Hungry! Need Food Now!

I have observed lately that one of my eating issues is allowing myself to get too hungry. First, I made the mistake of going to the grocery store when I was hungry. I know better than to do that, and usually make sure to eat just before grocery shopping. That particular day, however, my timing was off. I was hungry, and I ended up buying way too many snack foods.

Another tendency of mine is to get rather caught up in whatever I am doing, and put off eating until I am extremely hungry. At that point, I want to eat everything in sight, and it takes a lot for me to feel satisfied. The ideal thing is to respond to hunger by eating before one gets to the point of being that hungry.

I believe there is some disagreement among proponents of the “non-diet” paradigm as to how best to plan to feed oneself in response to hunger. One school of thought is to plan regular meals and snacks, so that you never get to the point of being overly hungry. Another school of thought is to always have food available to eat whenever you get hungry. Another popular idea (which is not necessarily promoted in the non-diet arena, that I know of) is to eat smaller meals six times per day (which is also the recommended way for those with low blood sugar).

Doing What’s Best for Your Body

Personally, I like the idea of sticking with a more conventional meal structure, partly because it is much easier to fit that into a conventional schedule or social situation. Also, I prefer to have some larger meals. I don’t know if that is due to my physiology or all in my head, but I know that it feels much more satisfying to me to eat 3 filling meals than to have six that just sort of take the edge off my hunger.

I am definitely not opposed to snacks between meals, and kind of like the idea of a substantial bedtime snack, given the length of the timespan that is typical between the evening meal and breakfast. There are so many people who believe that eating in the evening makes you fat, but I don’t believe there is really any research to support that. Sure, if you get carried away with eating a lot of empty calorie foods in the evening, and that contributes to eating more than your body needs, it could be a problem. Also, eating too much of certain heavier foods too close to bedtime could be an issue, in that your digestive system has to be working when your body is supposed to be resting.

Now that I’m thinking about it, a bedtime snack probably should be similar to a pre-event meal for athletes. That means relatively low in fat and moderate in protein, with the emphasis being on carbohydrates. Meals prior to physical exertion should be relatively low in fiber, but I’m not sure if that would apply to a bedtime snack.

The Ongoing Quest

When I eat a meal, I want to feel satisfied enough that I won’t feel hungry for at least two hours afterwards. If I eat the typical “healthy” frozen dinner, that is not going to work for me, as I’ve mentioned before. My quest to find the right combination of convenience and nutrition is still ongoing. It seems apparent that when sufficient portions of protein, whole grains, and vegetables are prepared with a moderate amount of fat, the result is a meal that satisfies hunger, but, of course, that meal needs to be tasty and appealing in order to be fully satisfying.

This past week, I have been trying out some PF Chang home cuisine, because it was on sale when I last went grocery shopping. I find those meals to be quite tasty, and some of them do not include any rice or pasta. That gives you the option to add some source of carbohydrate if you wish. If you are anything like me, you may want to enjoy a dessert as a source of carbohydrate, instead of pasta or rice. In spite of not containing an evident source of carbs, the dinners I have tried have not exactly been “lean” recipes in terms of their ingredients and calorie levels.

As I said, my quest continues. I’d love to hear stories from others who are on a similar quest. I’ll keep you posted on my progress.

My interest in nutrition developed from the weight issues I had in my youth. My sister and I always tended to be heavier than other kids, and we were teased about it, so naturally I wanted to "fix" myself by dieting. That worked pretty well in my teenage years, but adulthood was much more challenging. I started out as a dietitian who advocated dieting, but due to my own experience with my weight and dieting, as well as my extensive study of the subject of weight management, I have become an advocate of Health at Every Size. The first fellow professional who influenced my "conversion" was Ellyn Satter, who is also a dietitian. I got my Bachelor's Degree in Dietetics in 1975, (LSU) followed by a Master's in 1981(Univ of TN), and a PhD in 1997 (Univ of TN). I have worked in longterm care, public health, and one hospital. For the last 8 years, I have been teaching at the college level. I am the proud mother of a 24 year old son, and have been single since my divorce in 1993. That is when I moved to Atlanta from Cookeville, Tennessee. I moved around a lot in my childhood due to my father's job, but my parents grew up in Texas, and that is where my roots are. I lived in Brazil for 3 years as a teenager, and one of my sisters still lives there.