how it is.

Baylee: 29:25

Yeah, I think it definitely helps the portioned out and other things that will help just managing these late night snacking episodes establish a routine. So we talk about a metabolism over like a 12 hour fast. Like Brandon just said, if you need something to eat, eat something. But I think a 12 hour fast, not only is it helpful for your digestion, but maybe it's gonna help you think a little bit more. Are you eating because of that? The habit that you're used to grabbing a snack from your kitchen drive by, or are you eating as you actually need something. So aiming for a 12 hour fast can be super helpful and then just have like a solid nighttime routine so your body is kind of like in that wind down stage and just naturally slowing down with your body can be super helpful. Being more mindful with your eating, you know, I actually kind of hate mindful eating.

Brianna: 30:14

Yeah.

Baylee: 30:15

it, I think more like, be more informed with your eating, be more present, be more intentional.

Brianna: 30:22

Intentional. I like that. Intentional eating. Why am I doing this? Because if I'm really hungry, I'm gonna do it a certain way, right?

Baylee: 30:30

and like, being present with your meal, like not just eating while you're scrolling TikTok or anything like that. And you're like, Oh crap, I ate the whole bag. Like just focus on eating without distractions. Sit at the table, listen to your hunger cues, eat until you're satisfied, not until you have to unbutton your pants.

Brianna: 30:49

Exactly. Yeah. Be intentional. I like that better than mindful. Be intentional. intentional with your eating. And then, you know, there is alternatives like drinking water, having some tea engaging in like non food related activities, like reading journaling. I'm never one to be like, Oh, if you're hungry, just drink water. But I mean, if you are a little bit dehydrated and your, your hydration has been low for the day, you are going to feel a little bit hungry. So maybe check in on that. Like, or am I just in the habit of like, I feel like I need to be eating or drinking something every night, which is a real thing. I talked to a lot of moms about that, especially when they're like, I just feel like I need a glass of wine. I'm like, what if we just replace that with something, like maybe get a good tea or like a mocktail. And then they come back and they're like, actually, it was totally fine. Like, great. Let's do that, you know, or yeah, if you're like, you know, I really think that that habit is like at the end of the day, I'm winding down, I'm kind of zoning out, I'm watching TV, then try something else, like you said, a good nighttime routine, reading, journaling, something that kind of just throws a little wrench into your autopilot just to see how it feels. I think it's just really understanding, like, Why do I do the things I do? And instead of just being like, well, I'm broken, this is why I can't lose weight. Just think like, well, why am I doing this? You know? And do I want to be doing this?

Baylee: 32:08

Next week, we will have a guest on the episode where we're going to talk, we're going to dive in more to like the emotional eating side of things. I think she's going to be a great guest

Brianna: 32:19

I'm excited.

Baylee: 32:19

us.

Brianna: 32:20

I know this is going to be a resource that I use with people because I think emotionally eating it's one of those things that I think a lot of people don't realize they do and then realize, oh my God, I'm doing it. What do I, what do I do All

Baylee: 32:33

So it'll be really good. Make sure you guys tune in next week. If you guys missed the series, Go back. We have a three part series about work life health balance. Yeah, we hope these were helpful tips for your late night snacking as always Send us a dm on instagram if you have any questions that kind of pop up with it

Brianna: 32:50

right. We'll talk to you guys next week.

Baylee: 32:52

sounds good All right, everyone. Have a great rest of your day.

Brianna: 32:55

Bye