Eating when you're not hungry: what to do at 9 p.m.
Most advice about evening eating is a diet. It tells you what to eat, and almost nothing about the moment the urge shows up and you aren't hungry.
These are the practices Thriving uses for that moment, and the studies each one is built on. No weighing, no food rules.
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The free account has a starter version of each of these: a minute or two, and a place to keep track.
Find Your Level
Close your eyes, take a deep breath, and observe yourself impartially and compassionately.
Mindful Eating
Zero extra time required — you're already eating.
Prepare
Prepare a space for an important habit so you can easily and quickly start that habit tomorrow.
One Breath
Close your eyes and bring your focus to your breath.
The practices, and the research behind each one
Inside the app these are part of a twelve-week Program, the Stress Eating Reset, with All-Access. Here they are with their sources.
Emotional Regulation Map
Build your personal emotional regulation map: triggers, body signals, urges, default reactions, and chosen alternatives.
Berking et al. (2008). Emotion-regulation skills as a treatment target in psychotherapy. Behaviour Research and Therapy.
Aldao, Nolen-Hoeksema, Schweizer (2010). Emotion-regulation strategies across psychopathology: A meta-analytic review. Clinical Psychology Review.
Khalsa et al. (2018). Interoception and Mental Health: A Roadmap. Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging.
Taste Awareness — Mindful Eating
Taste integrates sight, smell, and touch into one experience — making it ideal for full-sensory mindfulness.
Mason et al. (2016). Effects of a mindfulness-based intervention on mindful eating, sweets consumption, and fasting glucose levels in obese adults. Journal of Behavioral Medicine.
Warren, Smith, Ashwell (2017). Mindful Eating: A Review of How the Stress-Digestion-Mindfulness Triad May Modulate and Improve Gastrointestinal and Digestive Function. Nutrition Research Reviews.
Tapper, Shaw, Ilsley, Hill, Bond, Moore (2009). Mindfulness-based eating intervention in obese individuals. Appetite.
Start or Stop Any Habit
Design or dismantle any habit using the neuroscience of the habit loop.
Wood, Quinn & Kashy (2002). Habits in everyday life: Thought, emotion, and action. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
Gollwitzer (1999). Implementation intentions: strong effects of simple plans. American Psychologist.
Gardner & Lally (2013). Does intrinsic motivation strengthen physical activity habit?. Journal of Behavioral Medicine.
The 60-Second Reset
For the spike itself.
Balban et al. (2023). Brief structured respiration practices enhance mood and reduce physiological arousal. Cell Reports Medicine.
Zaccaro et al. (2018). How Breath-Control Can Change Your Life: A Systematic Review on Psycho-Physiological Correlates of Slow Breathing. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience.
Make Room for the Feeling
Acceptance practice from ACT — making room for difficult emotions rather than fighting or fleeing them.
A-Tjak, Davis, Morina, Powers, Smits, Emmelkamp (2015). A meta-analysis of the efficacy of acceptance and commitment therapy for clinically relevant mental and physical health problems. Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics.
Hayes, Luoma, Bond, Masuda, Lillis (2006). Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: Model, processes and outcomes. Behaviour Research and Therapy.
Campbell-Sills, Barlow, Brown, Hofmann (2006). Effects of suppression and acceptance on emotional responses of individuals with anxiety and mood disorders. Behaviour Research and Therapy.
Emotional Check-In and Limiting Damage
When you can't change a feeling, you can still limit its damage.
Hofmann, Asnaani, Vonk, Sawyer, Fang (2012). The efficacy of cognitive behavioral therapy: A review of meta-analyses. Cognitive Therapy and Research.
Hayes, Luoma, Bond, Masuda, Lillis (2006). Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: Model, processes and outcomes. Behaviour Research and Therapy.
Berking et al. (2008). Emotion-regulation skills as a treatment target in psychotherapy. Behaviour Research and Therapy.
A study finding a benefit in the people it tested is not a promise of that result for you. Follow the links and judge for yourself. All the sources.
It's rarely just one thing
Evening eating usually sits on top of something else: a long day, too little sleep, nobody to talk to, nothing to look forward to. Thriving covers four spheres — physical, mental, emotional and purpose — and one or two practices from each is enough.
Everyone tells you what matters. Thriving gives you the exact exercises, somewhere to organize them into a routine that's yours, and the tools to keep going once the novelty wears off.
If this is affecting your ability to work, sleep or look after the people around you, talk to a doctor or a therapist. Many people do both.
Also on Thriving: Anxiety & stress · Sleep · Anger · Procrastination · Habits · Overthinking · Yelling at the kids