Friday, April 23, 2010

Trying Something New

The time between 3:00 and 5:00 in the afternoon is a danger zone for me and my fitness goals. I start each day with the greatest intentions of sticking to my eating plan, and then 3:00 rolls around. My energy crashes, I feel exhausted, and I feel like I NEED to eat.

Even if I try to eat something small and healthy, it seems to trigger an afternoon binge. It's been so discouraging! I've been wondering how to change things to survive that time of day.

Last week, a friend sent an email that had a saying in it that I'd heard before:

You should eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a beggar.

Reading it this time, made me wonder if changing the order of my meals might help me with this afternoon dip. So I'm trying to eat a dinner size meal at lunch, a small afternoon snack that includes a healthy carb (like an apple) and a lean protein (like a hard boiled egg or string cheese) and then when I would have eaten dinner, I'm having a light lunch size meal.

I've got high hopes. I'll let you know if the change does any good for me. I'd love to hear if there are any other tips for increasing energy and curbing appetite for that time of day.

3 comments:

Heidi said...

Dan was just saying that today. Breakfast should be your biggest meal of the day, not dinner. It does work good too!

Crystal said...

Oh man Becky, I am the same!! I am an afternoon hog eater!! I typically eat a good size breakfast and lunch is around 12:30. By 3, it's too early for dinner, but I am hungry! So I go crazy and eat everything! For me, eating my regular breakfast, then modest lunch at 12:30 followed by another modest meal at about 3 gets me to dinner. The progresso light soups are good, or fruit and yogurt holds me though.

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.