I often say that I notice the time change through my appetite because I find myself hungrier earlier than the clock thinks I should be hungry but the truth is, my appetite never really respected the concept of standard meal times anyway.
When I am hungry, I am HUNGRY which translates as I must eat my meal now regardless of the time in order to keep functioning politely.
Time change or not, there are plenty of early mornings over here where I wake up between 3:00- 4:00 am absolutely famished.
It doesn’t happen all of the time and when it does happen, I can usually attribute it to a recent long run or an upping in my mileage.
Regardless of the reason, I get up to eat something…a piece of a banana, some oatmeal…anything that will calm my stomach so I can go back to sleep for a bit.
I certainly wouldn’t consider holding off until a more respectable hour.
I typically eat my pre-run breakfast anywhere between 5:30- 6:00 am which includes an unpretty bowl of oatmeal, mashed banana and peanut butter.
My second breakfast happens within twenty to thirty minutes following my run which, on average, is no later than 9:00 am.
The usual mix of cold (cooked) oatmeal with plain greek yogurt, berries and peanut butter. Lots of peanut butter.
On the days where lunch happens after 12:00 pm, that’s considered late according to my stomach.
My new favorite three-ingredient butternut squash pancake. Recipe to come next week!
There are so many days where I am eating lunch in the 11:00 hour. If I am hungry enough for lunch, why would I wait?
My appetite for apples with peanut butter knows no boundaries. My favorite combo happens more frequently than just every night.
Sometimes I just take a slice at a time throughout the day with peanut butter, other times I cut up multiple apples in one day and throw some chocolate chips into the peanut butter mix. It really depends on how hungry I am.
My clock reads 4:00 pm many nights of the week while I am eating dinner.
Chick pea/avocado mash on top of sweet potato wedges, roasted cauliflower, asparagus and Brussels sprouts.
I find it better for me to eat a meal before running around the town for after-school activities than trying to get by on a banana or some protein-type bar until an appropriate clock-determined meal time.
Leftover tri-color quinoa makes for a quick and easy meal when paired with roasted vegetables and avocado.
What’s the worst that will happen if I eat a larger meal at 4:00 pm but find myself hungry at 7:00 pm even after an evening snack?
I will have to eat again? Okay, so what’s the big deal with that?
I always have a night-time snack (hello, you just heard me say I have an apple with peanut butter every night) and some nights I have a few nighttime snacks.
Sometimes I make popcorn or decide to heat up a steam bag of veggies with some hummus.
And then sometimes, I just want handfuls of straight-up chocolate chips and nothing else will do so I don’t even try to make something else do.
I really like these Mini Dark Chocolate Bars too by the way although they don’t work when the handfuls of chips are necessary.
I don’t really care what time it is at night when I decide I need some chocolate. When I need it, I must have it otherwise I would be up all night watching the clock thinking about it.
Be sure to check out what everyone else is eating today!
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Do you follow your appetite or the clock?
Are you a chocolate chips by the handful person too?
If/when you wake up in the middle of the night hungry, do you get up to eat? What do you have?
The Cookie ChRUNicles 