What are your eating patterns?

I tend to eat twice a day, a combined breakfast/lunch before work (so around 10) and dinner when I get home (around 5). On days when I work longer, then I divide the first into two smaller meals (one before work, one during my lunch break). I’ve been on that pattern for a while and it seems to work. The main thing that has changed is that I can’t eat as late as I once did. In college I would sometimes eat at 1 A.M. and be fine. Now it seems if I eat past 8 P.M. then I get bad heartburn and wake up with a stomachache. So I’ve been eating dinner earlier than I used to, closer to the time I ate when I was a kid.

I usually have a small breakfast: cup of coffee, and a piece of whole wheat toast. I find that I am not very hungry until around 11:00 am, no matter what time I get up.

Occasionally, but not very often, I will wait to eat breakfast until around 11:00 and then I might have an egg and a fake sausage patty, or a couple of slices of fake bacon, or a bowl of Grape Nuts cereal with chopped up prune and some walnuts, but if I eat a bigger breakfast like that, then I won’t be hungry at 1:00 pm, when I normally have lunch. Then I have to eat lunch around 3 and maybe dinner around 7 or 8, which I prefer not to do.

Lunch is any one of a bunch of things. I like to switch it up. Unless I am going out to eat, I eat a nice reasonably sized lunch. Some of the usual things I eat for lunch: a burrito, a frozen vegetarian entree, several different types of homemade salads (I make tons of all sorts of salads, not just run of the mill lettuce and tomato salads), soup and crackers with cheese, quesadillas with added raw vegetables, PB&J sandwich with a side of kimchi and raw vegetables, hummmus rolled up in a tortilla.

I usually eat dinner around 6:30 or 7. Dinner could be any of the same types of things I had for lunch, or it might be some homemade vegetable lasagne, or mock mac and cheese that I make with cauliflower instead of noodles, or vegetable enchiladas, or vegetarian chile with garlic bread, or a “fake” meatball sandwich, or a “fake” burger, or some of my (own imvention) Asian-style tacos with various ingredients, or frozen pizza with added toppings, or pizza with a store bought crust and my own toppings.

I almost never eat dessert, I’m not big on sweets, but I will occasionally eat some nuts, or peanut butter filled pretzels, or pumpkin seeds while I’m watching TV

Monday through Friday, I have a scramble at 6:15. No toast, no extras. I usually have a salad at about 11:30. and then I eat dinner between 7 and 8.

My dinner is usually a protein and a couple of vegetables. Or a salad.

My afternoon snack is usually an apple with almond butter.

I used to eat two meals a day – no sort of schedule at all. I did that ever since I was a kid. These days, I eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Sometimes an after-dinner snack. It’s made a huge difference to my energy and happiness.

My preferred mealtimes are 8, 2, and 8, but I often change it up a bit.

Depends on chef, this week I have mostly been eating square meals.