One Rule That Eliminates Evening Snacking Without Restriction

You're not hungry. You know you're not hungry. You ate dinner an hour ago.

But you're standing in front of the pantry anyway.

Your hand reaches for the crackers. The chips. Whatever's easy. And you eat without deciding to eat. You just... react.

Ten minutes later, you're annoyed with yourself. "Why do I keep doing this?"

Here's why:The gap between feeling the urge and taking the action is so small that there's no space for a decision.

And here's what fixes it.

The Problem Isn't Your Willpower

Last week, I wrote about decision fatigue and why your nutrition falls apart after 6 pm, even though you have discipline all day.

The solution I gave you was architecture: pre-deciding your meals, increasing dinner calories, and creating hard stops.

But what about the moment itself? When you're standing there, depleted, and the urge to eat hits?

You can't architect your way through an urge that's happening right now.

This is where the 10-minute rule comes in.

The Protocol

When you feel the urge to eat outside your plan:

Set a timer for 10 minutes. That's it. Just wait.

Don't tell yourself "no." Don't try to distract yourself.

Now, you could drink water or go for a walk or any of that bullshit advice people give you, but honestly, all you need to do is sit with the urge for 10 minutes.

(The only thing I would recommend aside from waiting is journaling about how you’re feeling in the moment, but honestly, you don’t even need to do that because waiting will be plenty introspective.)

After the timer goes off, if you still want to eat, eat. No guilt. No shame. No "I failed."

But nine times out of ten, the urgency will have passed. And, if you do decide to eat, you’ll end up eating less because you’re fully present and aware of what you’re doing, instead of being reactive.

Why This Works

Viktor Frankl wrote that the one thing we truly own in life is the space between stimulus and response.

When you're depleted mentally, stressed, or emotional, that space collapses to zero.

Urge → Action. No gap. No choice. Just a reaction.

The 10-minute rule forcibly creates that space. You're not restricting - you're expanding the moment, so your prefrontal cortex has time to come back online. That part of your brain that is responsible for higher reasoning can do its job.

When you first get home from work, your executive function is offline. Ten minutes gives it time to reboot. After that pause, you're responding, not reacting.

What This Actually Looks Like

I have a client with a high-stress job who makes decisions all day and comes home depleted.

His pattern: dinner at 6:30 pm, then back in the kitchen by 7:30 pm, eating things that aren't in his plan.

I gave him the 10-minute rule.

First time he used it: Monday night. The board meeting ran long; he came home to a sick kid, and his wife was stressed. The old pattern would have sent him straight to the pantry.

Instead, he set the timer on his phone and sat on the couch in the living room. Didn't tell anyone what he was doing. Just sat there and stared at the wall. Let his mind run through the day. Felt the urge to get up and eat. Stayed sitting.

Timer went off.

He realized he wasn't even hungry; he was overwhelmed. The urge to eat was about stress relief, not food.

He made his planned dinner. Ate his nighttime yogurt at 8:30 pm as he'd planned and woke up Tuesday feeling like he'd kept a promise to himself.

That's the point. By the time his brain had 10 minutes to settle, he could see what the urge was actually about.

What Happens After the Timer

One of three things:

1. The urge passes. You realize you weren't actually hungry. You were bored, stressed, or on autopilot—the most common outcome.

2. You're genuinely hungry. Eat something that fits your plan. But now you're eating from a conscious decision, not a depleted reaction.

3. You eat anyway. Sometimes you'll eat after the timer goes off. That's okay. But you'll probably eat less. You'll be more present. The quality of the eating changes even if the eating itself happens.

All three outcomes are better than reactive eating.

When to Use This

The 10-minute rule does not apply to planned meals. It's not for when you're genuinely hungry, and it's time to eat.

It's for urges to eat outside your plan:

• You just ate dinner, but want to snack an hour later

• You're stressed, and food is your go-to relief

• You're eating on autopilot, not from hunger

• You're about to eat something you'll regret 10 minutes after you eat it

This week, try it once. Pick one evening when you feel the urge to eat outside your plan. Set a timer. Sit with it. See what happens

What’s something you always feel yourself gravitating towards when you’re reactive? Reply to this email and share it with me… I guarantee you won’t guess mine.

Stay Strong,

Paul Oneid, MS. MS. CSCS

Founder and Head Coach