menu

Menu

close

Close

The moment that changed how I feel about eating sweets at night.

A few years ago I went on a blogger trip to Hawaii. I wasn’t invited on the trip initially, but preparation met opportunity as I had reach out to the Hawaii Travel Board and asked it they ever collaborated with bloggers and somehow they said, “Yes! And we’re planning a trip for bloggers in two months. You should come!”  While other blogger trips I’d been on were with dietitian bloggers, this trip was with fashion and lifestyle bloggers who’s following tripled or quadrupled my own and who had never heard the words “intuitive eating.”

One night on the trip, one of the fashion bloggers said during a conversation, “I’m a person who enjoys eating sweets before bed.” It wasn’t said with a laugh or with judgement. It was just a a neutral fact. She had simply made the observation that she liked sweets before bed and that wasn’t a positive or a negative thing. It just was.

It made me think…what if eating sweets before bed was that uncomplicated for me? It gave me this peace with knowing that I too am a person who enjoys sweet before bed. That simple comment she made decreased the judgement around having sweet before bed and helped me feel more relaxed so I could tune into what my body actually wanted and I wasn’t acting out of mental food restriction.

Enjoying sweets at night isn’t a character flaw, as many may have you believe.  It instead can be a pleasurable and enjoyable part of life if you let it be. 

22 comments

  1. I, too, am a person who enjoys a sweet snack before bed. This is just what I’m relaxed enough to enjoy it and winding down for the night! It took me a long time to realize this and make peace with it due to the stigma surrounding it. But hinestly, I eat what I like when I like it and it’s so nice!

    • I think that’s a really interesting point about that’s the time of day you are relaxed enough to enjoy it. I hadn’t really thought about that but I agree. The rest of the day can just be so busy with no time to savor.

  2. It’s funny, because I have read so many posts of yours that say “I’m a person who…” followed by something that I can relate to but have always judged myself for (if that makes sense) and reading those has really helped me decrease judgement around myself and who I am as a person as well. So thank you Kylie and thank you fashion blogger!

  3. I love this so much! Matt and I love to have a snack in the evening. There have been nights that I didn’t because I truly wasn’t craving anything, but sometimes, even when I am not very hungry physically, I still enjoy something. I caught myself feeling guilty when I ate without being hungry, but I respect that eating is not always a means of just obtaining fullness. It is about satisfaction, exploration of other foods and flavors, and a time to connect with others. With that, I eat to my delight and try hard not to cast judgment over myself.

  4. Night time sweets/ snacking is just a way of winding down in my house. It’s become almost like a family “moment” to have a treat before bed. But I too once used to feel hesitant about it. Happy to have moved beyond that! 

  5. I literally cannot remember the last time I didn’t have a sweet snack/dessert before bed! Definitely a normal routine for me :)

  6. As a fellow RD, I, too, am a person who loves to have dessert after dinner or a sweet treat. The meal just simply isn’t over without it! Thank you for posting this and thank you for taking the stigma away!

  7. So many times I’ve wanted to ask if it was “ok” to have a sweet before bed even though I wasn’t hungry…thanks for always keeping it real.

  8. Thank you for this <3 yesterday evening was the first time i was listening to my body when it was calling for sweets so i ate some cookies. you are REALLY inspiring!

  9. Thank you so much for this post! My previous partner always used to find it strange that I ate something before going to bed. He could just go to sleep hungry and wait with food until the next day sometime. It made me wonder if I was really that weird (I knew large parts of my relationship with food were disordered, so maybe this was too…)
    It has taken my quite some time to be open to people that I have to eat something at night in order to get to sleep. You’re post has inspired me to be even more upfront about it. The next time it comes up, I’ll be confident in saying that I’m a person who eats at night, period.

    Thank you!

  10. I am, too! I always feel like I need something yummy and sweet in my belly before I go to bed.

  11. Not a night goes by that I don’t eat some sort of sweet thing / post-dinner snack like chocolate, ice cream, peanut butter, etc. It’s a staple and I crave it every evening. Going to bed hungry = the worst.

    Thank you for all you chat about, Kylie!

  12. Thanks for sharing such a simple yet pivotal moment. For some reason, this post has given me some inspiration to start thinking about guilt around desserts/snacks in the evening. Thank you <3

  13. Pingback: phoning it in. – Yeah…Immaeatthat

  14. Pingback: “Not my favorite…but it isn’t offensive to my tastebuds.” – immaEATthat

Leave a Reply to Brittany Audra @ Audra's Appetite Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *