Meal Timing

[JaneStClair]

I'm having a hard time with the timing of eating every 4-5 hours while I'm at work. How do others handle it?

 

On a typical day I get up about 6-6:30am and eat breakfast about an hour later before I leave for work. I pack a lunch and eat around 12:30pm. How do you deal with needing to eat another meal 4-5 hours later? I'm still at work. Packing a 2nd meal would be difficult because I'm still at work until 6:30pm most nights, and I walk to work. 

 

The thought of having to prep and schlep another meal that needs to be microwave-friendly is making me gag. I go to bed between 10pm and 11pm, so by that time I'm already hungry again if I haven't eaten since 5pm, but eating right before bed isn't exactly appealing either.

 

I've been splitting my lunch in half to make through the day, eating half at my usual time and the other half about three hours later. This gets me through until I get home and have dinner at 7, which feels like a much more reasonable time to eat (and a lot more realistic if I'm dining with others). Is there a better way to hack my schedule to fit the template?

[Tom Denham]

What you are doing sounds good. 

[SpinSpin]

What about doing what you are doing, packing extra in your lunch, planning for Lunch part 2 if you need more to get you to dinner?

[pennylane14]

I have the same issue, in a way (breakfast around 7:30 a.m., lunch around noon, but often no dinner until 7 or 8 p.m.). I've started having a mini-meal around 5 p.m.--treating it almost as a pre-workout meal: hard-boiled egg, carrots, guac. Nothing that needs to be prepped, and can easily be tossed in to your lunch bag. It's not so much of a meal that I'm not hungry when dinnertime rolls around, but is definitely necessary to get me through 6-7 hours between lunch and dinner. 

[JaneStClair]

I think my big problem is finding food that I actually want to eat at lunch that I can stomach enough of to make a meal. Breakfast and dinner are no problem because I have a stove, but I'm having a hard time with microwaved leftovers turning out ok. And yesterday I reached the point of all food sounding gross -- I had to throw away the second half of my frittata yesterday because it was making me ill. I'm on day 28, and I am so tired and frustrated and ready to be done. 

 

At least I'm almost done and can go back to eating in my work cafeteria next week. They cook *everything* in rice bran oil so even otherwise compliant food is off-limits for Whole30. But long term that's a trade-off I'm willing to make because it will reduce my stress level with sticking to a paleo diet by about 90%! 

[Physibeth]

I think my big problem is finding food that I actually want to eat at lunch that I can stomach enough of to make a meal. Breakfast and dinner are no problem because I have a stove, but I'm having a hard time with microwaved leftovers turning out ok. And yesterday I reached the point of all food sounding gross -- I had to throw away the second half of my frittata yesterday because it was making me ill. I'm on day 28, and I am so tired and frustrated and ready to be done. 

 

At least I'm almost done and can go back to eating in my work cafeteria next week. They cook *everything* in rice bran oil so even otherwise compliant food is off-limits for Whole30. But long term that's a trade-off I'm willing to make because it will reduce my stress level with sticking to a paleo diet by about 90%! 

 

 

Does your meal 2 have to be hot? You could do tuna salad, egg salad, chicken salad, etc. Or a salad topped with cooked cold meats. If you don't like microwaving leftovers there are lots of other options.