Clearly some foods can trigger a hit, alcohol top of my list.  I was going mad trying to figure out what the triggers were - salt or sweet, even bananas I thought I had to ban during cycles, but I ended concluding that just the act of eating was a trigger (which led me back to my jaw and lack of proper "bite" but thats another story)

Anyway, last cycle I finally realised, after 30 years, that it wasnt foods that triggered, it was stopping to sit down and eat - RELAXATION!  Invariably I was hit.  Couldnt even get dinner finished half the time.  And how many times at the end of a hard day, all the harder because I was up and down during the night before, would I sit down to watch a movie or something, only to be hit within 10 minutes!

Well I took to eating standing up, pacing around, never ever stop.  Now I have found I can sit and watch TV, but only if I drink huge amounts of water, I mean litres and litres of it.  Besides, you cant stay sitting too long as nature calls 

So that takes care of the day/evening hits - ZERO! 

But you cant avoid bed, eventually you have to sleep, but not for long...

I am in NZ, is 8-10oz like a large glass?  If so, at least that much leading up to and during common hit times.  I have a 750ml bottle I refill 2-3 times an hour (up to 3 pints).  I find it more effective gulping out of a bottle than a glass. 
Care needs to be taken though not to flush out all your good vits/minerals, I must get on to that...

I hoped water would kick this cycle but no... the nights are killers, O2 next week fingers crossed

I prefer my ciggies to gum 

Actually I dont think I have fake sugars much, real sugar on my cornflakes and dont go for diet drinks either tho seeing a few mentions of red bull around here Ive tried a few swigs of that last couple of days and if anything its helped - I'll trial that one a bit more.  Yikes those drinks are sweet

(BTW love your name!)

Funny how shocks/extremes can trigger a hit, or alleviate in other cases...

All we can do is try to understand better, thats what I love about this place, new ideas, stuff you would never have thought of yourself - 30+ years dealing with the beast and still learning, still trying to get a handle on it...