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[av_heading heading=’Getting Through the Witching Hour’ tag=’h2′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=” subheading_size=’15’ padding=’36’ color=” custom_font=” av-medium-font-size-title=” av-small-font-size-title=” av-mini-font-size-title=” av-medium-font-size=” av-small-font-size=” av-mini-font-size=” custom_class=” admin_preview_bg=”][/av_heading]
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I have found that many dieters I work with initially have a “witching hour:” a period of an hour or two each day where cravings are strong and staying on track feels much harder. For most dieters, this is either the period right before dinner (around 4 PM – 6 PM) or in the hours after dinner but before bed (8 PM -10 PM). Dieters often think that they just can’t get through it without eating, but this is only because they don’t have skills that they need.
I am working with a dieter named Sarah whose witching hour is between 8 and 10 PM. She told me that every night around that time, she starts thinking about food and eating a lot more, and it’s difficult for her to stand firm. To help Sarah stay on track, the first thing we did was come up with an eating schedule for the evening. For some dieters, it may work to not eat at all during the witching hour, and for some it’s perfectly reasonable to plan a snack. We decided that we would try the latter strategy first, since it was reasonable for her to have a dessert-type snack after dinner. Sarah eats dinner at 6:30, and is usually in bed by 10:30, so she decided that she would plan to have an evening snack at 9:00. Immediately after dinner Sarah is full, so it’s easier to not eat, and then from 7:30-8:30 she’s usually distracted with getting her kids to bed. We knew that 8:30-9:00 might be a hard time to not eat, and that after she ate her snack it might be hard to not keep eating more.
Once we made a schedule of when she would eat (and, of course, when she wouldn’t eat), we then made a plan to help her stick to it. Sarah made a Response Card to read right after she finished putting her kids to bed to remind her why it was worth it to her to wait to have her evening snack:
Even though I want to eat right now, it’s worth it to wait so that I can reach my goals. I have to prove to myself I can overcome these cravings, or I’ll always be at risk for eating too much in the evening.
We then talked about some things that Sarah could do to help her stay distracted. We knew that her cravings go away when she’s fully engaged in something else. Sarah made a list of things she could do, like clean the kitchen, call her mom or her sister, play a game on her phone, do a crossword puzzle, or go through her kids’ toys and clean out the things they no longer play with. Since television alone is not always distracting enough, we decided that if she was going to watch TV during this time, she would make sure to pair it with another activity (like TV plus coloring in her adult coloring book, TV plus knitting, or TV plus deleting pictures on her phone that aren’t worth keeping).
We then came up with a plan for what Sarah would do after she had her snack to help to stop eating. We made another Response Card for her to read:
It’s worth it to stop eating now! If I keep eating, I’ll wind up feeling mad at myself and when I stop eating I’ll feel so proud of myself. Remember that the moment my brain is engaged in something else is the moment it stops feeling hard not to eat.)
And we decided that after she read her Response Card she would either do another distracting activity, or she would just go upstairs, brush her teeth, get in bed early and read (in addition to losing weight, Sarah also had a goal of reading more).
If you have a witching hour, consider this same approach! Make a schedule for when/if you’ll eat and then formulate a plan to help you stick to it. Make Response Cards to read before and/or after and come up with some distracting activities to help you get your mind off of eating and on to something else.
What is your witching hour? What do you do—or what do you now plan to do—at that time? Post in the comments below!
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