Late Night Raw Snackers?

[TheAvocadess]

Just curious... since Alissa says "Eat when you're hungry." How many of you all raw foodists eat after 9pm or later?

[tiggerbounce]

I have an eating curfew that I follow. So no snacking for me. My eating curfew is 7 pm...no exceptions.

To be fair, I am in bootcamp and we are required to have an eating curfew. I like it though. I know some have theirs set to 9pm (except one sleep walks and eats in the night,....craaaazy...poor thing)

When you get a curfew set in your mind and you develop a habit you just get used to it and it keeps me focused --especially when I am bored. If I ever get truly hungry though I would break that. I try to get AT LEAST 1000 calories in by 7pm and then I am done. I eat only fresh fruits and veggies and no nuts or dehydrated things or bananas. It makes it difficult to fill up like I could otherwise. But it has worked fine for me so far.

I find that usually if I get all my eating done and high enought cals that I am just thirsty and can have a glass of water or hot tea and it is no problem.

Is this the type of answer you were meaning??

[TheAvocadess]

Yeah! I was curious to see how many did eat as opposed to didn't. My son who is now more interested in raw (YAY!), made a gorgeous batch of fresh guacamole and was having it with the amazingly famous onion bread I made and I had to have a small piece as well, oh it was REALLY good. So I wondered how many eat late.

Myself, I don't usually because I feel it interferes with the bodies detox and I don't sleep well. If I'm REALLY hungry, a piece of fruit (small) like half a banana or a little apple is fine and doesn't bother me.

I wondered what people's experiences are with late night eating.

Also, my son noticed when he ate cooked that he'd have dinner and then be starving around midnight. We figure this is because eating foods with little to no nutrition would cause starvation. He was amazed after having a salad for breakfast and a banana later, that he wasn't hungry and felt very satisfied. THANK THE GODS! that he noticed and experienced this because at 13, most teens are junk food addicts. So I'm really grateful he has experienced the feeling of 100% raw and feeling totally satisfied. What a gift that is.

I think the weight loss and health benefits are wonderful, but the greatest thing for me is no longer being a slave to cooked "food". My body loves raw and it's so good to not feel hungry all the time! FREEDOM! :D

Anyway, I got off track a little, but quite simply just wondered what experiences people have with eating late. I also wonder if in the beginning of starting raw this is common and then tappers off as your body adjusts to being nutritionally satisfied. I ate A LOT more when I first became all raw than now. I'm actually shocked some days at how little food it takes to keep me satisfied.

[Rawkinlocs]

If I'm hungry, I'll eat. BUT...I've also learned to take notice of when I'm eating just out of the "munchy-snackies" so sometimes I'll try to ignore that if I KNOW I'm not hungry, just feeling "snacky" but sometimes I still go ahead and have a little something. I know I've heard/read that the body's cleansing and digestion takes place at night and that it's not good to eat and then go right to bed or something to that effect...but I think it just really depends.

[Anastasia Alston]

If I'm hungry, I'll eat. I don't bother to look at the clock. I've never dieted & follow my own body's advice when it comes to eating. If my body says "feed me!" & it's 10 o'clock, then I find something to eat. Oddly, in the later hours a simple smoothy or a piece of fruit is plenty. I rarely get requests for burgers or salads or pate's or things like that unless I haven't eaten enough during the day.

- Stasi

[ladypeace82]

Usually I don't eat anything past 7. But that's only b/c I have school at night so I will have a green smoothie on my way to school that's at around 5 pm. THen I'm at school and too distracted and too far from my kitchen to do anything about it if I am hungry. I'll come home and just go to bed. on nights I dont have school I'd eat or have GS and up until 2 weeks ago when apparently whole foods stopped selling watermelon, i'd have some watermelon at like 9pm.
it's like drinking water right? :)

these past two weeks have been harder. no strawberries and no watermelons,
and barely any oranges and bananas or good ones at the store. pretty upset about that.
so i've been going in the kitchen staring at my mother in law's side of the pantry and freezer and being slightly jealous. i'll just stare then walk away..... hungry.

[TheAvocadess]

Thank you all for your answers. It's interesting that I generally won't eat after 8pm and do this without though, but naturally just don't feel like eating past 8 unless I didn't eat enough during the day. Even if I'm a tad hungry late at night, if I just have some water, I'm fine and oddly never hungry in the morning.

When I first went all raw, I was really hungry the first 2-3 days and then that came to an abrupt stop. I think my body really needed high doses of good nutrition.

I think I'll consciously not eat after 7 or 8 pm. That sounds like a good idea unless I'm starving & really uncomfortable. Then a piece of fruit maybe, though water alone can be very filling which makes me wonder if thirst acts as hunger sometimes?

[sport]

I sometimes eat late but I find that I sleep better if I can avoid it.
I also find that I wake up hungrier on the days after I have snacked.
I always keep a late snack to fruit but could eat an entire melon or 2 large mangos or 2 papayas.

[tinystrawberry]

I am a midnight snacker! oh yeah!!! i usually eat fruit with agave or almond buttery things :)

buuuutt i don't always eat at night, sometimes i just don't feel like eating.

[ladypeace82]

I've found that just going to bed and sleeping through the hunger helps. :)

"oh man I'm so hungry! But I can't eat this late! Let's just go to bed so I don't feel hungry anymore" :)

[Anastasia Alston]

I've found that just going to bed and sleeping through the hunger helps. :)

"oh man I'm so hungry! But I can't eat this late! Let's just go to bed so I don't feel hungry anymore" :)

NO WAY could I sleep if I am really hungry!!! I've tried ignoring my hunger & going to sleep out of sheer laziness but IF I get to sleep I am guaranteed to wake up at 3am with my body saying "I TOLD you I was HUNGRY!!!" Then a piece of fruit won't do it & I have to have something more substantial. I'd really rather make stuff at 11 o'clock at night than at 3 in the morning! :D

- Stasi

[trinity082482]

*Raises Hand*:D

[Revvell]

Hmmm. Thinking I ate at 11 last night sooo, guess I do. :)

[lulushka8]

yep, me too. sometimes really late, i used to work in a bar where i had shifts from late afternoon to the early hours so i used to eat incredibly late! Even raw, i just CAN'T SLEEP if i'm even slightly peckish, i just lie in my bed thinking about food till i force myself to get a nutty treat from the fridge! life's too short to be so strict and disciplined in that way. if i'm hungry i'll eat, no matter what people say about the "dangers"...

[PomegranatePip]

I have to eat in the evenings. If I don't, I can wake up with what feels like a blood-sugar crash (shaky, sweaty, etc.). Lately, I've been having raw veggies with dip (made with Vegenaise, so it's not 100% raw... but I figure that, on the whole, the snack is mostly raw). That really helps me to sleep better. I usually have that snack after 10 pm. Any earlier, and I burn through it too quickly!

[beppa66]

YEP! If I'm hungry...a girl's gotta do what she's gotta do! ( :

[bananas]

yeah, i don't pay attention to what time it is when i eat, but i have also learned that if i eat too much before i go to bed, i don't sleep well and wake up with a tummy ache. so, i usually just snack, but if you are hungry, eat!

[walnutty]

YES! I can't sleep if I am hungry...:D

[Shell]

I generally try to stop eating 2 hrs. before I go to bed.....I can't sleep well on a full stomach. If I'm feeling a bit hungry right before bed, I'll have some herbal tea, and that seems to do it!

[CaliRaw]

If it's right before bed or an hour or so before, it's usually something small, like some grapes. That usually does it.

[TheAvocadess]

Some of you might be familiar with the British Cook Nigella who had a show on Bravo called Nigella Bites... also known for her writing about cooked food and she has another show on now I think, but anyway, at the end of every show you see her rather plump figure at the fridge in the dark eating spoonfulls of some outrageously sinful cooked food, and I wondered if there were any midnight raiders to maybe spoon in a few mouth fulls of some raw goodie like
cheese cake, fudge etc... LOL! Could anyone blame you with some of your photos or glorious raw creations? No way! :D

[casperlynn]

Errrrr, yeah, late eater here too. I can't sleep well hungry, and if I do manage to fall asleep, then I wake up to the middle of the night FEED ME NOW command from my body. Even if it's just a spoonful of almond butter or something, I'll try to satisfy my hunger at any hour to avoid an unhealthy "binge" later. :rolleyes:

[tiggerbounce]

You know what is weird??? I like the feeling of being hungry. For so many years I just felt full....stuffed.....ALL the time. It feels so good to feel hungry and not stuffed like a sausage. Know what I mean?

Interestingly, I really do not get hungry at night. If I finish eating around 7pm I am good to go. I find that I typically eat out of habit or boredom after that because dh makes smoothies, icecream, etc --- and the only reason I would eat it is because it was there. Now I don't do that. But like some have noted, if I were to get truly and honestly hungry, I would definitely eat. But with raw that has not been a problem.(so far)

So maybe I am weird, but I really don't mind feeling hungry. I love it.:cool:

[Shell]

I hear that, Tigs......I always thought "No way, why feel hungry when food is right there?" But when I stopped stuffing myself, and listened to my hunger, I found that I'm actually NOT HUNGRY ALL THE TIME!:rolleyes: I saw an Oprah show once with Bob Greene, and he advocated stopping eating at least 2 hrs. before bed, and also said that that "hungry" feeling you get at night means that your body is working to process the food you ate during the day, and that it's starting to fuel itself with the calories you've already taken in, meaning that you're actually burning fat/calories.......I don't know, but I like the sound of that, and I keep that in the back of my mind when I get late night munchies. I just picture little pac-man-like creatures eating all my excess fat.......Feast my little pretties! FEAST!!!!!!! Muah ha ha ha......

[StarFire]

I have an eating curfew that I follow. So no snacking for me. My eating curfew is 7 pm...no exceptions.



If I get hungry... and frankly - if I get the munchies - I will snak at night. But usually that means a piece of raw cheese cake about 1" x 1" in size, and I'm good with that. Or I might have a couple of teaspoons of banana-coconut milk ice cream. Yummmm... :D

but I do like what tigger wrote up above... I think it would be good to implement an eating curfew... cuz lets face it - 2 teaspoons of raw ice cream is not filling me up - that's just a taste treat for my mouth - not a necessity for my body!

I do make sure to drink a lot of water too... lots and lots of water before i go to bed... i want my body to be very hydrated as I sleep so that my body has all the water it needs to rebuild - clean - whatever... I know - just one of my strange little quirks!! :o (oh and this is even weirder.... If i get up at night to go to the restroom... i have to have at least two sips of water b4 i go back to bed. if i don't do that - i will end up getting back up out of bed - going to the kitchen and having my 2 sips of water... okay -- now that's weird right??? lol.... what can i say...) :rolleyes:

http://i149.photobucket.com/albums/s43/FireStar_830/1179812979773s.jpg ... she's a totally weird rawbie!!!

[PomegranatePip]

I do make sure to drink a lot of water too... lots and lots of water before i go to bed... i want my body to be very hydrated as I sleep so that my body has all the water it needs to rebuild - clean - whatever...

Oh, my goodness. If I did that, I would be up all night peeing! :eek:

[Eva]

Tiggerbounce! That is such a good comment. I am finding that when I wait for my body to tell me it's actually hungry and wants food, that I just feel so good. I never would have thought in a million years in the past that I would like the way my body feels when I'm hungry. It feels like it's working the right way...

[tiggerbounce]

phew! It's good to know that we are all weird together!!! hee hee!

It's great to see everyone's perspective on these things. Very interesting.

I like the idea of visualizing a little pac-man (like those scrubbing bubbles dudes) cleaning house! ha!

I also like the idea of drinking lots of water before bed so my body has what it needs to clean house....but yeah...I would live in the bathroom for the first couple of weeks till I get used to it! rofl! (up all night....sleep all day!!!!)

I have been up an hour and a half (since 5am) and have not eaten yet. I should have exercised but am a slacker this morning. I am enjoying not being full right now. It's been nearly twelve hours since last eating and even though I am a bit hungry, I am not STARVING. (btw, when I cap things like that I am not yelling...I like NEVER yell. I just like strong emphasis on words a lot. Another quirk. I have got lots! hee hehee...blissfully quirky tigger!) Yelling makes my throat hurt. :rolleyes: