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"Have you ever struggled with overeating at night? I used to be a HUGE night eater. In college, I would easily pack on 5 to 10 lbs during the couple of weeks of finals because I was up late and eating ALL the time. Luckily, I&amp;amp;#8217;ve managed to keep it under control for the last few months. Of course, there are still days when I&amp;amp;#8217;m up late and I get really hungry. I normally reach for a yogurt or a piece of fruit or a glass of chocolate almond milk. Except for this past Monday night--I blew it! I had just made some peppermint tea and was about to go to bed, when I got the urge for the vanilla fudge ripple ice cream with almonds (you know how much I LOVE ice cream) that was lurking in my freezer. I thought one big spoonful would do, but after several trips back to the freezer, I just gave up and finished off the carton. AAH! There were at least four servings of ice cream in there, and I ate them all. I can&amp;amp;#8217;t believe myself! I felt SO guilty. My stomach was not pleased with all that sugar and fat late at night. According to this article from Whole Living Magazine, overeating at night is pretty common. People are more susceptible at this time because &amp;amp;#8220;we&amp;#x27;re tired and want to relax. There&amp;#x27;s unstructured time, and fewer distractions to keep us from our emotions.&amp;amp;#8221; I get that. I used to self-medicate with food all the time. And I&amp;amp;#8217;ve had a few relapses, (I&amp;amp;#8217;m human!) but I try to be aware of my feelings and only eat when I&amp;amp;#8217;m truly hungry. But here&amp;amp;#8217;s what really concerns me after my bout with ice cream the other night: &amp;amp;#8220;Using eating to get through the wee hours spells bad news for your health. The foods we reach for at night are often high in refined carbohydrates&amp;amp;#133;they increase our levels of serotonin, a neurotransmitter that makes us feel calm and satiated. But these choices also pack a lot of calories and cause spikes in blood sugar that, over time, set people up for conditions like insulin resistance and diabetes, as well as sleep pattern disruption.&amp;amp;#8221; Sign up for Glamour.com&amp;amp;#8217;s Style Tips of the Week and Beauty Tip of the Day newsletters. Yikes! After reading that, I made a vow to never finish off a carton like that again. I have a family history of diabetes, and I just don&amp;amp;#8217;t want to go there. But in order to not repeat the ordeal, I think I need to figure out why I did it in the first place. Here are my thoughts: I was in a weird emotional state. There is a boy who won&amp;amp;#8217;t leave me alone. He really likes me, and had just asked me out on a running date. That completely threw me off. Any attention from the opposite sex normally does. (I know, Married Jake, I&amp;amp;#8217;m a total rookie!) That accounts for the choice of ice cream, as opposed to something healthier, I guess. But why did I finish off the carton? I think it&amp;amp;#8217;s because I&amp;amp;#8217;m not eating enough. Like I told you yesterday, I&amp;amp;#8217;m running more miles than usual in preparation for the Philadelphia Half-Marathon next month. Take Sunday, for example: I ran 7 miles and burned 1100 calories, but didn&amp;amp;#8217;t really adjust my eating to account for it. I still have some more weight to lose, and I&amp;amp;#8217;ve trained myself to eat only so much. But maybe it&amp;#x27;s time to reassess. Not getting enough calories throughout the day could be setting me up to overeat at night. What do you think? Should I add another snack to what I normally eat? And how about you? Have you had any bouts of late night eating recently? Tell me, did you reach for something high in refined carbs, like I did, or for something healthier? And what do you think accounts for it--a weird emotional state, tiredness, not eating enough? Hopefully we can pinpoint the issue and get rid of the night eating bug for good. Please discuss! Plus: Margarita&amp;#x27;s ice cream miracle: How she managed to keep ice cream in her freezer and not eat all of it in one sitting Check out these summer dessert Dos and Don&amp;#x27;ts And don&amp;amp;#8217;t forget to use this contact form to send me photos of you in your most empowering outfit! Photo: iStock More Ways to Get Glamour: You could win $50,000 just for registering or logging in to Glamour.com! Add Glamour to your iGoogle homepage. Follow us on Twitter. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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