7 Tips to Stop Nighttime Snacking

Stop Being Influenced by Food Advertising

The news is full of stories about obesity and overweight and the
food industry fully intends to place the blame squarely on you,
despite the fact they spend hundreds of millions of dollars
every year in an effort to entice us to buy more and more of
their products. Children are especially vulnerable to the
advertising for cereals, snack bars, crackers, cookies, candy,
and fast foods. Colorful packaging, and now even colorful foods
to encourage the little shoppers to badger their parents into
buying the “convenient” snack packs for them. “Mommy I want it”
is exactly the result advertisers are paying to obtain. They
know that many adults will give in to the child’s demands, just
to “keep the peace.”

If you live in modern society, you can’t escape advertising. How
many times have you been happily minding your own business when
suddenly the TV screen flashes a big, juicy, something! Your
stomach may start gurgling, your mouth starts watering, and the
launch sequence for hunger has begun. Once the countdown starts,
nothing can stop the launch into the kitchen, or for the
seriously dedicated, out the door to go get something to eat.
This can happen only an hour after a big dinner. The ads are
designed to do this, and they work well as we prove with our
food dollars every day.

Count the Food Ads

Next time you watch TV keep a note pad nearby and make a little
hash mark every time you see a commercial that encourages you to
eat. You’ll also notice there are certain ads that seem to
trigger the hunger response more than others. What is it about
those ads? Do you start to mentally taste the food? Does it
remind you of happy occasions? It can even remind you of unhappy
occasions which then drives you to want something to eat because
you “deserve” it.

Notice whether it is the people in the ad, the message itself,
the words they use, even the background music or scenery? See if
you can pin-point what, exactly, it is about the ad that draws
you in. Notice what you don’t like about ads that simply do not
interest you. Play college student and do this as homework, and
if you can get your kids to do it with you, all the better.

My son has come to me many times to tell me about something he’s
seen on TV and now wants me to buy. He gets caught up in the
half hour infomercials and becomes so convinced their product is
the single best thing, that it’s difficult to change his mind.

Evenings are an especially rough time for dieters because of the
over abundance of advertising for food. Seeing delicious things
to eat can create the sensation of hunger until it becomes a
patterned response. Turning on the TV then begins to make you
hungry, even without the food cues.

7 Ways to Combat Evening Snacking Habit

1. Mute the commercials or switch to another channel
(channel surfers already do this anyway). Not watching or
hearing the ad can help enormously. Remember, out of sight, out
of mind.

2. Use commercial break time to do housework. You’d be
amazed at how much clutter you can clear in three or four
minutes, and every hour you get at least four of these breaks.

3. Mute the ads and keep your hands busy until your show
comes back on with a project like knitting, reading or finishing
that book you’ve been writing.

4. Start a new business (then you’re probably not in
front of the TV anyway).

5. Step outside and breath some fresh air for a few
minutes.

6. Exercise during the ads. Stand up, sit down, stand up,
sit down, do this for a full minute. It’s a great leg exercise.
Use a kitchen chair rather than the couch to be kinder on your
knees.

7. Move to another seat in the room. Sometimes just
getting up from your usual spot in the room (the coach, or your
favorite chair) and moving to another location can help, so can
getting a glass of water. Sometimes it’s thirst.

Be Willing to Experiment and You can Overcome the Allure of
the Food Ads

The worst thing you can do is simply watch and then attempt to
combat your growing desire to eat. Once the idea that you’re
hungry is planted, it becomes much more difficult to change your
mind. Instead stop the idea from occurring in the first place by
finding something else to do instead of watching another Burger
King commercial.

Advertising only works when we’re paying attention, either
watching or listening. I’ve no quarrel with advertisers, I
advertise my services too, but watching one hundred ads all
featuring food after dinnertime is a bit much for anyone to
endure. Food ads are designed for you to simply sit and be
mesmerized by the flashing words, snappy slogans, colors and
lights. Pay closer attention, or pay none at all, but either way
you’ll gain a much greater understanding of how advertising
influences you.

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