please help with meal/eating time!

jen_bersabal · May 2011

Hi all.
So here's the thing, my schedule is crazy all over the place. I work during the day and take night classes four nights out of the week. I usually eat breakfast around 7am and my job makes it where I eat lunch at about 2pm. I leave for school at about 5:30pm and don't get home until after 10pm. I usually eat something right before I leave for school but I'm usually not too too hungry since my lunch was just a few hours prior. When I get home though, I'm torn whether on not I should have a small snack before calling it a day. I am usually not hungry by the time I get home but I "feel" like I should eat something. This in itself opens a can of worms because sometime this awakens an eating beast that can't be stopped and then I EAT! I've heard too that the satiety factor grows weaker as the day moves in to the night so it takes more food to feel satisfied, thus you eat more. Even though most of the time I eat healthy foods when I come home, I feel super bummed having consumed more than a "snack size" share of calories so late in the day. Should I just not eat when I come home? Or should I not eat before school and wait until I get home? Is 10pm too late to eat dinner? What would any of you do?
Any thoughts/opinions on what your advice would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks.

sam363 · May 2011

Personally, I would start packing my lunch,supper, snacks. On Fridays, I work all day and then go straight to class and will not get home until 10pm. I always pack myself a snack and I eat dinner in class. I will pack a pb&j, fruit and some carrots. It's a enough to get me through and I don't feel like I need to eat a meal when I get home.

I also, pack my snacks for work so that I can eat them right at my desk and am not tempted to buy anything from a vending machine.

raychybabe · May 2011

do you get breaks during your night classes? I would make some small , easy to eat snack type meals (pasta with veg/meat in a tub, cottage cheese with crackers, sandwich, fruit etc) and eat that in breaks. If you eat when you get home, your body stays awake longer to process the food and it can make it harder for you to get to sleep which will mess up your routine even more.

or, you need to eat lunch earlier, so that eating at 5pm before school isnt too bad, and then have a snack briefly later on (something small)

SueInAz · May 2011

I was on a similar schedule and started bringing a "dinner" with me to work that I could eat between classes. End of the semester this week. Yay!

jen_bersabal · May 2011

Thanks everyone! Keep the ideas coming! So I should probably NOT eat when I get home, right?

snakegoddess_3 · May 2011

What it sounds like is that your going to have to put in more effort to make sure you eat, which sounds weird. Even fi you don't get to have a "meal" make sure you load up on snacks you can take with you to class. I would shy away from eating when you get home unelss it's something simple and very small like greek yogurt or something. Just get foods you can pack up that might not need refridgerating

SueInAz · May 2011

Thanks everyone! Keep the ideas coming! So I should probably NOT eat when I get home, right?

It depends. If you're really far under your calorie goal for the day, I'd say eat. Calories are calories, it doesn't depend on what time of the day you are eating them. You're better eating late to get over 1200 calories than going to bed having under-eaten that day.

dlaplume2 · May 2011

I would try and eat a snack between the 7 and 2 from breakfast and lunch.

I don't know if you could eat in class or if you have a break, but I would pack something for then. I don't think it is bad to eat when you get home, but if that might cause binging, then packing the snack and eating in class would prevent that because you can only eat what you bring.

please help with meal/eating time!

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