When you get hungry, do you eat right then and there, or do you fix something that takes a while to be ready?

I used to delay eating, but mostly because I was either lazy or somehow hoping it would go away so I wouldn’t then feel guilty about eating crap. But that usually ensured I’d eat whatever I was craving, crap or not.

Now I delay eating because my surgery has caused a food aversion, and my old cravings are still there, so I feel like whatever I do it, it won’t satisfy me because I’m craving the crap.

Probably an answer completely irrelevant to what you asked.

^^^^Not irrelevant.

I do it thinking that I’ll eat less overall during the day. I’ve been up since 9, it’s almost 11, and my English muffins are almost done! Yay!!

Delayed gratification is my middle name.
I often must delay eating if my blood sugar won’t permit it. If it’s high, I’ll spend longer cooking (if school permits me).
I get so frustrated when I’ve just finished cooking a nice meal and my blood sugar is low, which means that I can’t even eat it while it’s hot!

@bookish1: Wait.. why couldn’t you eat if your sugar was low?

It varies for me. Sometimes I eat something as soon as I feel a pang of hunger and sometimes I delay. If I know I will be eating at a buffet I eat less the meal before. Or, if I know I am going to have an earlier than usual dinner I will eat a late breakfast or early lunch and then no other meal until dinner. If I I know I am going to have a late dinner, I delay lunch a little so I am not starving before dinner.

I don’t like eating breakfast, but should I know.
I usually have a late morning snack and then wait til dinner to eat my main meal. Problem is the night time snacking. haha
I am trying to get back into the breakfast groove.

Also, I forgot to say what I meant to about holding off all day if you’re going to be having a huge meal. I can’t even begin to describe how hard it’s been for me to get out of that mindset—I still am not—since having gastric bypass. My instinct is to not eat so I can fill up at the meal. Except no matter what I’ve eaten all day, I’ll still only be able to eat the same amount of food at the meal. Previously, if I ate before a giant barbecue, say… I’d feel like a complete hog. I still feel that way now, except if I DON’T eat all day, I’m just hurting myself by not getting in my daily protein requirement. Very weird. I can’t see myself ever getting past that.

Why did you have gastric bypass @poofandmook?

For me, it’s not either/or, but both. I’ll eat a small snack while waiting for a more filing meal to finish cooking.

@Dutchess_III: Because I am 29, 5ft, and weighed 280lbs. I had a BMI of 52. I had GERD, chronic sciatica, PCOS, and hypoglycemia. (I use the term “had” because the surgery is widely shown to mostly, if not totally, eradicate the issues listed above, known as co-morbidities when dealing with obesity). Not to mention severe depression and low self esteem. The amount of weight I’d lost and gained back VERY fast was a big strain on my system, and over time, would prove to be more unhealthy than just staying fat.

I regularly forget to eat altogether, to the point that I’m nauseous and feel faint. Once I realize, “Oh, crap. I haven’t eaten all day and that’s why I feel like shit”, I pretty much have to eat something immediately. Even waiting for the toaster is going to take too long. This is probably three quarters of the reason I eat such crappy food…it must be ready to eat now.

I do try to keep some healthy ready-to-eat foods around, like bananas, but I’m not always good about that.

It depends on the type of hunger. I am prone to hypoglycemia* and if my hunger is due to a blood-sugar crash, it’s essential that I eat something straight away.

* This seems to have stopped now that I’m no longer underweight.

How doe one know when one’s blood sugar is low (or high)?

I’ve never experienced high blood sugar but when it’s low I get a bunch of symptoms besides extreme hunger. Sweating, shaking, nausea, dizziness and a really bad temper.

I usually wait for the next meal, but I may prepare it a bit earlier than usual. I also may have a small bite from the ingredients I’m using for the meal. I rarely snack.

@poofandmook: I can’t eat the japanese curry and brown rice I’ve just cooked if my blood sugar is low. Because it will take more energy to digest that food than I currently have available to me. I will keep going lower and feel more like shit and not even enjoy the meal. Type 1 diabetics have to save themselves with fast sugar.

Depends on my mood. Take today for example. I had jury duty, they let us go at noon, so I headed home, thinking I was going to eat the lunch I had taken to court. Got home, put that on the counter, then got on the computer to check my e-mail. It’s now 2:00 and I’m now on Fluther, I still haven’t eaten lunch, and now I plan to make a cold soba noodle salad with tofu, veggies and peanut butter dressing, something that will take about a half an hour to make. That is, when I finally get off of Fluther.

Other times, I will carry little bags of peanuts or breakfast bars with me in my purse, which I should have done today, so if I get hungry, even though it isn’t near a regular meal time, I can just quench my hunger.

@Kardamom: Do you have any leftovers??? I’ve been too busy to cook for the past 2 weeks :’-(

@bookish1 I’ve already had 3 servings of it! It’s really good and super easy. My Mom had some for lunch and I’m taking some for lunch tomorrow too.

This is the Recipe. I’m not all that excited about asparagus, so I use broccoli instead. But you can use whatever kind of veggies you like. This recipe is enough for 2 people to eat for about 4 days, so if you make it, you might want to halve the recipe. And my helpful hint is: after you drain and rinse the noodles, immediately add the tiny splash of sesame oil to the noodles and mix it in, this will keep the noodles from sticking together in a clump whilst you are preparing the dressing.

@Kardamom I just discovered that 101cookbooks site, they have great recipes!