Do you eat when your family does?

[ladybug3 0]

Since my surgery, I'm not hungry until mid-morning. If I eat around 10:30 a.m., I'm not hungry until mid-afternoon, about 4:00. Of course, this is only an hour or two before my family eats dinner. It feels weird to not eat when they do, but I'm just not hungry! If I can either hold off until closer to lunchtime, or I eat Breakfast and am then on a regular schedule, it's not so bad, but that's not really how I feel good. I end up just sitting with my family while they eat and I drink my Water or whatever. Of course, then I'm hungry again around 9:30 at night. I can sometimes go a whole day without eating a true "fixed" meal - it's usually just leftovers or tuna salad or something.

How do other people handle this? It's mostly an issue because I have three little kids and want to be modeling a more healthy eating style (slowly, smaller bites, etc.) and appropriate portions. Plus, I don't like missing out on some yummy meal that I've cooked! And I'm a pretty decent cook, too. :rolleyes2:

Any suggestions? Thanks!

[Jachut 487]

I'd try to force my schedule a bit to be honest and hope I adjusted to it overall. Probably what I'd do is hold out for lunchtime.

We have a bit of a weird schedule too though, we dont often sit down to eat together, much as its a good habit and a nice one. The kids eat at the kitchen bench in the morning, I carry a Cereal bowl around with me while I shower, dry my hair, make their lunches etc, breakfast has never been a "family" meal even when I was growing up. lunch the kids are at school and we dont sit down for it at the weekends and in the evenings, I feed them, go out for a run while they eat and then Doug and i eat later at about 7.30.

[MerryHearted 20]

I do, for all meals except lunch on weekdays, because I'm at work then. But otherwise, this has given me a fixed meal schedule which works great for me as I can plan my eating for the day. And it's nice to sit down as a family and eat together.

For the most part my body has just adjusted to the eating schedule. If I come to a meal not feeling particularly hungry, then I just eat less. If I'm hungry before the meal, I just wait til the mealtime unless it's more than 2 hrs off. I have too long of a gap between lunch and dinner, so I have a small snack in the afternoon so I don't get a headache.

[mamakatken 0]

You could try just a small snack in the midmorning such as a few nuts, a tsp of hummus, or a tsp of natural Peanut Butter to give you some calories and energy then get back on track with a family meal for lunch and supper.

[kbinaz 0]

I'd shrink my breakfast size - since you aren't eating it until late, just have something small and hold out until lunch. I agree with you - family meal time is too important for so many reasons that it is not a good idea to keep missing it. I have had to a few times, too, for the same reason- but I try not to let it happen too often.

[ladybug3 0]

Thanks for the replies!

Sometimes I do have a Protein shake in the morning and that works pretty well, since they only abate hunger for a couple of hours. I'm really not hungry first thing and even if I am, if I eat something, it ends up getting stuck (even shakes do sometimes if they're really thick). I usually just have coffee.

So, probably the suggestions to have something small and then move to a regular schedule is what I should do. Or having something smaller in the afternoon would probably work, too. I do have to remember to eat *before* I'm totally starving. If I wait too long, suddenly I reach a point where I'm just so hungry that I can barely think.

I'm still learning how to work this. It's quite a process to figure out what's best!

Thanks again!