Everyday Systems

Old topic, situation no longer applies. Please ignore. Thanks.

Hi Tortie, and welcome!
You can probably make it work with 2 normal sized meals and 2 light meals. No reason why not. I have read of someone around here doing something like that.
But really, what works for me is to eat at 7:30 am, 12 noon and 4 pm or a tad later. The feeling of the need to eat in the evening really goes away if you eat a good sized plate for supper. I feel soooo much better not having a full stomach at night when I go to bed. I'd urge you to give it a chance.

A lot of cultures have four meals. There are some with only two.

Your personal circumstances call for a four meal structure with two or maybe three of those meals being very light (or lite).

Thank you both very much for your replies. I will carry on as mentioned.

Besides, I've been listening again recently to all the podcasts, and in one of them (on the mods) Reinhard touches on this point and says that technically, it is not even a mod because the "rules" only mention "no snacking", they do not actually mention the number of "official meals", although for most people it is 3. So not only is your schedule acceptable, it is even "legal", No-S-ly speaking, as long as you make your nightcap a "meal", meaning sitting down and enjoying each bite, and not a "snack".

And of course your personal life should always come first.

There was a time when my husband was teaching a night class and we changed up our meal structure a bit, because I believe it is VERY important for families to sit down together for a meal at least once a day.

He didn't like a big meal before teaching, nor did he have time for it. So we had tea. As in tea with muffins or little sandwiches -- finger food. I even got out my silver teapot and the good china with little plates. Then later in the evening we had a small supper before going to bed. Like, a cup of soup or something like that.

While I strongly prefer three meals a day, it worked out well for that semester.

It depends on what you mean by working. If it means getting good at eating regularly and not overeating much, it can work. If it means will it lead to weight loss, well, it will depend. Only time will tell. It does sound like your "meals" are reasonable for you. That's key no matter what.

I do want to say you might consider having a bit more at dinner and then seeing if you are really hungry later, or whether that is just habit. I did sometimes have stevia mocha at night, but it was mostly a prop (one I still use sometimes). But going 6 or more hours after dinner before bed with no problem became the norm.

Curious to know what the 3-meal schedule is like on S days.

Another thing you might try is having a good breakfast (more than presently), skip lunch, having a good dinner with your husband, and a light meal at night.

Hi everyone. Thank you so much for all your replies. I'm sorry I'm so late in responding, we've had a major crisis over Christmas, and caring for our sick and very loved kitty, means sleeping and eating proper meals have been chaotic for the past few weeks.

Anyway, things are still not perfect and I'm still sleep deprived and struggling to eat enough at each meal. But I'm making a concerted effort, starting yesterday to make sure I get enough calories and nutritious foods at each of my 3 meals so that snacking is not necessary. IF I wait for life to be less stressful to start a framework for eating... well it will be several more years or never before I actually take my health seriously.

I really want to thank cedar for recommending( in another thread) the site: "eat like a normal person" I've read through all the available articles and found it to be really helpful in getting me back on No S.

I struggle with depression and anxiety and have a strong tendency towards disordered eating and craziness around dieting. I'm finding "eat like a normal person", for myself, a much needed companion to No S.

Even though I still can't get away from eating my lunch and supper so close together, I'm going to try, starting tonight to just have a glass of milk at bedtime. We'll see how that goes. I'll eat a proper sized lunch and dinner, so that I will be getting enough calories over the day.

Thanks again everyone. I'm not able to log on daily, but I'll pop back, in a week or so.

Best of health to kitty! Me, too, with depression and anxiety. But they can become separate issues from eating.

Take care and we'll see you when you can drop in.

Thank you, oolala. Our kitty is slowly but surely on the mend.

Glad your kitty is on the mend!

Found this from a year ago. Are you going to have a check in thread or just use the 2017 challenge?