Conquering the Late Night Munchies

I have gained four pounds.  I say this with great joy, actually. Since January, which is the last time I worked out, I have only gained four pounds. In the tussle for supremacy between diet and exercise, I must acknowledge that diet has won out every time.

I start working out again next week when the weather will be consistently above 50 degrees (or so we are told - this winter is tenacious!).

I haven't been perfect about eating clean. Those four pounds mainly come from a period when I was cocky and went on a Veggie Ho Fun bender. And then there were the french fries. And potato chips. BUT! As soon as I felt my pants feeling a little tighter, I stopped. That is the break through for me.

Prior to the October Juice Feast, I would have been binging by now, feverishly gaining back the 20 pounds I have lost (so far). Since I have not had any cheese or gluten since October, I also have not had urges to binge. I do still think about cheese but I don't experience that overwhelming primal fury that demands that I must gorge on it. I can leave it alone. So I do.

I still have other habits to transform. Eating late at night and eating potato chips and french fries have been two remaining habits that contribute to weight gain for me. Today I celebrate victory over the late night munchies.

The trick to stopping the late night munchies is really simple. Are you ready for this? Here it is:

Carob Banana Smoothie with Almond Milk

A smoothie or "custard" at around 5pm. Something about having a sweet treat in the late afternoon keeps the late night munchies away.

But that's not all. I have refined the Bento box idea, playing with ingredients and portion sizes and thus I have arrived at a way to eat that works perfectly for me. FINALLY.


Breakfast is two veggies and a protein in tomato sauce with onion and garlic, seasoned with turmeric, sage and cumin and some kind of rice/grain. The two veggies are sweet potato with either spinach, broccoli, or green beans. The proteins are eggs or organic tofu. When I use tofu I add Jamaican Curry Powder. In this photo I have used eggs.











I make enough for two servings so lunch is the other half of breakfast.

Pineapple Banana Custard.
Recipe: 1C frozen Pineapple, 2 fresh, ripe bananas

At around five in the afternoon I have a very sweet delicious banana based smoothie or "custard".  My three favorite flavors are blueberry, pineapple and cocoa (I use carob to avoid caffeine so it really isn't chocolate). When watermelon comes into season I'll probably add a huge bowl of fresh cubes to the rotation. In the summer, I will freeze the bananas and make ice cream.

Gluten Free Mac with Dairy Free Cheese and Peas n' Carrots

For dinner (which I eat around 7pm, at least 2 hours after eating the fruit) I'll either have a gluten free pasta with dairy free cheesy sauce (it is soooo good!) or some form of beans and rice with the cheesy sauce and two veggies: Carrots and peas or beets and peas, or beets and carrots.



I either use a salad plate or the Bento box for portion control.

Jumbo Medjool Date

The final piece is a huge, sweet and gooey date at around 8:30pm and sleep before 11:30pm, which is when the naughty food gremlins really come out.  I don't know why the gremlins come out at 11:30pm specifically, but going to sleep before then is essential.

As I was taking this photo, I noticed where the date originates. Because of my concerns about what is happening in Israel/Palestine (I love my Jewish friends but take issue with the Israeli government) I will likely be switching to figs and prunes from California.






And there you have it. What I eat in a day. For the past two days, anyway. It is about time I figured this out, too, because I have run out of "not from scratch" meals on my sticker chart. The orange smiley faces are days when I only ate from scratch.