Originally Posted by
burnthesheep
Right before bed you don't need anything, your body is just going to take that and store it as fat.
If this is the assumption you're operating under it's incorrect, at least as generalized as you've stated. There's no specific reason your body would turn food right before bed directly into fat, that's not how human metabolism works. My family was a 5:30 dinner time family too and I was also a 8-9pm snacker growing up. I fell out of the habit for a while during college but come back to it from time to time as I enjoy a nice bowl of cereal a little before bed. I seem to sleep better and have a more balanced feeling of satiation the next day - dependent on my overall activity level of course. Anyway my point isn't to tell you how to live your life, just don't be so hard on yourself for what is probably a fairly benign and ineffectual habit.
As far as breaking the habit I found that being engaged in something else during my snack window pretty much eliminated the opportunity as I was only really craving something from a little before 8pm to a little after 9pm. If I was doing something else and didn't notice the time passed it was easy not to eat anything. Or you can try what pro tour riders do - a lot of seltzer water, sleeping pills and an iron will not to eat.