Everyday Systems

I posted this in my journal, but decided to put it here too.

I was thinking about the rhythm of my eating today.

Between breakfast and lunch I usually have true legitimate hunger. Between lunch and dinner I have strong cravings/urges to eat, but not real hunger.

Has anyone else experienced this? I wonder what my body could be telling me?

I don't feel qualified to advise you on this as I've only been doing this for a couple of months.

However, I used to be a three meals plus three snacks a day person......... and now I'm on three meals with No Snacks, No Sweets, No Seconds.

The mid-morning 'hunger' sometimes hits me - especially if I've had an early breakfast - then a cup of coffee and the clock help me hang on until lunch time! I aim for 1pm lunch.

I have experienced a change in my 'hunger' since starting to condition myself with this habit-based system.

I reckon if you've had enough for breakfast, and you're not a diabetic or on thyroid meds or something, then your mid-morning hunger might be a habit.

ItsMe2015 wrote:I wonder what my body could be telling me?

I think a lot of what our bodies are telling us has to do with it just reflecting what we have been doing. When I change my eating times and portion sizes of dense food, my body catches up and comes to expect the new regimen after a couple of weeks.
The only thing my body tells me that I think is really valid is that after I eat sugar/sweets I feel lousy, and that is pretty consistent and I think worth listening to.

If I understand correctly. You are wondering why you have afternoon cravings but not morning cravings? I think a few things may be at play, at least for me, but the biggest is that it is my oldest habit. I've been eating an "after school" snack for nigh on 40 years so I don't find it particularly surprising that my mind still thinks it needs one even though I've proven to it over and over again that it can easily be missed. I actually don't think it is my body trying to tell me anything at all. I think it is my mind trying to tell me it doesn't like the change. It is also the afternoon which for me means after work and before the evening kid-run-around. That time of day tends to be higher stress for me and therefore I'm more susceptible to stress related eating. Again, not my body talking but my mind.

In any case, I'm confident that as you stick with 3 meals and no snacks that you will find yourself continuing to change how you think about food and that your cravings, from either mind or body, will diminish dramatically.

I see from your thread you are doing great. Good luck to you in the coming weeks a kind regards.

gingerpie wrote:I've been eating an "after school" snack for nigh on 40 years so I don't find it particularly surprising that my mind still thinks it needs one even though I've proven to it over and over again that it can easily be missed. I actually don't think it is my body trying to tell me anything at all. I think it is my mind trying to tell me it doesn't like the change.

This is spot on. It's not my body telling me anything, it's my mind following an old habit.

The other factor for me is fatigue. As the day wears on, I'm more tired, and I've depleted my stores of willpower, so I'm more likely to think about some sort of "reward" and also more likely to give in later in the day, especially if I've done the kids bath/dinner/bed time on my own.

I'd wager that if your morning hunger occurs in 3 hours or less, you could use more fat or food in general at breakfast. If it happens 1 or 2 hours before lunch time, well...you're hungry for lunch. Rejoice!

I agree that afternoon cravings are more mental, more the search for pleasure as an antidote to likely repeated small uses of willpower to negotiate problems. Gently do your best to ride their wave (i.e., tolerate them with as little drama as possible), use some other quick pleasant ritual like a cup of tea or applying a scented lotion, and/or try to find a way to reframe whatever is annoying so that it doesn't seem so dire.

BTW, from just incidental observation here and on the web, I'd say afternoon cravings are extremely common.

I discovered that I did need to add a little more food to my breakfast. I can manage quite well in between bfast and lunch now.

I still haven't figured out the late afternoon urge yet. I suppose I will have to explore that idea that maybe it is mental. You all may be right about that.

That seems to be my experience too, I think the between breakfast and lunch hunger is due to just not eating enough for breakfast (especially not eating enough protein) and the afternoon craving tends to be a desire for something sweet, probably to pick up energy levels, a cup of tea with honey helps me with that.

Something I noticed last night is that after dinner, I have no further hunger at all no matter how late I stay up and I think that is pure conditioning, I have it instilled in me since childhood to not eat anything more between dinner and bedtime.