Thoughts on erratic schedules...

[kccc]

This semester, I am teaching a class which meets from 4:40-7:40 - right across my usual dinnertime. To complicate matters more, I have a lunchtime yoga class the same day.

I usually work around yoga with some mild virtual plating. I take my usual lunch, eat my fruit before yoga and the rest after. However, that means a late-ish lunch, so I don't want to eat before my class. (Which is fine - I'm too wound up to eat anyway.)

However, by the time class is over and I get home (usually 8:30-9:00 by the time I meet with students and put things in my office, etc.)... It's just too late. I feel ill if I eat, as I found to my cost a few weeks ago.

Today, I took about 1/3 cup of trail mix and ate it right after class, and had some milk when I got home, but that was it. I just didn't even want to think about food.

I don't know about this. My instincts are conflicted! On the one hand, I think meal-skipping is a bad, bad habit to fall into. On the other hand, I think perhaps I should listen to my body on this one. (I did eat a good breakfast and lunch.)

Thoughts?

[bonnieUK]

I had a similar issue with an evening of dance classes right accross my usual dinner time (returning home at 10pm). I couldn't eat dinner before because I'd didn't want to feel too full, but didn't really want to eat a meal right before bed when I got home. In the end I opted to replace dinner with 2 "mini meals", one an hour before the clases and one on returning home. Usually something like some oatmeal & fruit before class and a small soup or salad when I got home. This worked well for me, the mini meal before class was good for energy too. Hope that helps

[florafloraflora]

Wow, what an awkward time for a class.

I've had a similar problem with evening yoga classes in the past. If I ate before, I'd feel wretched during class, but eating afterward felt too late. Eventually I just learned to wait until late at night to eat, with maybe a glass of milk or some milky tea in the afternoon to tide me over. It helped to eat a really substantial lunch a bit later than normal. Would it be possible for you to wait until after your yoga class to eat your entire lunch? Then again I don't think there's anything wrong with a bit of virtual plating in this situation, either.

[reinhard]

Hi KCCC,

If I understand you correctly, you're still having three "eating events" a day? So maybe just promote your "virtual plate" of afternoon fruit to meal status. Or do as bonnie suggests and go with four official "meals" on days like these, the last two being small (a half sized plate might serve as useful reminder for these). I do think it's important to settle on something regular. It may not be the ideal three square with a challenging schedule like this, but it should be something (or permasnacking will take over).

Best of luck and keep us posted,

Reinhard

[kccc]

To be clearer, here's the schedule on my "challenging day" (the fact that there are two different classes I'm working around is a little confusing, I think.)

7-ish - breakfast (normal)
12:00 - Normally lunchtime, but it's also yoga class. I eat an apple or equivalent, from my normal lunch.
12:15-1:15 yoga class
1:30 - remaining lunch

4:40 - 7:40 college class I'm teaching (this is the one that's hard to work around). This falls right across my usual 6:30-ish dinner.
8:30 - home

I'm not hungry before 4:40, b/c of the late lunch (usually eat at noon). I'm not hungry after 7:40 because it's so late, plus I'm too exhausted from class (this particular one is stressful). So, I'm debating just having something light - like trail mix - and letting it go. But I don't think meal-skipping is generally good either.

(I'm rather amazed that I'm essentially asking "do I HAVE to eat all my meals if I don't want them?")

Maybe toast and milk, or yogurt, or something else soothing-but-light that I could count as a meal would work. I could take yogurt to my office (we have a fridge) and eat it before I left, which would help with the timing.

[wosnes]

In talking with others, I find there are two schools of thought about when to eat: three regular meals daily or when you're hungry. The problem I have with eating only when you're hungry is that many of us don't really know when we're hungry and therefore will eat all day long AND that it doesn't work well with the schedules most folks have. So I think three meals daily is best. However, there are times that we can't eat at the established meal times or we're not hungry at those times and then I think it's okay to skip or to wait until you are hungry.