How to Lose Weight While Whitening Your Teeth

Do you have a problem with non-stop snacking after dinner? Do you watch TV with a bag of chips or cookies in your lap and can't stop reaching into the bag? Here's one way to stop this practice and gain whiter teeth in the process.

Start by taking notes of your normal snacking habits. You can't change a habit until you know what it is, so work on catching yourself being yourself. For tonight, and maybe a few days, don't judge but just keep notes on what and when you eat snacks.

Remember do not judge yourself! Telling yourself you shouldn't eat this, or trying not to eat what you really want so you don't have to write anything down isn't going to be helpful. This only works when you really know your habits and patterns.

Example Snacking Diary:

Friday: Dinner at 6 PM; Potato Chips on Couch at 7:45; Cookies on Couch, 8:10, half a candy bar, 8:35.

Sat: Dinner 7:30 PM, cake for dessert at 8:10, coffee, bowl of mixed nuts (ate till gone), ice cream at 9:00. Last of bag of M&M's until they're gone.

Sun: Dinner 5:30 PM, strawberry shortcake at 6:10. More strawberry shortcake at 7:00.

Okay, now let's take a quick look at what we wrote. Friday and Saturday we ate up until as late as 9 PM. Sunday we quit around 7 PM.

That shows that weekends we either stay up later or we sit and watch TV and snack then for instance. We could choose to work with the time of day, so for the rest of this week, at 8:30 PM, we're going to use our tooth whitening system, and then once your teeth are clean, no more food for that day. Even though during the week you might not snack after 8:30 anyway, you still start there because by the time you get to Friday and Saturday you want a pattern already started.

After you've been doing this for a week, you may have actually lessened the grip of the nighttime snacking somewhat -- and you can start the tooth whitening at 7:45 for instance. I sneak up on myself this way often when I'm trying to start something new. You can also simply brush your teeth if you floss and take a reasonable amount of time (3 minutes or more) with it. The idea is you don't want to have to go to the trouble of brushing again.

Naturally, you can't eat while your whitening your teeth, right? If you've thought about trying a tooth whitening process, now's the time. Together with a program to stop nighttime eating, you can solve two problems in one.

After you successfully navigate a weekend where you stop the snacking earlier, you can move the time to stop up another half hour if you wish. Don't be radical with your changes; incorporate them into your lifestyle and practice until you find the balance that works for you.

I wrote my 8-week course to help guide others in finding their way the same way I found mine. Help is only a phone call or e-mail away.