Turo Virta: 0:57

Hey and welcome back to the fit me Turo fitness podcast today, I'm talking why you eat well all day and lose control at night. So most people don't struggle during the day. They struggle at night. During the day, everything is under control. You are eating well. You make good choices. You stay on track. And then evening comes. You are tired. You finally sit down after a long day, and suddenly everything changes. So it's starting. You are starting to snack. You maybe have second dinner. You eat something sweet, something salty. I deserve this. You are telling yourself, and at the end of the day you think that, why did I ruin it again? If this sounds familiar, this episode is for you, because this is not about discipline. This is about something else. Because here is the truth, the problem is that always that that you don't have a food problem, you have an evening problem, because most people focus all their energy on the day, what to eat, what to avoid, how to stay on track, but they completely ignore The part of today where things actually fall apart the evening. And if evenings are not planned, there will they will always win. So I want to make this very simple, because there are four main reasons why evenings feel so hard. Number one is that you are mentally tired. All day. You make decisions at work, with kids, with food, with life, and by the evening, your brain is done. And when your brain is tired, you don't want to think you want easy, and easy usually means food. So because we have certain amount of willpower, decision power, and more, you use it during the day for things like what to wear, decisions at work with with your kids, with food, what to eat, what not to eat, and in life, in general, less willpower you have, and, and, and then it's by by end of the day, it's all your power. It's you have, if you think, like your battery in your phone, if you don't charge it, it's getting low, and by the time it's done, your battery is dead. You have no power left, so it means, most cases, food. And reason number two is that you are emotionally trained. So evening is often the first moment you slow down, and suddenly your stress shows up, your emotions show up, and your thoughts show up, and food becomes comfort, distraction and reward. So these are, these are so many. Life is so busy and it's it's when you don't, it's the for most people, or for many, many people, evening is the first time when you slow down, and that is that you don't have to wonder why these things are happening, because it's the easiest way to search comfort, distraction and reward from food. So there are some other ways too, but those are easiest ways. So then number three reason is that you tell yourself I deserve this. And this is a big one, so you are telling maybe yourself that I have been good all day. I worked hard, I didn't eat much. So now you give yourself permission and that, but that the problem is that that reward turns into overeating. Number four reason is that you didn't eat enough earlier, and this is very common, because you try to be good. During the day, you are eating light meals, you maybe eat only salad or soup. At lunch, you are skipping snacks, and then at night, your body catches up because it needs energy, so it pushes you to eat more, not because you are weak, because you are only human and and I want to tell little real life example, because I see this all the time with clients, they tell me during the day, I don't have any problems. I'm perfect. And then they describe their evenings they are standing in the kitchen, eating while cooking, going back for more and finishing with something sweet. And they feel like that. They have failed. But when we look closer, the problem is not willpower. The problem is that there is no structure for the evening. The day is planned, the evening is not and that is the issue, what we are going to fix. So I want to keep this very simple, because you don't need a perfect plan. You need a better evening setup. So here are a few things that actually work and you can I don't want you to try all things. If you recognize yourself in one of these examples, I want you to try this one thing. And it's not only that, maybe in a very first time, like everything new, you are about to start, it's not working right away, but give it time. Give it at least couple days week, due time, and try to do it as best as you can, and see if that actually is the thing. What could help you? Often, for some people, it works already from the first time, but for the most people, you need to give it a little bit time, like everything in life. So step number one, or tip number one, what could be if the problem is that you are not eating enough during the day, so stop trying to be too good. So if you under eat during the day, you will overeat at evening, simple as that, so focus simply on having enough protein, having real meals and enough food so your body doesn't panic at night. And tip number two is to plan your evening, not just your day, because most people plan what they are eating their breakfast, what is going to be at lunch and what is going to be dinner, but not what happens after dinner. So ask yourself, what do I usually do at eight to 10pm because that's where your results are decided. And tip number three is to create a default routine. So because you don't need motivation, you need a simple routine. Example, dinner after dinner, short walk, tea, sit down, same pattern, you have less thinking you have more control. And other could be like if you recognize yourself that you are kind of eating for because you are bored and because maybe you are someone who is whole day going on, and it's maybe late at night, it's the first time when you slow down, when you sit down, and then you are like that, okay, when I'm not busy, I'm I don't know what to do, and then you are kind of distracting yourself while eating, because you need to be doing you need to be going all the time, and this is I personally recognize myself with this pattern, like it's especially in the evening, it's often it's not that I'm still hungry. Sometimes that's the case, but most often that is not the case. And what really have been helpful for me is to actually planning these things ahead and giving myself like a snack budget. And that is like creating like, for example, you don't need to count your calories. I, for me, personally, I was thinking that it's around 10% of my total daily calorie need I plan it later after dinner, so it can be depending on day. Let's say this way, that depending on day, and how I feel, it could be, if I feel like that, I'm actually hungry, I didn't eat too less. Then it might be Greek yogurt with strawberries. You can have a lot of volume by eating strawberries and Greek yogurt, but if it's like that, no, I don't today, I'm not feeling like eating 500 grams of strawberries and another 500 grams of Greek yogurt. I might be telling that I want them to have cookies. I want to have chocolate, I want to have some sweets. So obviously that is not it's still the same thing, 250 300 calories. But it's planned, and I it's obviously amounts are a bit less it gives. They give at that moment more enjoyment. But then that is my rule. It's planned. It's in, in in a to prepare box plan. And this is my portion for today, and I'm allowing myself to have it. But it's also limited. When this is done, then it's done and there is nothing else. So that is my personal example. Then number four is, is that reduce your decisions. So evening is not the time to negotiate with yourself. And this is kind of that self talk, what we are having almost all the time. So decide earlier, what is my plan tonight, and not at 9pm because if you are making those decisions at 9pm and you have no willpower left plan, your decisions are most likely not going to be the best ones. And this is next thing. What I want to say is to allow, allow something. I kind of talked about it earlier, but don't restrict everything. If you will say that I can't have anything, you will end up having everything. So instead, plan something small, enjoy it, finish it, and move on. Because it's, it's, more often than not, it's that when we are restricting everything, it's, it's, it's not matter of if you can restrict the rest of your life, it's matter of time before you will eat something what you are maybe not happy with, and that is that is the key to actually allow yourself, but having some kind of control over or or limits or rules for yourself put and how much you are allowing yourself to have, and once you have created that rule, it senses everything. So this is important. There is there is one shift I really want you to understand so you don't need more discipline at night. You need less pressure and more structure. Because right now, you are most likely relying on willpower at the worst possible time of the day. So really let this sink, because if you are relying on willpower at the worst possible time of the day, it's not miracle, it's that everything goes bad or wrong or not, at least not the way how you like it. It's, it's obvious that it will go this way. So just have more structure, and that will change everything. So if you take one thing from this episode, let it be this. Your problem is not the whole day, it's those two to three hours in the evening. And instead of trying to be perfect, start by improving that small window, not everything, just that. And ask yourself tonight, what would a slightly better evening. Look like not perfect, just better. And start there. And if this helped you, share it with someone who struggles with evening, because I promise you, they are not alone. And if you want to help building routine that actually works for your real life, you will find everything in the show notes. Talk to you in the next episode.