When you wake up at 5 AM, you’re pretty much ready for lunch by the time 10 o’clock rolls around. Despite eating a good breakfast and enjoying a mid-morning snack like I always do, I couldn’t get my stomach to stop pestering me for more than 20 minutes yesterday morning; and since there’s nothing more distracting than hunger when it comes to trying to get some work done, lunch was on the table and in my belly by 10:30 AM.
Leftover Italian style stuffed chicken, coconut spiked bulgar, and steamed mixed veggies.
Ever have those early breakfast/lunch/dinner days? I do – especially when I don’t get enough sleep. I’d love to say that I have no problem with them, but that would only be a partial truth. While I do honor my hunger even when it’s not the “proper” time to eat (mostly because I can’t stand the feeling of being hungry and what it does to me), I don’t always do so without anxiety. True story. I know I may come across as being completely carefree when it comes to matters concerning food, but that’s not always the case – I still have lingering anxieties that pop up every now and then. The difference is that they’re now a subtle itch at the back of my mind rather than a dominant thought in the forefront that goes on to dictate my actions.
And what exactly is it that makes me so anxious? Well, in the case of eating a meal early, the fear that I’ll end up eating more (read: too much) throughout the day. And you know what? Oftentimes that’s exactly what ends up happening…
Almond butter on the butt of a loaf of bread.
A mess of oat bran, plain Greek yogurt, homemade applesauce, honey, and cinnamon.
There are days where I have to toss in an extra snack or two because I can’t get my brain to focus on anything other than food – a typical symptom of hunger for me. Terrifying, right? It definitely used to be.
Back in the day where I was religiously tracking my calories and macros, the mere thought of eating more than I had planned or allowed myself to was enough to send me over the edge. And when it came to actually doing it? Yeah right, there was no way that was going to happen. Hungry or not, I would force myself to wait until the proper hour to eat, obsessively watching the clock and agonizing over how slowly the minutes were passing by. One minute. Three minutes. Five minutes. Gah!
Looking back, it’s hard to figure out why I put myself through that kind of unnecessary misery, why I couldn’t just eat when I was hungry and move on. Actually, I take that back – it’s not hard to figure out why. I was afraid that eating before it was time would cause me to eat more (read: too much) and…. gulp… gain weight. But, as with any other disordered belief, this one proved to have no truth to it as well. I mean, I did gain weight, but that’s because I needed to and was consciously trying to. I was severely underweight and eating an amount that was well above my maintenance level. But I digress.
Early lunches, they happen. Eating more, it happens. The point I’m trying to get across here (to myself as well), is that nothing bad happens as a result. Trust me (brain, I’m lookin’ at you!!). There are days where I feel like my hunger is off the charts and I’m doing nothing but eating, but lo and behold, those days never seem to show up on my butt or thighs. So don’t be afraid to eat when you’re hungry, even if that means having lunch at 10:30 AM.
. – . – . – .
Can anyone relate?
Do you eat a snack between breakfast and lunch?
I have so many problems with this….I currently do not eat when I am hungry all the time… I have gotten better but it still scares me a lot. If I don’t eat how I plan I freak out. I wish I could let this go but it is so hard.
It takes a lot of time and effort, but the more you challenge yourself to do it even when you’re scared to, the more you come to realize that nothing bad happens as a result. In fact, you’ll probably love how good it makes you feel not to have to suffer and be hungry all the time. It’s all about just facing your fears.
I can relate to everything in this post. Lately, my appetites been out of whack and I have noticed myself eating constantly and it kinda bugs me but if i dont honor hunger, I cant focus like you mentioned. Its a challenge to find that balance 🙁
Oh gosh do I get hungry HARDCORE when I am at work. I eat at 7, then snack at 10, then eat lunch at 11:30 then eat post workout around 230 and am snacking the REST of the day. We eat dinner around 530 and most of the time Im shoving food in my mouth while cooking it lol And then at like 7 or 8 Im hungry AGAIN. Sometimes it drives me bonkers. But most of the time I realize that I really AM hungry, so I have to feed my body right? Ignoring it has not worked out so well for me in the past, so I really try to just eat something, even if its a rice cake with nut butter. Just something small. If Im still hungry, then I keep adding to it. Im not going to be the girl with the growling belly anymore!
Thank you for posting this! I’m a calorie-counter, because I’m trying to lose weight, but I know I’m too obsessive sometimes about WHEN I’m allowed to eat, which is ridiculous! I’m at work by 7 and today I was feeling a little dazed at 10 but OBVIOUSLY (ridiculously) it was too early for lunch. You inspired me to get up and eat something, because it is definitely not a good idea to be sitting here, unproductively waiting for lunch. I think it’s partly because my boyfriend is on a much later schedule than I am — but recently I’ve accepted that I’ll make dinner for me at 5:30 and just have to reheat it when he gets home from work at 9!
Ohhhh goodness, I can so totally relate to this. I’d say I was at my worst probably 4-5 years ago. Even up until about a year and a half ago I still had lingering issues. Granted, I’m not comfortable in saying that I am 100% okay with these thoughts now, as they do tend to pop up here and there, but I soooo know what you mean here, Amanda. It’s an awful feeling…but I’m so glad you’ve been able to (for the most part) push past it. It’s a great feeling, isn’t it?!
Isn’t it crazy how your appetite can be SO STRONG one day and almost non existent the next? I get annoyed when I don’t have an appetite because snacking and eating is one of my favorite past times… Haha, is that a bad thing? 😉
Definitely not a bad thing… It’s one of my favorite things too 😉
Oh yes! I actually just had my brunch. For me, when you know you have a delicious left over from last night’s dinner, that’s when I know I’m going to eat that for breakfast or early lunch again. 🙂
What a great post! I love that you called it the butt of the loaf, haha. That’s my favourite part!
I definitely struggle with being ‘allowed’ to eat earlier – even if I have my lunch at 12.15pm I feel like it’s too early and that I should be waiting, but I just can’t concentrate when I’m at a certain hunger-point! I try to space snacks out over the course of the day so that I don’t get home from work and devour the entire kitchen!
Amanda thank you for writing this and admitting you too have these anxieties. I do too and they are sometimes hard to fight. But over the past few months I have gotten to a point that I can eat earlier or later and have less worries (they are not gone- I am looking at my brain too!) But it saddens me to see certain friends of mine that cannot change their eating times and habits.
amanda – this is SO me! i get up at 5 AM often for work and then i have pushed myself to wait until a normal lunch time. only to be miserable and starving when lunch actually came around. one morning i ate lunch at 10:30 and was amazed at how much better i ate. i think i had an extra snack that day and probably freaked out about it (read: my brain freaked out about it), but the world didn’t end and i am still here. thank you for this post!
The world didn’t end and you probably felt a lot better, huh? That’s what I try to focus on if my brain starts trying to play games with me – how much better I feel when I do what I know is right.
I can DEFINITELY relate. I used to struggle with doing this, but now it’s just about listening to my hunger. Like you, I do feel odd doing it and I worry that I’ll end up overeating that day, but I remind myself that it’s not the worst thing in the world to happen!
I always have a morning snack on weekdays! On weekends I don’t get up till at least 10 so I have breakfast then a couple of hours later my tummy wants lunch! I only snack in the morning when I have to be up at stupid o’clock 😛
“And what exactly is it that makes me so anxious? Well, in the case of eating a meal early, the fear that I’ll end up eating more (read: too much) throughout the day.” This is exactly, 100 percent, how I feel every single day. Took the words straight from my mind.
I sometimes deal with this myself! I wait sometimes to eat because I dont want to get hungry later or whatever the case may be, but I tried to be mindful. If I need to eat, then I should!
I have to admit that I still prefer to eat around the same times (7-8 for breakfast, 12-1 for lunch, 7 or so for dinner) just because it works better for my schedule and I’ve never been one to eat dinner early and hate when I have to, but I’m a lot better about not strictly sticking to the clock for meal times. But eating more than usual? Heck ya, that scares me like no other! I had a pretty off week with eating most of last week, skipping meals because I wasn’t hungry and then being starving later and it really messed with me when I felt like I was eating a lot. In reality, my body was just trying to make up for a lack of food earlier. And unfortunately, I tend to get super hungry at the least convenient times, like when I’m in class and don’t have any food packed or food isn’t allowed, and that can make me a little ravenous when I finally get my hands on some food!
Kind of a tangent, but is that Barney Butter I see creeping into that photo?… What the wha?!?!… I thought we were united in our dislike of the artificial-like taste of that particular variety of almond butter?… I somehow feel a lil’ betrayed, especially since I have grown to love our staple variety of Maisie Jane’s. 😉
Hehe no need to feel betrayed – that’s still the same old jar from back when I first posted about it. I’m not a big fan of the stuff, but I hate wasting food so I’ve been doing my best to pick away at it here and there.
Oh I see, makes perfect sense… and now I can sleep better. 🙂
Oooohhh yes, I can relate! My meals and macros were dictated by numbers–both on the clock and on my nutrition tracker—for YEARS. I lived in fear that if I ate X amount before X time, I’d over-eat, so instead of acknowledging my hunger, I’d find every distraction under the sun to prevent me from eating. I’d take long walks; I’d chew gum (oftentimes a pack/day–no joke), I’d call friends, I’d do sit-ups/push-ups; I’d go to the library (where food was prohibited)…And you know what? I’d always feel like crap doing those things because my body was literally starving! Fortunately those days are over, but like you, I occasionally grow anxious if my stomach starts grumbling earlier than I expect it to. Right now that rarely happens, though, because in an effort to gain weight, I’m eating A LOT at every meal. :-p That in itself is another challenge!
Great post, as always, Amanda! <3 xoxo
I definitely can relate – I used to eat strictly by the clock and that feeling of watching the minutes creep by until it was an acceptable time to eat was all too familiar to me. Now my eating is all over the place – lunch is sometimes at 11, sometimes at 12, sometimes at 2. It all depends on my hunger and my schedule. I don’t always need a morning snack if I have an early lunch, but if I have a long time span between breakfast and lunch, then a snack is definitely necessary!
Just for the record, if I woke up at 5:30 I think I would have about ten snacks between breakfast and lunch. I can definitely relate to getting nervous about eating before the “time” you were planning on eating. I’m much more relaxed about it now but I used to be really rigid about my eating times and if I got hungry and, god forbid, ate something before my scheduled time I would feel disgusting and like the day was ruined. But now when I think about it I was essentially just trying to tell my body when it was allowed to be hungry and how much it was supposed to want and it seems like such a bizarre and unnatural thing to occupy yourself with. This post made me realize that I’m so grateful to be able to satisfy my hunger no matter what the time and then let my thoughts and my actions revolve around other more exciting things in life.
no matter if I eat a snack right before bed, I often wake up at 4 am because I’m so hungry. Even when I don’t, I wake up at 5 for no other reason, and I’m still hungry… so I’ll usually end up eating breakfast around 530.
this still stresses me out… even though it’s been going on for over a year… but I don’t want to just be hungry for a few hours (read: cranky and miserable) until it’s a more appropriate time to eat… I know I eat more because of this, but I don’t know what to do about it…
tl;dr yes, I can totally relate, unfortunately.
If you’re hungry that often, it might just mean that you need to eat more during the day? We often underestimate how much our bodies really need to function properly. Sure, we can “get by” on less, but we’re really not doing ourselves any favors by doing that.
Yep, I can TOTALLY relate to this! Lack of sleep has definitely been scientifically proven to increase your appetite, and I always feel kinda like a bottomless pit when that happens. And usually I kinda fight with myself and don’t let myself eat till it’s “time”, but it’s SO exhausting. And you know what…it all balances out in the end. Our bodies are smart, and it’s a shame that we’re so afraid to just listen to them! This is definitely something I need to work on for sure. And holy crap – that Indian stuffed chicken! I totally have to make that!
I definitely have my hungrier than usual days, and like you, in the past I would just stare at the clock and wait until it was “time” to eat or have a snack or whatever I had “planned” for the day. So silly! Now whenever I have a hungry day, I eat more. Super simple and I don’t overthink it. And I haven’t gained weight because of it either. Usually if you’re hungrier than usual, there’s a reason behind it. Nothing to over-analyze and obsess over, the body is a complicated thing. It just means you should eat a little more!
LOVE this post! I will admit that I have a fear of eating when it’s not “time.” What if I get hungry again before the next meal? Gotta learn to go with the flow 😉
I totally know what you mean! If I sleep in really late I eat so much less and I actually like it (although I hate sleeping in late)
I eat breakfast at 3:30am most days, so this definitely applies to me. But what I’ve learned over these past few months of transitioning into this routine is that if I honour my midmorning / early lunch hunger, I’m more satisfied through the midday. At the same time, I’m up early, but I also go to bed early. Dinner usually happens between 4:30 and 6pm (most frequently around 5-5:30ish — early bird special!). I would never, ever make it to dinner at 7pm or later without an extra snack. Those days happen, and on those days, I snack. It’s what my body wants and needs. I’m up later and therefore will require more fuel. Done and done. The anxiety comes more when I’m trying to ignore the hunger cues rather than going with them … I guess I am my hunger’s b!tch and at her mercy. And that isn’t a bad thing in the least!
I usually eat my dinners around 5:30 as well, and then have another snack before bed. I honestly can’t even fathom the idea of eating dinner at 7 or later… I’d be well beyond starving. But my anxiety is definitely a lot harder to manage when I’m hungry as well. At least there’s a pretty simple solution for that 😀
i gave up on time. I think being married helped that and married to man that has no routine. It changes daily. Sometimes i eat lunch at 10:30 too, because i really just hate snacking. I know, i am weird. I like meals. So 4 meals a day works, yes? LOL!
I’m doing that right now at the hospital. The kitchen closes at 630 and I’m not hungry because ive trained my brain to eat at like 7 or 8 :o( who closes a kitchen?! I think one of my biggest weaknesses is watching the clock constantly.
feel better lauren. sending hugs!
Make sure to stock up before the kitchen closes! Your body needs the food to heal <3 <3
I can relate to this! I think it is because I have “meal times” stuck in my head. It’s like I can’t have lunch yet… its not TIME. Our bodies don’t run off of time though… they just know when they need more fuel.
I actually love being hungry 😀 When I’m hungry, I eat! So hunger in mah belly means I get to eat more food – YAY!
But I definitely do understand your point of view. Good post 🙂
It’s funny, because some days I feel like I could eat a breakfast buffet, and other days I am happy with a bowl of cereal. I try my best to listen to my body and just go with it. 🙂
Timing of meals is definitely something that used to bother me alot more in the past. After staring working my schedule has pretty much turned upside down. Some nights I don’t get home till almost 8pm when I was used to having dinner at 5:30pm. Essentially I have gotten better at going with the flow when it comes to meal timings, but I can definitely relate. I do almost always have a snack between breakfast and lunch 🙂
I’ve often found that it’s the things that force us out of our comfort zones that make us realize how illogical some of our beliefs and habits can be. Work and travel have definitely done that for me in the past, and I couldn’t be more grateful for it.
I am always up early and eating early..and plenty of days are hungry days which I can feel as soon as I wake up. That feeling where no matter what I eat or when is going to to the trick. That being said, I always eat when I am hungry, even if it means lunch before most people eat breakfast. I have found, more often than not, that regardless of the time of meals, they all seem to balance out. I am no hungrier at 3:00 pm if I ate lunch at 11 or at 1.
While I wouldn’t say that I’ve ever had an eating disorder, I do know that I have had/do have some disordered thoughts about eating in the last few years since I’ve started being more conscientious about what I put into my body and am trying to eat intuitively. As I said on your post the other day, I am scared to gain weight since I’m not tracking my calories! I tend to have a snack between breakfast and lunch..and then two snacks between lunch and dinner usually. They’re nothing big, just enough to tide me over. I’ll usually have a snack/dessert sometime before bed too. I get really grumpy when I’m too hungry, so I try and be overprepared! Some days, I’m still underprepared!
I can relate 1000%. I try to listen to my body to determine whether I’m hungry or not, but most of the times the answer is ABSOLUTELY YES! And when I’m in class all day, being hungry is NOT a good way to focus. So I snack whenever my belly tells me to!
I know those frozen mixed veggies all too well! Haha!
I realized that when you say eating when you’re hungry doesn’t make you gain weight, it doesn’t matter if it makes me gain weight! I’ve never been huge and I never will be so a couple extra pounds might actually make me HAPPIER
I SO relate. For some reason I cannot get specific “times to eat” out of my brain! Anytime that I do not eat when I am “supposed to” I definitely feel anxious about it. I am not quite sure how to break this horrible habit!! I really WANT to just eat when I want to, but my brain (darn brain!) often keeps me from doing so :(.
As for the mid-morning snack..it is a banana for me every day!! I forgot to bring one to work on Monday and it was seriously disappointing!
I’ve found that the only way to break it is to go against it. So, if you’re hungry and it’s not yet time to eat, eat anyways and realize that nothing bad happens as a result. In fact, you’ll probably realize that you feel SO much better, and it’ll get easier after that 🙂
Thank you for the advice! I really need to almost FORCE myself to just do it!! I am going to give it a go! 🙂
Oh yes, I can definitely relate to this, BUT I’m getting way better. Not quite a subtle itch level, but not the domination of activity either thankfully. If I’m hungry (and I usually am) before lunch, I have something small…pretzels with nut butter or something along those lines…I also have very little problem moving up lunch now if my snack doesn’t satisfy me. Progress 🙂
I get up at 515 for work and im usually hungry so I have to eat within the hour, so I usually have a snack before lunch. Work is always crazy and I never usually get lunch until about 1 pm. Could you imagine not eating for 6 hours!? NOT ME lol
I can totally relate. This was me today! I ate breakfast at my normal time of 6:30 AM but when I got back from my class at 11:00 AM I was hungry for lunch… And then at 2:00 PM today when I got back from my next class I was ready to eat again. Well, normally I don’t eat lunch at 11:00 but at the 2:00 time. For a second I thought about just waiting until supper, but that would have been 6 or 7 hours between meals, which is just not good. And I’m positive I would have been a ravished beast by then 😉 But, I feel like I made the right choice and just had a small meal instead! No hunger pangs for me thank you very much.
I can totally relate! During the work week, I get up at 4:30 and so I’m defintely feeling hungry around 10:00. I usually try to hold off on the midmorning snack and if I’m busy enough, I can. But if I’m just sitting at my desk, it can be really distracting.
I can totally relate! I don’t eat a morning snack because I usually have a later breakfast and a semi-early lunch but I usually have 2 afternoon snacks. I used to sit and wait until a certain time to eat and it was so awful because that’s all I could think about! By the way your oat bran, greek yogurt, applesauce mix looks AMAZING.
The afternoon is usually when I’m feeling my snackiest as well. And oh girl, I can’t sing enough praises about the oat, yogurt, and apple combo!