4 Meals a day in Mexico?

Sweetness · Post by **Sweetness** » Wed Oct 05, 2011 3:08 am

A week from today my DH and I will be in Mexico, staying for 6 months again. How to do no S... I'm relatively new to no S, never done it in Mexico before.

My Mexican neighbor once told me that Mexicans have 5 meals with names for each of them:

Desayuno (Breakfast) Between 5 and 8 AM (usually very light)
Almuerzo (lunch, or 2nd breakfast) Between 10 AM and noon.
Comida (dinner) Between 2 and 4 PM. (The biggest meal of the day)
Merinda (snack) This is the snack you give your kids before bed. 8 to 9PM.
Cena (supper) Between 8PM and 1AM This is when adults have a snack, light supper, or go out for tacos with friends. The taco places don't even open till 8.

I don't have little kids, don't need merinda, so I'm fine with the 4 meals. But not OK with 3 because its too hard for me to wait for comida at 2 or 3 if I just have breakfast when I get up at 7. Also hard to wait for Almuerzo that's at 10 AM, if I had nothing before that... we do have a lot of breakfast meetings. And it WILL NOT work to just keep my American schedule in Mexico, not for 6 months.

Anyone else dealt with this? Any advice?

I know, I know... what a problem to have, right? Minnesotans in Mexico for the winter, avoiding all the cold, snow, shoveling etc.

wosnes · Post by **wosnes** » Wed Oct 05, 2011 3:51 am

When in Rome...

Just be consistent about what you do.

r.jean · Post by **r.jean** » Wed Oct 05, 2011 12:07 pm

Having spent time in Latin America, my routine has been to eat a little more at desayuno and then wait for the large meal of comida next and then cena. I still stick to 3 meals. However, I occasionally had to be flexible and eat what was offered when it was offered rather than risk going too long. So...I guess it depends on how much control you have over your meal times and amounts.

~reneew · Post by **~reneew** » Wed Oct 05, 2011 1:06 pm

Boy, would I be fat! I'd try hard to do 3, I really would. No matter what culture, there's an excuse to eat at any time of day, most everywhere you go.

Who Me? · Post by **Who Me?** » Wed Oct 05, 2011 1:37 pm

Nobody is holding a gun to your head, and forcing you to eat huge amounts of food at each of these meals. Let common sense prevail, and you'll be fine.

Are you surprised that people in other countries would have names for their meals? What should they call these meals? "Eating crappy processed food all day long?" Oh wait, that's what we do in America, without acknowledging it.

~reneew · Post by **~reneew** » Wed Oct 05, 2011 6:05 pm

Who Me? wrote: Let common sense prevail, and you'll be fine.

Way easier said than done, that's why most of us are probably here.

Sweetness · Post by **Sweetness** » Wed Oct 05, 2011 9:34 pm

Thanks, everyone for the input!! I think what I'm going to try to do will be real similar to what I do now, but a little different timing. Almost every morning, my DH makes a green smoothie for both of us, I take my supplements with that pretty early. I have been having a little granola and milk or some almonds and dried fruit at the same time. I plan to save that for later, unless we have a breakfast meeting, in which case I will be careful to eat light at that meeting. Then have comida about 2 or 3, and cena about 7 or 8. I'm going to have to be careful to not eat two full breakfasts. I used to have a mid morning snack or snacks, but then I've been gaining about 5 pounds a year till no S.

If that doesn't work, I'll have to go to just one breakfast but later in the morning. 3 meals a day like r. jean says. I'll report back on how its going.

chentegt · Post by **chentegt** » Wed Oct 05, 2011 10:36 pm

Hello Sweetness. I hope you enjoy your 6 months at Mexico.

I have lived all my life in different countries from Latin America, and currently, in Guatemala, we have a very similar culture to Mexico. But let me tell you that the base for eating in these countries, from my 28 years of experience, has always been the same: 3 meals a day.

"Desayuno" is just breakfast. "Almuerzo" is lunch time. and "Cena" means dinner. The in-betweens don't really exist, these are just snacks, like in US or every other country, that people tend to invent. But the 3 normal meals have always been the same, and you can still treat your eating in Mexico like a normal NO S Diet with just 3 meals. By the way, "comida" means "meal".

I have my breakfast around 8-9am. Then I have lunch around 1pm, and dinner at 7-8pm. You can view it like if you were in US.

There are some socio-cultural structures made by people around the meals, but they can be easily avoided. For example, in Guatemala, most people just eat 3 meals a day. But in some offices, at 4 or 5 pm some people have a candy, a piece of cake or something just sweet. It's more like an office-tradition, but not everyone takes part of this. The base is always the same, for Mexico, Cuba, El Salvador, Honduras, Colombia, etc. etc. > just breakfast, lunch and dinner.

In-betweens, wether they call them "meriendas", "comidas", "refacciÃ³n", etc. are just snacks, but with another name.

I've always been to Mexico, and the point I'm trying to make is: don't fall in the idea of a 5-meal structure. It has really been, traditionally, just 3 meals (the rest is snacking). You should not have problem sticking to them.

jellybeans01 · Post by **jellybeans01** » Thu Oct 06, 2011 2:59 pm

My hubby and I just moved back from Mexico. We lived there for about 7 years. We worked primarily with indiginous people and they actually ate just 2 times a day. They ate around 10-11 and 4-5 with maybe coffee and a roll around 9. I found this to be true also in the city we were working in. I have never known any Mexican to eat that much. In fact most think we are crazy and fat for having 3 full meals a day. Snacking of course has taken on a huge place in this culture, so I notice a lot of snacking from young people.

Sweetness · Post by **Sweetness** » Fri Oct 07, 2011 5:04 pm

OK, I've been thinking about what you all are saying. I think maybe I'm making too much of this by worrying a bit much about it, but I want to have a plan. I'm going to plan to do 3 meals at first and see how it goes. If I delay breakfast till 9 or 10 AM it should work fine for me.

Gotta go pack!!!

Over43 · Post by **Over43** » Sun Oct 09, 2011 1:40 am

In the world of the WWW what is DH?

In baseball it is designated hitter...

Sweetness · Post by **Sweetness** » Sun Oct 09, 2011 2:31 am

Over43 wrote:In the world of the WWW what is DH?

In baseball it is designated hitter...

My Dear Husband! I also live with two other men, my 2 DS's (my dear sons). They get to stay here and shovel snow while we fly south for the winter.

Sweetness · Post by **Sweetness** » Thu Oct 13, 2011 10:05 pm

So here we are in Mexico again. So far so good on three meals. We arrived late Tuesday night, and my neighbor had supper for us. Yesterday my DH went to a fruit stand to get a smoothie, it was too sweet, and I hadn't been to buy groceries yet so I ate dry cereal for breakfast with the smoothie. Walked to the grocery store and took a cab back. Made chicken alfredo for dinner about 3. We had a small plate leftovers for supper about 9.

Today I ate a good size breakfast:

Green smoothie, 2 eggs and one slice of toast, and it was not hard to wait for dinner at 3 PM:

Breaded chicken breast, Mexican rice, refried beans and salad (cooked it all myself, yum)

Tonight, about 8 PM I think it will be just a little leftover chicken alfredo from yesterday.

Thanks to you all who gave me good advice, most days I will just be able to eat a larger breakfast and I will be just fine. When we have an AM breakfast meeting, I will probably have some juice or milk before I leave to tide me over till breakfast which will be later than usual.

Going for the GREEN

Sweetness · Post by **Sweetness** » Thu Oct 13, 2011 10:20 pm

chentegt wrote:Hello Sweetness. I hope you enjoy your 6 months at Mexico.

I have lived all my life in different countries from Latin America, and currently, in Guatemala, we have a very similar culture to Mexico. But let me tell you that the base for eating in these countries, from my 28 years of experience, has always been the same: 3 meals a day.

"Desayuno" is just breakfast. "Almuerzo" is lunch time. and "Cena" means dinner. The in-betweens don't really exist, these are just snacks, like in US or every other country, that people tend to invent. But the 3 normal meals have always been the same, and you can still treat your eating in Mexico like a normal NO S Diet with just 3 meals. By the way, "comida" means "meal".

I have my breakfast around 8-9am. Then I have lunch around 1pm, and dinner at 7-8pm. You can view it like if you were in US.

There are some socio-cultural structures made by people around the meals, but they can be easily avoided. For example, in Guatemala, most people just eat 3 meals a day. But in some offices, at 4 or 5 pm some people have a candy, a piece of cake or something just sweet. It's more like an office-tradition, but not everyone takes part of this. The base is always the same, for Mexico, Cuba, El Salvador, Honduras, Colombia, etc. etc. > just breakfast, lunch and dinner.

In-betweens, wether they call them "meriendas", "comidas", "refacciÃ³n", etc. are just snacks, but with another name.

I've always been to Mexico, and the point I'm trying to make is: don't fall in the idea of a 5-meal structure. It has really been, traditionally, just 3 meals (the rest is snacking). You should not have problem sticking to them.

I didn't really take time to respond to your nice long note before, but wanted to let you know I appreciated it. I think you're right about the three meals. Here if there are 3 meals, they are definitely desayuno, comida, and cena. In our area, almost no one talks about almuerzo. The reason I called comida (which just means food or meal) dinner, is because here in our area of Mexico, it is definitely the big meal of the day, and always in the afternoon. Doctors offices are closed from 2 to 4 PM so the staff can go home for comida. Then they're open again from 4 to 8PM. Some small businesses still do the same. Years ago everything was closed in the afternoon for comida and "siesta". Now not so much.

Thanks again for sharing!

Sweetness · Post by **Sweetness** » Thu Oct 13, 2011 10:26 pm

jellybeans01 wrote:My hubby and I just moved back from Mexico. We lived there for about 7 years. We worked primarily with indiginous people and they actually ate just 2 times a day. They ate around 10-11 and 4-5 with maybe coffee and a roll around 9. I found this to be true also in the city we were working in. I have never known any Mexican to eat that much. In fact most think we are crazy and fat for having 3 full meals a day. Snacking of course has taken on a huge place in this culture, so I notice a lot of snacking from young people.

That's interesting! Thanks for sharing! Here in the city, people all eat three meals, sometimes more, plus snacks. There are definitely some overweight people, and diabetes is very common.

Sweetness · Post by **Sweetness** » Thu Oct 13, 2011 10:29 pm

r.jean wrote:Having spent time in Latin America, my routine has been to eat a little more at desayuno and then wait for the large meal of comida next and then cena. I still stick to 3 meals. However, I occasionally had to be flexible and eat what was offered when it was offered rather than risk going too long. So...I guess it depends on how much control you have over your meal times and amounts.

Thanks, you can see that's just what I decided to do, its working so far!

G-MAN · Post by **G-MAN** » Mon Oct 17, 2011 1:17 am

have fun in mexico. My other half is from south america so i know how good (and rich) teh food can be. I think its a great idea have 6 smaller meals per day.

Sweetness · Post by **Sweetness** » Mon Oct 17, 2011 5:49 pm

G-MAN wrote:have fun in mexico. My other half is from south america so i know how good (and rich) teh food can be. I think its a great idea have 6 smaller meals per day.

I don't know about S America, but here they fry so much food and eat so many carbs! Rice, beans, and tortillas are the staple foods, and many people have all three at every meal. Always washed down with Coke or super-sweet soda (they add more syrup to it here). No wonder there are so many diabetics. The space for the oils in the grocery store is about 10 times as much as in the states. The food is also very yummy.

6 smaller meals would work if I could make them small! I don't think I can!! I think I better stay with 3.