5 meals a day?? Say What???

Ok… So I’ve been trying to do this “Eat 5-6 small meals a day” thing… and in theory… it sounds great! However, it’s a hard plan to implement if you’re not used to it. Trying to eat something healthy every 2-3 hours is actually pretty time-consuming.

Something else I’ve found is that sometimes I’m not hungry when it’s “time to eat”, so I don’t eat. I get sidetracked, then it’s a few hours later and I’m famished.  Working out the bugs is going to be hard for me, as I work nights, and it can get so busy that a lot of nurses don’t get a chance to eat.  I also try to keep (sort-of) a “day” schedule when I’m off work, so eating times are something I need to work out on a 24 hour basis. –I’m trying though, and that counts for something.

For work, I’ve gotta start taking healthy snacks to work, something I can just grab and eat on the fly if necessary, even if it’s not a “meal”; Maybe some celery, fruit, nuts, and maybe raisins. I could make a sandwich & cut it in half, or maybe keep an energy or protein bar to snack on.  Not eating anything from 5pm until 3 or 3:30 am must be taking toll on my system.

For those of you that don’t know, eating 5-6 smaller meals over 3 squares is supposed to benefit the body in a number of ways.  For starters, if you eat 2-3 big meals, your ‘primitive’ body takes that as a sign that you might not be getting food for a while and kick into “starvation/storage” mode and store those calories as fat.  As modern as we are, the body is still primitive in its existence, taking all necessary actions to try to save itself.

Eating multiple meals daily keeps your metabolic processes working at a steady rate, when your body goes into starvation mode, metabolism slows down. It also keeps your blood glucose levels at an even level throughout the day, which prevents your blood glucose from spiking & dropping.

You’re also waaay less likely to binge eat the wrong foods if your belly is constantly full.
*When you binge after going a long time between meals, those calories are stored as FAT!