Meal interval

[slc_melissa]

Seems like your best bet is to follow what laura_juggles suggested above and base your meals around your schedule as available that day instead of worrying about exact timing too much.

[Sugar free barista]

12 minutes ago, slc_melissa said:

Seems like your best bet is to follow what laura_juggles suggested above and base your meals around your schedule as available that day instead of worrying about exact timing too much.

That’s what I’m saying I’m doing. Im sorry I’m not communicating too well. I guess my main question is the mini-meals don’t reset the stop watch for the 4-5 hour spacing of meals, correct? 

Not grazing is my biggest challenge. I used to be a grazer. I also used to be a vegetarian/vegan. This is a big change for me, to go to eating animal protein 3x a day, and spacing my meals 4-5 hours apart. 

I appreciate all the replies.

[ShannonM816]

3 minutes ago, Sugar free barista said:

That’s what I’m saying I’m doing. Im sorry I’m not communicating too well. I guess my main question is the mini-meals don’t reset the stop watch for the 4-5 hour spacing of meals, correct? 

Generally, we'd tell people to eat when they're hungry. Most people can learn to compose meals that keep them satisfied for 4-5 hours -- that's where that comes from -- and for most people, being able to go 4-5 hours between meals means they don't need to snack. There's no official timer for how often you need to eat, though. For anyone, if you're hungry, you eat. If it's an hour since you last ate, but for whatever reason you are hungry, eat.  That's not carte blanche to just nibble throughout the day, but there's definitely flexibility there to eat when you need to eat, based on your individual circumstances.

You have some additional difficulties because with your schedule, it seems you're going to have to eat when you have time to eat, and that might mean that at times, you're eating when you're not hungry because if you don't eat then, you may not get another opportunity until you're very, very hungry -- and that's fine. It also means that there might be times when you have to wait longer than you'd really like to to eat, and that also is fine, although certainly keep an eye on how you're feeling and if you feel that you must eat or you're going to pass out, be sure you eat -- I'm pretty sure your employer would prefer you to eat in that circumstance. When you get used to eating this way, and you've become fat adapted, the amount of time you can go between meals might be longer, which is really convenient if it happens, but you have a job where you are much more active all day than lots of other people are, so it might not happen, because in general, if you're more active, you need more food.

I feel like somewhere in this discussion, people started talking at cross purposes. I'm still not entirely sure this is really what you're asking about, but I kind of feel like you might be getting a little hung up on stuff that really isn't that important. The meal template, the hours between meals -- those are recommendations. As long as everything you've eaten meets the rules of the program, you'll have done a Whole30. Don't get hung up on trying to get it perfect, just be sure you follow the rules themselves, and do the best you can with the recommendations.

[Sugar free barista]

16 minutes ago, ShannonM816 said:

Generally, we'd tell people to eat when they're hungry. Most people can learn to compose meals that keep them satisfied for 4-5 hours -- that's where that comes from -- and for most people, being able to go 4-5 hours between meals means they don't need to snack. There's no official timer for how often you need to eat, though. For anyone, if you're hungry, you eat. If it's an hour since you last ate, but for whatever reason you are hungry, eat.  That's not carte blanche to just nibble throughout the day, but there's definitely flexibility there to eat when you need to eat, based on your individual circumstances.

You have some additional difficulties because with your schedule, it seems you're going to have to eat when you have time to eat, and that might mean that at times, you're eating when you're not hungry because if you don't eat then, you may not get another opportunity until you're very, very hungry -- and that's fine. It also means that there might be times when you have to wait longer than you'd really like to to eat, and that also is fine, although certainly keep an eye on how you're feeling and if you feel that you must eat or you're going to pass out, be sure you eat -- I'm pretty sure your employer would prefer you to eat in that circumstance. When you get used to eating this way, and you've become fat adapted, the amount of time you can go between meals might be longer, which is really convenient if it happens, but you have a job where you are much more active all day than lots of other people are, so it might not happen, because in general, if you're more active, you need more food.

I feel like somewhere in this discussion, people started talking at cross purposes. I'm still not entirely sure this is really what you're asking about, but I kind of feel like you might be getting a little hung up on stuff that really isn't that important. The meal template, the hours between meals -- those are recommendations. As long as everything you've eaten meets the rules of the program, you'll have done a Whole30. Don't get hung up on trying to get it perfect, just be sure you follow the rules themselves, and do the best you can with the recommendations.

Yeah I hear you. I was kind of wondering what was going on too. You’ve got it exactly right. I always a little something in my 10s because I never know how busy it will get or where I’ll be deployed. I think my biggest challenge has been not snacking, especially before dinner, like while I’m making dinner, because usually by then I’m really hungry. Monday’s are hard too. I ended up not cooking dinner tonight and scrabbling together leftovers and snacks to make dinner. I did start preparing for dinner tomorrow. 

I foresee the Whole30 as a good template, I don’t foresee myself going back to the way I was eating before. Paleo looks pretty good to me.