How much water do you drink? The need for hydration can sometimes be mistaken for hunger. Drink (or sip on) a glass of water, then wait and see if the craving goes away.

I'm currently reading an interesting book by Pulitzer Prize Winner Michael Moss - "Salt Sugar Fat" How the Food Giants Hooked Us. Reading it will make you think twice about purchasing nearly any commercially-processed food product at the store. The bulk of processed food is designed to "hook" us into eating more. Amounts of sweeteners in food are tested for the "bliss point" that we get from the eating experience.

At this point in the book, the consumers are certainly the losers. A well researched book with a very interesting look at todays "food" and the science and psychology that goes into creating it. It reinforces why we should shop those outside isles at the store; and when you shop inside, choose an item that has 4 or less ingredients.

There are also psychological triggers. I watched author of "I Can Make You Thin" Paul McKenna on PBS one afternoon. It was so interesting I took notes. His theory was that you can eat whatever you want, whenever you want, so long as you fully enjoy every single mouthful. BUT, for the first two weeks you slow your eating speed down to about one fourth of what it used to be and chew each mouthful thoroughly, putting your fork down between mouthfuls. No more eating while being distracted with TV, a book, checking your e-mail, etc. Out of curiosity, hubby and I tried this for several days and we consumed at least 1/3 of our normal amount of food, and I'm the queen of serving sizes. Overeating at our house has never existed.

We were just talking about a friend who keeps a stash of food under his bed because he gets up and eats in the middle of the night and doesn't want to go to the kitchen to get it. Neither of us could ever remember getting up and eating like that.....

With this method of eating you cancel your subscription to the "Clean Plate Club" - you are no longer required to eat everything on your plate. You eat when you are mildly hunger, and stop eating as soon as you are no longer hungry, whether there is food still remaining on your plate or not. He approached topics like emotional eating, how to re-pattern your thoughts, attitudes about food and eating, and beliefs about food. I checked his book out at the library because I found his method so fascinating. Completely contrary to calorie counting diets we are accustomed to.

He has a number of methods where you tap yourself in different areas of your body with your fingertips in order to break some bad eating habits or eating addictions. Pretty interesting read....

That's a few things to consider.

-Grainlady

I have found that the best way to avoid cravings is to eat meals at regular intervals, and plan for 'good for you,' snacks in between.

If you think you are eating your emotions, I think the best thing to do is to give yourself a different kind of 'treat.' Something that is maybe a tiny bit selfish, but that brings you pleasure and feeds the physical 'emotions,' as well as the mental.

Go for a walk and notice the flowers, soak in a foamy tub, take a swim, whatever it is that both expends a bit of energy and gives you a good feeling.

I think the foods we eat are not giving our bodies the nourishment it needs, therefore we are constantly craving something and never satisfied. Especially sugar, the high we get from it doesn't last long, then we crash and think we just need to eat more of it.

My homemade salted pecan caramels is a trigger food, I won't make them again until next Christmas and I gobbled them up so fast I was relieved when they were gone.

Yeasty bread, I don't keep it in the house.

That one bite thing, doesn't work well for me.

I find that sweet stuff makes me crave salty stuff, and vice versa. I also lose "will power" as the day goes on. I heard an expert on the subject, and he explained that as you get tired, it's harder to resist temptation. I'm badly paraphrasing. I don't remember what his name was. He was on "The People's Pharmacy" one morning several months ago. That point he made, though, stuck in my head. Did it change my eating habits? No, but I know why I eat more at night than in the morning. Of course, I have more time at night to eat than I do in the morning, too.

Grainlady, one of these days I'm going to check that book out from the library. I remember when it came out and he was on the talk show circuit. He was very interesting, but he didn't really say anything that surprised me.

Sally

Dieting is about health, let me stress that I am not a medical expert and know nothing about the science. Don't do what I do, or you can get in big trouble.

My practice in dealing with craving and body weight is based on the following unproven observations and believes:

1. Long time ago, I saw a program of a few scientist/doctors/dieticians discussing dieting. Their theory is that our body is like a room with a thermostat, it does not matter what temperature is outside, it keeps your room at a constant temperature. Your body is self regulating in maintaining body weight within a good range, just like your body temperature is controlled by your body. Don't mess up your thermostat.

2. Two friends, one will never eat strawberries. She picked strawberries as a summer job. She has eaten a few tons of strawberries. The other will not touch ice cream. Same story.

3. If you have a container of ice cream, which way your body can gain more weight? Eat the whole box in one setting? Or enjoy the box slowly in many small portions? I belief your body can absorb calories a lot more efficiently given enough time.

4. If you have a container of ice cream, which way you will develop stronger craving? Eat the whole box in one setting? Or enjoy the box slowly in many small portions? I believe eating (and savoring) tiny portions will never satisfy your craving and can make your craving stronger each time.

5. I believe in mind over matter, similar to biofeedback.

The box of ice cream in my freezer must be at least 6 months old. It may still be there 6 months from now.

All nonsense, I know. :-)

dcarch

It may have to do with your blood sugar. If you eat more smaller meals or snacks including allowing one later at night it might help alleviate your issue. I've found too that if I really can't sleep, getting up and eating a graham cracker with a slug of milk will help me go to sleep, though I don't do it often.

I've also found that contrary to what you'd think, if I'm over full, I want to eat more as I keep sensing my stomach which makes me think of eating. If I'm just sated to no longer hungry, but not full, then I can be satisfied for a far longer period of time.

I do find I have more control over saying "no" in the a.m. than in the p.m. Probably has to do with circadian rhythms...I am also much warmer in the a.m. than I am in the p.m. My car thermostat on the way to work was 68 and on the way home was 75.

And there are foods over which I have little control, like chocolate. Neighbors gave us a chocolate Santa which disappeared in about 5 min flat. Once started, there was no stopping me. Cookies are probably a second place on that scale. So my best bet is not to have it in the house at all, or to have it in a format that is resistable, like sweetened cacao nibs.

My trigger food was orange soda, not because of the taste but because it looked so good in the store. I decided to stop buying it and craving went away in 2 days. It was easy because it was more psychological issue than anything.

Barb, I don't think you're out of your mind. As others have already described, certain foods do indeed "call out to us!" Otherwise, people wouldn't admit that they can't have XYZ in the house without overdoing it.

And there are definitely foods that don't satisfy. One for me & my husband is hot dogs. We don't eat them anymore because of his salt restriction, but when we did, we never could get satisfied. One was not enough. We still felt hungry and wanted more of the taste. Eating more made us sick and still didn't satisfy.

I'm not going to try to give you nutritional advice. Just wanted to assure you that what you're experiencing is not unusual. I'm like you. It's much easier for me to go without food in the mornings and early afternoons when I'm busy. Evenings are harder for me.

Take care!

It's funny what Dcarch brought up, because ICE CREAM is definitely one of my "trigger" foods. I don't crave it in the winter and it can set in the fridge for many a cold month without "triggering" anything in me, but come warmer weather, I cannot keep it in the house. If I am going to binge, ice cream is going to be at the top of the list of culprits. In fact, I have sometimes given in to stress and just gone out and gotten a whole pint of ice cream and eaten it. Stress triggers me, not food. I can resist temptation most of the time quite well, but when enough stress builds up in my life, all bets are off. And hormones trigger cravings for me, and one of the things I end up craving is chocolate, and I am again quite able to resist it most of the time. But chocolate craving is my one PMS symptom. I read once that it is magnesium in chocolate that your body needs, and I do take magnesium supplements, and that does help. But sometimes it is not enough. And it is odd to me, because normally I am not all that fond of chocolate but sometimes I have to have it. Most of the time I deal with cravings by giving myself something healthy that I enjoy. Luckily for me I like a lot of healthy foods along with the unhealthy stuff. So for example, I'll eat a banana almond oat muffin with a glass of chamomile tea as a bedtime snack, and I quite enjoy that. Also maybe a cup of fruit yogurt and some almonds with a little granola on top, I enjoy that and it usually satisfies my craving. And it is important to not let yourself get really hungry and to fill up on lots of fiber, that does help with a craving that is hunger related, but other cravings may indicate dietary deficiencies so getting to the bottom of what that might be can help quell those triggers. I dunno about the stress thing for me, traditional stress relieving techniques don't really work for me. Exercise helps quell cravings too, which is why my nighttime cravings in the winter are so hard to cope with, I am not going out in the cold at night for a walk most nights, and I really turn into a slug when I am cold. I know I should be the opposite, but when stress and cold combine, I just want to hide under a big comforter with a cup of hot chocolate, lol!

My way to deal with cravings in the evening for food in general is to do a hunger assessment. If I'm wanting a snack, am I hungry for a meal? A piece of chicken? If not, then I figure I'm not really hungry, but maybe tired. In general, I find I can feed yoghurt--doesn't have to be sweetened--to an evening craving and it satisfies.

Am I looking something sweet? Even plain Greek yoghurt is milky sweet beneath the sour. I try to eat something that's generally "healthy" in those circumstances. I've recently become sensitive to sugariness. If I'm craving something specifically candy sweet--not the kind of ordinary sweet that fruit satisfies--I'll have a frozen yoghurt pop. The chocolate coating serves as "candy", there's some sugar in the yoghurt, and the yoghurt feels like food. It's also pre-portioned and portable, making a quick getaway from the kitchen easy. I have tried substituting "food" for a sweet in that circumstance, including fruit and other naturally sweet foods, but it doesn't work. If I have a sandwich, instead, the craving just gets stronger. I think, for me, the sweet craving is really a low blood sugar thing or something--if I eat a small amount of an actually sugary sweet I feel better.

This all supposes general wellbeing! Grainlady mentioned water. Definitely make sure you're well hydrated since what you might be craving is the milk that washes down the cookies, rather than the cookies. :) Also, however, check yourself for sleep deprivation. When I was younger and working way too hard, I'd end up substituting food for sleep. It works short term in terms of alertness and problem solving, but it's unhealthy. If you nod off the instant you're in a warm, relaxing position (i.e., you won't nod off at your desk, but would in an easy chair or laying on a sofa), or if you're out like a light when your head hits the pillow, you're probably sleep deprived. Getting enough sleep is vital!

Another thing that can give rise to cravings is missing nutrients. If you don't have a highly varied diet of very fresh foods, especially produce, that have been consumed with almost no cooking or processing, it's likely that you're missing something. People survive without all the vitamins and minerals we grew up hearing about, but you're trying to do more than barely continuing to draw breath. There are a lot of wacky supplements out there, but a good, balanced multivitamin, consumed daily, can take a bunch of cravings right away.

Sometimes I crave kale chips. I indulge that one. :) I try not to overdo it only because the way I make/like them takes a lot of work so I do try to make them last. :) And moderation in all things includes kale!

I think you said it yourself when you go without food in the morning and early afternoon. I am the same type of person that does not always eat early. But since I started this low carb eating I have been eating 3 meals a day and I don't have those strong night time cravings. It seems like my body still wants those 3 meals a day. Yesterday I did not eat breakfast and last night was craving everything I should not eat. I still have cravings but so far low carb snacks have helped.

Yes! I understand that eating protein soon after waking in the morning is the best way to prime our body so we won't be craving empty calories later. Trying to go as long as we can w/o eating is guaranteed to encourage not-so-good choices @ the end of the day.

A couple of eggs & some fresh fruit w/ a cup of green tea works for me - keeps me satisfied for hours w/no mid-morning slump.

We changed our daily food intake rather drastically about five years ago to eat MORE food, including carbs, in three larger meals a day. We also have a cup of tea and some type of sweet food like cookies or a slice of fruit & nut bread at about 8 P.M. every night. I guess you could call it a scheduled snack.

It took a few months to figure out portion sizes and the balance of food groups that would keep us full until the next meal without wanting to snack between meals. We still follow the same eating plan. The foods change with the seasons but if there's something we're hungry for, I try to work it into one of the next day's meals.

I'm not advocating that anyone follow the three meals a day, evening sweet and no snack plan but I was surprised that after years of trying various diets, the one that worked best for us was so simplistic.

My trigger food is gin.

My big one is chips (corn or potato). I think it's sometimes the MSG (natural flavorings). It's just so dang good! I rarely buy them because I have zero will power, where they are concerned, and don't stick to the serving size.
DH and I have a dependence on sugar. Ice cream for him and any bread-y thing for me.

I've cut out those carbs recently to kind of reset my brain, and am using fat for satiety.
How someone can hold 10 lbs of excess fluid from eating habits (hormones play a part) just astounds me and I feel so much better with it gone!
After a while, I'll try to allow the occasional pasta or bread treat, again. I'm not hopeful, though. They are my other trigger foods!

I use a form of intermittent fasting. I don't eat after 7 or 8pm and wait until lunch time to eat again. I'm just not hungry in the morning and it's counterintuitive, to me, to force myself to eat when my body isn't interested. Helps with calorie restriction, too.

I've been able to rein in my cravings using this combination, thank goodness!