I recently made a social media post about clients who have benefitted from making lunch their biggest meal. This seems to be especially helpful to women, and the positive response to the post bares that out … and led me to think that if so many women are finding this to be the key to managing weight, portions and cravings … and to feeling satisfied … I needed to elaborate on the subject.
Sooooooo … how do you know if you should make lunch your biggest meal? Answer these questions:
- Are you satisfied after you eat lunch or are you still hungry - either immediately or a few hours later?
- Do you get distracted by cravings and/or hunger mid to late afternoon?
- Do you have trouble concentrating on work because you are thinking about food, hit the grocery store before dinner starving or nibble and sip (wine or beer) your way through dinner prep?
- Do you lose energy mid afternoon?
One of my clients has on-set diabetes and has had trouble getting her morning blood sugar levels low enough. When she switched her biggest meal from dinner to lunch, her morning readings were remarkably better. And she was able to cut out afternoon snacking all together. It was so simple, too. She just started eating what she ate for dinner at lunch time and what she ate for lunch at dinner time.
Another client was distracted at her desk job thinking of food all the time. She made lunch her biggest meal and eats it late morning - which knocks out morning and afternoon cravings.
One client is a corporate exec and a busy mom. She was struggling to keep her son’s food choices for dinner from causing her to gain weight. He wanted take out on nights he had basketball practice, and on nights he didn’t he wanted a heavy meal. She started eating a bigger lunch in the cafeteria at work, then sitting with her son and having soup or a salad while he ate his big dinner.
I find a lot of moms make something special for their kids anyway. Eating a larger lunch allows them to focus on their own food needs at lunch, choosing something nutritious like a piece of chicken and fish and two vegetables when they might have otherwise just picked at what was in the refrigerator, eaten a salad with no or little protein or worse … skipped lunch until they were ravenous mid or late afternoon. A bigger lunch enables them to focus on their food needs at lunch and their kids or spouse at dinner. This way, everyone’s needs are met.
If you’d like to dive deeper into what you eat and when you eat it, take my free nutrition assessment. It’s confidential and will be sent directly to me. I will contact you to schedule a time to review it by phone. Making a small change like flip-flopping lunch and dinner can impact your satisfaction, weight, health and eliminate cravings. I can help you figure out what your body needs and provide the accountability to stick to the changes.