Most people “mess up” their “diets” towards the end of the day.  I tell you this because I have realized this in the last 13 years of working with hundreds of clients.

People have the best intentions, but the having the best intentions doesn’t necessarily mean they are the RIGHT INTENTIONS. The intentions are normally to “try to not eat a lot”.  So most people “dieting” try to minimize the amount of food they eat at the beginning of the day.

What ends up happening is blood sugar is low, and at that point you are basically “screwed”, because at that point your body is saying “GIVE ME SUGAR AND GIVE IT TO ME NOW”. When this happens, it is so much harder to have WILL POWER and make the right food choices.

But say you did it, you made the right choice for lunch and you only ate tuna and cucumbers because you are trying to “diet”. Well, you didn’t eat enough during breakfast or mid-morning meal, for the same reason, you had the “best intentions”.   But you still have not eaten enough all day.

So not it’s about 3pm, you pick up the kids from school, give them their snack, and because you have not eaten enough all day (and blood sugar is probably low), you grab whatever your kids are eating.  That could be cookies, pretzels, crackers and cheese, popcorn, sandwich, cereal, etc.   OBVIOUSLY not the right choices.

Why does this happen?  Why do you tend to over eat towards the latter part of the day?  Why are you so hungry in the afternoon?

This happens because of one or more of the reasons listed below:

1. You didn’t eat enough times a day (which keeps blood sugar stable so that you don’t crave the bad stuff).
2. You didn’t eat enough at each meal (which also keeps blood sugar stable so that you don’t crave the bad stuff).
3. You are not prepared with healthy choices

What do you do?

1. Make sure you eat every 3-4 hours, don’t skip any meals in hopes of “eating less” (you will just be slowing metabolism and giving up burning tons of calories).
2. Make sure you eat enough at each meal so that you feel satisfied and so that it will hold you over at least 3 hours.
3. Make sure you have healthy snacks or meals ready and available so that when it’s time to eat, you have it ready.  This may take some prepping on another day or making extra lunches or dinners so that you have left over’s for mid-afternoon meals.

So, WHEN IS THE BEST TIME TO HAVE YOUR “SNACK” in the afternoon?

The best time to have your snack is when your kids have theirs.  Instead of snacking on their food, sit down with them, and serve yourself the meal or snack.  This will prevent you from picking at your kids “unhealthy snacks”, which is a whole other discussion for another day.  And it will also keep you satisfied until dinner so that you don’t get to dinnertime STARVED.  Because most people OVER EAT at dinner because they are starving because it has been so long since their last meal (low blood sugar).

For those who actually make it through dinner without over eating, tend to “pick at food” after dinner.  YEAH you know it’s you, in the kitchen cabinets looking for something to satisfy you even though you just had dinner.  YOU DIDN’T EAT ENOUGH ALL DAY! If you did, you wouldn’t be looking for food after dinner.

Now get in the kitchen make some healthy snacks or meals that you can store in the fridge and have them readily available!  I will be thinking of you at 3pm tomorrow, as I sit with Nicholas for my HEALTHY SNACK.

Loryn Huff has some great recipes, you should check them out.

And remember if you can't get to food, grab a QUALITY protein shake or bar.  For QUALITY SUPPLEMENTS, check out BILLY BECK'S website.

You can also get tons of healthy recipes and ideas on my website.  MICHELLE MARIE HEALTHY RECIPES