The last few nights I’ve been filling my gut with craaap.

So I’m writing this as a “note to self” - reminding myself of 3 powerful habits that’ve worked for me in the past to curb late night munchies.

Hopefully you’ll find one of these tactics useful in your own life!

#1 - No Seconds Allowed

As I wrote about once before, I’m a sucker for eating seconds.

Whether I’m hungry or not, out of habit I’ll just dish myself up a second (or even third) plate of food.

It’s bad.

The first time I ever stopped this for an extended period of time was when my wife and I were in college. She was taking a class on obesity and weight management and was assigned to follow 2 health “interventions” for a month.

I agreed to participate in her assignment as well, and 1 of the interventions we picked was portion control.

But we didn’t just try and eat smaller plates…

Emmalee did the most genius thing ever.

After cooking a meal, she’d dish out a reasonable portion for each of us, then immediately put the rest into a container and away in the fridge before we even started eating.

So even if I did feel like eating seconds, it meant I’d have to go pull the food out of the fridge and heat it up again.

That tiny inconvenience kept me from eating seconds for over a month.

It was absolutely brilliant!

#2 - Brush Your Teeth Right After Dinner

It’s pretty self explanatory, and is based on the same concept as tip #1.

Just like putting the extra food in the fridge before I have a chance to dish up seconds, brushing my teeth right after dinner creates a minor inconvenience for myself.

If I suddenly crave a late night snack…

…I know it will mean having to brush my teeth again.

Which I’d rather not do!

So 99% of the time, I’d just rather not have the snack at that point.

The trick is brushing your teeth before you get that craving.

#3 - “Cut Me Off”

Alright, so you’re at a party or hanging out with family and just can’t resist diving into the chips and guac.

Don’t blame you one bit.

I’d be downing them too!

But I know from experience if I overdo it on the chips and guac, I’m gonna wake up with a stomach ache in the morning.

But… how do you stop when it’s just so addicting?

My bro-in-law Matt taught me this one.

When he knows he’s gone too far, he’ll say out loud, “okay guys, cut me off after this one”.

Does anyone else really care if Matt eats more?

Nope.

But Matt (like any human) wants to be seen as someone who does what they say they’ll do.

So by publicly announcing that he’s going to stop eating after this next chip, it creates this tiny layer of social pressure that will make it mildly embarrassing if he does keep eating.

I’ve watched Matt use this many times, and it seems to work like a charm!

Bonus #3.5 - Just go to bed!

Okay I said I’d share 3 habits, but this one just popped in my head and probably trumps all the rest actually.

When psychologists study people who measure high on “willpower” or are found to have better self control, there’s one thing they find in common.

Surprisingly, it often has much less to do with having high willpower, and more to do with these people simply avoiding situations that would require using willpower.

For example, you can try and work on your own willpower to not eat snacks late at night, or you could just go to bed.

• Stay up late = try to avoid overeating

• Go to sleep early = avoid temptation entirely

I call this a “power habit” or “keystone habit”.

It’s the tiny hinge that swings a big door.

You can focus on 3 other habits to deal with the temptation of wanting to eat more late at night…

Or choose the one habit that allows being unconscious during that time so the temptation doesn’t even exist.

Which of these strategies will you try this week?

Hit reply and let me know!

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- Kody

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P.S. These take 3 hours to research, write, and design. It only takes you 3 seconds to share.