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29 weeks pregnant, timing of 4th meal


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Hi everyone! I'm 29 weeks pregnant and starting my 2nd Whole30 Friday. This will be my first pregnant, but I was nursing last time.

 

i feel fairly confident I will need the 4th meal, but I do have na issue with overeating/snacking, and would really like to be able to schedule, so it's a planned meal, not "Oh, i feel like food, so I'm going to grab something." Here's our daily schedule, and I'd love suggestions on where i should try to put the 4th meal.

 

Awake: 6:30am

Breakfast:7am

Lunch:12:30pm

Dinner:5:30pm

Bedtime: 10pm

 

Thanks!
Melissa

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There are a couple different things you could do to fit a 4th meal.

M1: 7am

M2: 11am

M3: 3pm

M4: 7pm

Or

M1 7am

MM1: 10am

M2: 1pm

M3: 530

MM2: 8pm

The first option is to put your meals closer together. Right now you're at the outside of the 4-5 hour window (and breakfast/lunch is 5.5hours). You might have to play around with it a bit as I"m not sure what your dinner time situation is (whether you can move dinnertime).

I actually like the 2nd option better. Consider your 4th meal 2 mini meals... this gets your mealtimes more evenly spaced and also keeps your dinnertime at your usual time. We recommend not eating a couple hours before bed and this timing seems to work for that too.

Would either of these work for you or a variation on one of them?

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Thanks! I think the 2nd option would work the best. i want to be able to enjoy family dinner still, and with my husband's work schedule and my kids' schedules, I think it would be hard to make the 1st schedule work.

 

The biggest challenge will be timing lunch (M2) with my 2 year old's naptime, but it's not unusual for us to eat a little closer to 1 anyways.

 

I also think a slightly later mini-meal will help, as it's not unusual for me to feel hungry before bed, even with a good dinner.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'm 12 days in, and thought I would post an update for anyone reading this thread later. Despite my desire to plan my meals, I've found it's worked better to just listen to and trust my body, within the given template. So, I always eat 3 template meals. But sometimes, I have been absolutely ravenous at 10am, in which case I eat a mini meal. Sometimes we've had dinner right after 5, I know I'm staying up late, and I'm hungry by 8, so I eat another mini meal. On a couple days I've been really hungry at 3, and I know dinner will be later than normal, so I've had a mini meal. Other days I've not been hungry in between meals at all, in which case I don't try to make myself eat something.

 

This has worked really well. There've been a couple times where I wasn't hungry at 8pm, but by the time I went to bed I was starting to feel hungry, but I've just shaken it off and I've survived fine until breakfast the next day. I think I've slept better feeling slightly hungry than I would have eating right before bed.

Anyways, that's what seems to be working well for me. My rule following self would love to have it all mapped out perfectly and have it be the same every day, but doing it a little more organically is probably helping me listen to my body better. I've still been really disciplined about grazing or snacking. Just grabbing a banana or a bite of the snack I'm fixing for the kids isn't an option. I ask myself if I'm hungry enough for a mini meal, and if not, I don't eat anything.

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I'm 12 days in, and thought I would post an update for anyone reading this thread later. Despite my desire to plan my meals, I've found it's worked better to just listen to and trust my body, within the given template. So, I always eat 3 template meals. But sometimes, I have been absolutely ravenous at 10am, in which case I eat a mini meal. Sometimes we've had dinner right after 5, I know I'm staying up late, and I'm hungry by 8, so I eat another mini meal. On a couple days I've been really hungry at 3, and I know dinner will be later than normal, so I've had a mini meal. Other days I've not been hungry in between meals at all, in which case I don't try to make myself eat something.

 

This has worked really well. There've been a couple times where I wasn't hungry at 8pm, but by the time I went to bed I was starting to feel hungry, but I've just shaken it off and I've survived fine until breakfast the next day. I think I've slept better feeling slightly hungry than I would have eating right before bed.

Anyways, that's what seems to be working well for me. My rule following self would love to have it all mapped out perfectly and have it be the same every day, but doing it a little more organically is probably helping me listen to my body better. I've still been really disciplined about grazing or snacking. Just grabbing a banana or a bite of the snack I'm fixing for the kids isn't an option. I ask myself if I'm hungry enough for a mini meal, and if not, I don't eat anything.

This is wonderful!  This is EXACTLY what we want you to be doing!  You've nailed it!

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