Does food start speaking to you after 7pm? Those cookies beg for your companionship. The ice cream lovingly awaits your warm embrace. Do you feel deprived, lonely, bored or anxious if you don't eat treats while you watch TV, read or surf the internet after the kids go to bed? Do you vow to stop eating after dinner, only to do the opposite and over-indulge? How do we stop this cycle without feeling deprived?
Consider for a moment that maybe it's not food you are feeling deprived of. Maybe its love. Maybe we eat because we feel we are missing something we need in life. Maybe its adventure, passion, sweetness, spice. Next time you have a craving, tune into it and visualize yourself pushing the food away and see what comes up. What is it you REALLY want? Food is only a great counterfeit for what we truly desire in our hearts.
Night eating has the potential to shave years off of your life and create a perfect environment for dis-ease to thrive. According to Paul Chek in his book, How to Eat, Move and Be Healthy, your body is busy doing physical and psychological repair work between the hours of 10pm and 6am, if you are sleeping. If you happen to have food in your stomach during this time, it creates stress for the body because it is a distraction from the healing process.
Stress causes the stress hormone, cortisol, to be elevated. Cortisol is our fight or flight hormone. To the innate wisdom of our body, a rise in cortisol means we are being chased by a lion. This signals the body to hold onto ALL of its reserves because it has no idea when safety will be reached and food will become available again. So, as our body works to help us survive the chase, it shuts down the digestion process and sends the blood to the lower (instinctive) brain and the extremities. READ: your body holds onto ALL of your fat and your food sits in your stomach to ferment which creates inflammation, the root of most dis-ease. On top of this, fermenting food can be a breeding ground for parasites and fungus. This also creates a hormonal imbalance as it causes chaos with the messengers of our body (our hormones). Since we normally feast on processed carbs at night, you might like to know that processed carbohydrates and sugars are the number one dysregulator of hormones in the body. If you have hormonal issues, this is very important to know.
When I experienced hormonal chaos, it took a short six weeks off of sugar and processed food to totally turn it around! What's more is that as cortisol is raised, it prevents the increase of the human growth hormone, the major repair and anti-aging hormone in the body. The increase in this hormone is necessary for the repair process to happen as we sleep. Sugar consumption also decreases production of human growth hormone. So, night eating can literally shave years off your life and prevent the ability to really live while you are alive, free of dis-ease.
Did you know all of this was happening just from eating those cookies while you watch TV? I hope this information helps next time you get a nagging craving to eat at night. Remember, new habits take about 21 or so days, to instill.
If you have strong cravings, you might like to check out my article, Supplement Secrets for Weight Loss & Cravings.
You may also benefit from my video teaching you a powerful EFT (tapping) exercise to eliminate night cravings.
And lastly, since we tend to not be hungry at night, you may find success by trying out the Hunger Satisfaction Guided Visualization exercise MP3 below. Just find a comfy spot and get ready for a mini vacation while your subconscious mind gets rewired about overeating.
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Maria Rippo is a Transformational Weight Loss & Wellness practitioner with an online as well as a local practice in Bothell, WA. This article Copyright 2013 by Maria Rippo, all right reserved. To replicate or use any portion of this article, please do so in its entirety including this text or contact the author at maria@mariarippo.com.
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