Eating Schedule

[Bihisa]

Hi everyone! I’m on day 8 of my 3rd W30 - it’s been a good 5 years since my last one and I’ve been through every manner of anxiety, depression, and health problems in the meantime and decided the commitment and routine of W30 would be a good way to begin to get my life back on track. That said, my schedule is proving to be a little difficult and I’m trying to figure out how to plan/schedule my meals. I’m a full time student with 2 jobs, so my schedule is super packed and I tend to only sleep 5 hours a night and usually take a day nap in the late afternoon but I’m not sure if that’s helping or hurting me at this point. Here’s the schedule I have currently:

7:30 am - wake up 

8:45 - 12 - Job #1 - munch on crackers or fruit around 9:30/10 as “breakfast”

12:30-4:30 - Job #2

4:30-7 Class some days or collapse in a nap 

7:00 - “Lunch”

7-9- Study, chores, meal prep

9:00-10ish - Dinner

10-1:30/2 - study, clean, read, existential crisis, social media trap

CLEARLY this is not a good system. I know I should eat breakfast, make sure to get protein before I’ve been awake and expensing energy for 11 hours, and I’d love to carve out time for exercise cuz I’m really feeling like a beached whale with no muscle mass left over haha. 
 

Here is the schedule I am considering implementing, taking into account the reality of my schedule, distance learning and studying = screen time, which I want to try to stop by 10, and the fact that due to COVID and masks, I can’t munch or have a meal during work:
 

7:30 - Wake up

8:30 - Breakfast (Even though I’m never hungry) 

8:45 - 12 - Job #1

12:00 - Lunch

12:30 - 4:30 - Work

4:30 - 7:00 - Class, hoping to phase out naps, study on days I don’t have class. Snack? 

7:00 - 9:00 - Cook, study 

9:00 - Dinner

10:00 - Exercise 

11:00 - Small post PO snack, chores

11:30/12:00 - sleep 
 

I know it’s certainly not an ideal schedule, but I have to study in chunks of time which I need to be on my computer and I know the I desperately need to lay off my phone 2 hours before sleep since it’s messing up my eyesight (just went to the optometrist). So I thought I could use that time after studying to exercise and do non school related work like cleaning and things that won’t require my phone. I’m concerned about eating lunch so early when I usually don’t eat my first meal until early evening and my dinner is super late. It’s a huge gap between lunch and dinner too, but I’m a night owl by nature, since I was a toddler, so the fact that I’m moving my bedtime up by 2 hours to try to get a full 7 at least and I’m used to eating late, I think eating at 5 or 6 is unreasonable. I’ll just want to snack late night and it’s less likely to be a healthy one than if I had a snack while I was doing structured studying. 
 

Thoughts and feedback are much appreciated. I know that I’m trying to undo about 25 years of unhealthy habits. 

[Bihisa]

Also, should I restart my Whole 30 since I haven’t really been eating on schedule or sleeping well? 

[ShannonM816]

The only reason we would tell you to consider restarting your Whole30 would be if you ate food that isn't allowed on Whole30, not because of scheduling meals or not matching the meal template. 

In general, try to eat your first meal within an hour of waking up (if you just keep trying to eat something in the morning you should get more used to it and start feeling hungry at that time), and then plan to eat something every 4-5 hours, so you will probably want something between lunch and dinner as you've got them scheduled here. I know you say you can't see eating at 5 or 6, but at least during the first week, if you're not home or somewhere with ready access to Whole30 food during that time, take enough food with you that you can eat if you are hungry, just in case. After a week or so if you still aren't hungry at that time, you may only want to keep a small snack on hand, but you're making some big changes so it wouldn't hurt to be prepared.