Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Hungry

It's important for families to eat dinner together. Since Gary's going to be gone at dinner time (1:30ish) we're going to have to be eating at supper-time. So I sat down and made a chart of who's going to be here when, and who needs to take meals to work with them the next day, so I knew whether to cook for 3 or 8 or some number in between.

Yesterday we made a light meal for lunchtime -- just a gallon of salad and a 13x9 of tamale pie. We intended to eat dinner at suppertime. Oh my goodness! By 3:00 I was starved. I couldn't think of anything but food. I snitched Snickers. I snitched a shot of Southern Comfort. I snitched more Snickers. By 5:00 I thought I was going to fall apart from hunger. Finally we sat down to fajitas and burritos. Then I stuffed myself too full.

How do the rest of y'all eat dinner at suppertime? Gary and I both felt cruddy last night after eating a meal in the evening. Maybe it's just what you're used to?

Last week at symposium, I ate in the evening because it was the only way to work out calories -- half a bowl of cereal in the morning, a piece of fruit midday, and then dinner about 7:00. For nearly 20 years, we've been eating dinner at 1-2:00. As Gary and I have been feeling the results of old age, we eat less and less at suppertime, and let the kids eat leftovers and burritos and fried eggs and sandwiches and stuff like that for supper.

Today we went to Pizza Hut for their lunch buffet. (Thank you, Anthea!) In an attempt to try to do something for supper as an official meal, we put some leftovers out and nibbled at them together. Today when Gary and I were discussing this whole meal-schedule thing, we figure we're just going to have to eat dinner midday regardless of family togetherness. I hate that thought! But likewise, we hate the thought of the nightmares that come after eating dinner in the evening. We just can't figure out any good way to blend the need for family meals with our bodies' need for fasting in the evening.

And what's really sad is that I'm fretting about this when there are people in the world who would be tickled to pieces to have any food to eat, regardless of the time of day.

6 comments:

  1. I have the opposite problem...I sometimes have trouble getting to eat during the day because some days I am running at work...so then I grab junk to eat and then I am hungry in the evening and I eat (which is bad for me). The Snickers and the Southern Comfort...YUMMY!!!

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  2. Non-lazy days:
    Kids come home, Mom already set out chicken or hamburger to thaw and begins fixing it about an hour after they come home. This is about 3 to 4 weekdays per week.

    Lazy days:
    My two oldest sons figure out what to make.

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  3. LW -- "thaw"? Things can be thawed ahead of time? Wow -- I ought to try that. :-)

    Kirken -- I've found that if I can put off eating during the day, or just have a piece of fruit or two, I don't get nearly as starved as if I eat a small meal at lunchtime. Something about eating sends my digestive system into working and DEMANDING more more more food food food! But if I just hold off on the eating, then I can manage a reasonably sized dinner in the evening. I don't know if that's normal, or if it's just me.

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  4. Dh can easily make it all day without eating as long as he doesn't eat at lunchtime, if he does then he's starving in just a few hours. The kids and I eat lunch later, 1-2pm, and I make dinner anytime between 6 and 8pm. Our lunches aren't tiny so it's easy to make it to dinner. Because dh's work schedule is so fluid we don't really have a set time for dinner, just whenever he's home. It's always difficult to change your schedule when you've been doing something for a long time. Congratulations on the new job :)

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  5. We would have a hard time switching around. Like you, we've eaten this way for such a long time. Even when we were in PA dh came home for lunch, so we had our big meal then.

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  6. I, um, I eat when I'm hungry. If I'm not constrained by traditional meal practices (that is, if my mom is gone :P) I tend to eat something like five or six small meals throughout the day.

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