Have you ever reflected on your own healthy eating habits or patterns and wondered how you developed them? Were they influenced by nature or nurture? Here are some of my eating patterns!
When I see people eating big vegetable scrambles for breakfast I get a little queasy.
That’s just not what I would wake up craving.
But I would devour the exact same scramble for lunch no problem!
I have often wondered what creates our eating habits.
Is it nature or nurture? Are we born with certain preferences based on our own genetics or metabolism or do our cultural norms hold most of the influence on our preferences?
Obviously the foods that are traditional and/or available in different parts of the world will shape what you choose to eat for each meal as well. So I imagine it’s more nurture than nature!
My body seems to know what time it is because my cravings turn on and off as the clock strikes each hour.
If I put a bowl of spaghetti on your nightstand and woke you up at 5am, would you find that appealing? Probably not! You’d say “Um I’m sleeping, maybe later, but I’ll take some coffee or tea please.”
But at 6pm when it’s dinnertime, spaghetti sounds amazing!
I want to be very clear that these are not rules.
I like to joke that I participate in intermittent fasting – I stop eating at bedtime, fast all night, and break the fast when I wake!
But in all seriousness, I don’t believe you should look at a clock or use an external cue to determine what or when you should eat. And there are definitely days when my body craves the opposite of what it normally would (like breakfast for dinner!)
Intuitive eating encourages you to follow your hunger and cravings to eat what feels right and natural in the moment. And that’s exactly what I’m doing! (Check out Anne’s post about being Meal Hungry or Snack Hungry.)
I’ve simply noticed a pattern and find my eating habits interesting to observe. Here’s what they are:
My Healthy Eating Habits + Craving Patterns
Breakfast
I like to have my coffee before breakfast, not with. And then after I eat, I’m not really interested in coffee anymore!
It doesn’t feel like breakfast without fruit! If I am somewhere when I can only have toast or only have eggs I feel like my meal wasn’t complete. Just a small serving of fruit leaves me satisfied.
Vegetables in smoothies or on the weekends in omelets. That’s about all I can stomach!
I like dairy or eggs for my morning protein. I’m not wild about breakfast meats.
Morning Snack
I am rarely hungry for a snack in the morning no matter how big or small my breakfast was.
If I do have a smaller breakfast, I eat an early lunch.
Lunch
Lunch can have either a fruit or vegetable involved but without one or the other it doesn’t feel complete.
Lunches feel most complete with a big salad. If I have a sandwich (even one packed with vegetables) it doesn’t feel as satisfying or leave me as full.
I need to have carbohydrates at lunch in the form of bread/crackers/starches or I’ll be hungry all afternoon!
I always crave one small palate cleansing bite of sweet after lunch, whether that’s dark chocolate or something fruity. If you offered me a “big” dessert I probably would say “no thanks” with ease.
Afternoon Snack
If lunch ticks the boxes, I rarely get hungry until 5pm.
If lunch was light I’m usually hungry around 3:30 and like snacks that come in ‘handful’ form. Too much more and I’ll squash my appetite for dinner!
Wine
I am always in the mood for wine at 5:00. My urge for a glass is like a bell curve that starts at 4:30 and ends at 6. If I am busy or otherwise don’t have a drink during those times, I couldn’t care less about having one. I rarely want to drink anything after I’ve had my last bite of dinner!
Dinner
Opposite to breakfast, dinner without a vegetable doesn’t feel like dinner! And opposite to lunch, I don’t crave fruit at dinner at all (unless it’s on a salad or cooked, like grilled pineapple!)
Dessert
I like to have dessert right after dinner. If I wait more than an hour, I don’t really want it anymore because it’s too close to bedtime for me to want to eat.
Barbara says
Cold pizza for breakfast? Absolutely!
Kath Younger says
Hahaha no thank you!!
Joni says
Unlike you I love vegetables for breakfast! I usually have coffee first then breakfast. Stir fried veggies are the best..but I have to feel like putting in the effort! If I have left over salmon I add that. I get up at 5:30 so about 10 I like a snack. Cut up carrots and cucumbers with a little dip. Salad or tofu hotdog for lunch, either fish or veggies for dinner. I have been a pescatarian for 25 years so no meat for me!
Kath Younger says
Do you ever not crave veggies? Curious!
Andrea says
Fun post! When I’m working office hours I find my sweet spot (literally the time when I most feel I need a sweet ?) is always around 3:30! And I definitely intuitively crave wine at 5:00 on a Friday as well ?
Kath Younger says
I think that 3:30 coincides with the lowest energy time of day based on wake time – I always feel sleepiest then too
Michele says
Ugh – this is so hard for me! I have an eating disorder so for me ‘intuitive eating’ is like living in a country in which I don’t speak the language, it just doesn’t come natural to me. BUT with a nutritionist and therapist, we’re working on it ALL. THE. TIME.
BUT I love reading your content, it’s great to understand how you recognize intuitive eating and what you eat, thank you for sharing!
Kath Younger says
Wishing you the best in your recovery Michele!
Kelli H says
I like to have my coffee with breakfast but my husband likes it after. It’s funny how we’re all so different.
Kath Younger says
After! Interesting!
K~ says
Great post. I eat when my body tells me. Started that many years ago when a family Dr advised that 3 meals a day is not the best. Eatl ittle meals when you are hungry. For breakfast , I just had a piece of salman, helping of riced cauliflour, mashed potatoes and shrooms and rice. Finally got the coffee memo and now gift myself with water upon wakening.
Kath Younger says
We have opposite tastes! : )
Charmaine Ng | Architecture & Lifestyle Blog says
Thanks for the post – it’s the motivation I needed to eat healthier! 🙂
Charmaine Ng | Architecture & Lifestyle Blog
http://charmainenyw.com
Laura says
Every once in a blue moon my husband re-heats dinner leftovers for breakfast. Smelling stirfry and watching him eat it early in the morning honestly makes me a little queasy. Haha While I can’t “do” dinner for breakfast, I love breakfast for dinner. Scrambled eggs, toast, and applesauce is our go-to “we need dinner ready in five minutes” meal!
Kath Younger says
Haha I agree!
Kori says
This is a fun post! I used to not think I was a savory breakfast eater, but I *love* savory oatmeal, omelet, shakshuka, leftover spaghetti cooked with an egg in the center, pizza. I also adore oatmeal, yogurt and cottage cheese bowls, and the like. I enjoy having fruit on the side of my savory breakfast because I love sweet + salty! I love to include vegetables at lunch and dinner, and carbs are a must. I have mid-morning and mid-afternoon snacks, dinner, and then Matt and I enjoy an evening snack and sometimes tea while we watch a show or spend time together. I think a lot of what we learn is based on culture, society, and connotations. “Breakfast foods” can be eaten at any time, but we think of them as just for breakfast except for breakfast-for-dinner. 😉 Also, I cannot drink coffee on an empty stomach. It will upset my stomach bad, but I enjoy it after breakfast.
Kath Younger says
You know what’s funny is Mazen has so many ritual foods too. For example, he will eat a banana at bedtime but NO OTHER TIME. Sometimes I will offer him foods for snacks and he’ll say “that’s only for breakfast” or “that’s a bedtime food.” It’s interesting that even as young as 8 he has his own patterns and preferences.
sara says
I like some savory breakfasts – I do a savory oats with sweet potatoes & kale that’s so good. But I only like gentle flavours I think in the mornings. Like nothing too spicy or bitter or garlicky. Whereas for lunch or dinner, I love those flavours. I don’t eat meat but really the only time I like meaty flavours like mushrooms is for dinner. Lunchtime I love a tonne of veggies, it’s where I eat the majority of my vegetable variety. I usually batch cook a big pot of soup or in the summer I’ll do like a salad bar style of things prepped in my fridge. Whereas for dinner I’m happy having a single type of vegetable along with a starch and some protein.
Never really thought about it, and these aren’t hard/fast rules but if I’m eating by what I feel like (rather than getting creative with what I’ve got in the house), this is what I trend towards.
Alex says
I need something warm at breakfast in order to feel full. Even in summer when I often have yogurt bowls or overnight chia, I need hot coffee. I can do iced coffee if there is warm food, like scrambled eggs or warm toast, but there has to be something warm at breakfast or it doesn’t fill me up!
Kath Younger says
I totally feel ya on that! Warm breakfasts are more satisfying for me too.
Shannon says
This!!! “I need to have carbohydrates at lunch in the form of bread/crackers/starches or I’ll be hungry all afternoon!”
I am the same and when I figured it out, it was huge. A fave is to bake 1-2 sweet potatoes and then I can have a bit of them through the week with lunch. If I don’t have some sort of starchy carb with lunch, I find I am hungry all day long and snack. I am not a natural snacker – I love snack foods but eat them as a meal (like my cheese and apple breakfast today).
Eliza says
I dislike most fruits. I have a strong aversion to bananas in particular – one bite makes me want to vomit. I even feel a little sick when I see a picture of a banana. I will eat apples and berries, but that’s about it. I’ll eat vegetables for breakfast, lunch and dinner though. I don’t like lettuce, but I love chopped salads with different vegetable (especially radishes!), or vegetables cooked with scrambled eggs for breakfast. My go-to vegetables for dinners are broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, kale. tomatoes, and squashes.
Kristen says
I love dinner for breakfast and I had chicken tikka masala one day this week and rigatoni with tomato sauce and olives another morning. I’ve read that this is the sign of a true early bird — ready to eat a big meal early. And I am definitely a genetic early bird. I like to be in bed by 8 pm and I am always out of bed by 6 am without an alarm. Weekdays I am up by 5:20 am and on weekends, I meet a friend to walk the dogs at 5:45 am.
Kath Younger says
Haha those are quite the dinner foods!
coco says
i think our cravings come out of habits. if I eat one thing for weeks, my body naturally craves for it, not necessarily that my body naturally craves for it, if you know what I mean.
for example, if I go with toasts for breakfast for a while, when I have something else like oatmeal, I feel not satisfied, and the reverse is true too.
my current routine is: nutritious oatmeal for breakfast, lunches usually veggie with plant based protein with starch, and light dinner, either more oatmeal or soup. I feel the best when I eat this way so I don’t mind repeating and my body got used to it thus craves this pattern.
Kath Younger says
I think you’re right!
Tracy says
We have similar tastes for sure. Fruit with breakfast ALWAYS. Veggies at dinner but don’t really crave fruit. Fruit will sound good on a salad at lunch but not on a dinner salad. I’m also the same about coffee before breakfast and alcohol before dinner! A cocktail sounds SO good before dinner but not after. I’m definitely not a late night drinker!
Anna says
I love breakfast foods but not first thing in the morning! I do have a semi-structured eating plan but eat intuitively within it. I do intermittent fasting and aim for at least 18 hours of fasting per 24 hour period. The only thing I “miss” by doing this is a little sugar and half and half in my morning coffee so I have that as a special treat once a month or so. I usually eat twice during my eating window, whatever I want to break my fast and then whatever my partner makes for dinner – if I eat more to break my fast then I eat less at “dinner.” I almost always have something sweet after dinner, often I crave a bowl of cereal, maybe because I don’t eat it in the morning?! I drink wine in phases. I’ll drink a bottle over a week and then not open another one for a month! Or sometimes two bottles back to back and then take a month off.
Melanie says
I like having coffee immediately after my feet hit the floor, then another with breakfast, which this time of year is overnight oats (thanks to you turning me in to them years ago, Kath!) and during warmer months I’m all about Greek yogurt bowls, I’m with you – breakfast not complete without fruit!
I have a really tortured relationship with lunch, stemming for childhood, I think. School lunches were a minefield for this picky kid, and I went to a school where you were required to eat school lunch, prohibited from bringing your own (would never happen today!). Then as an adult working in an office, I found that lunch really broke my flow and momentum. I still kind of feel that way as a SAHM. It’s just a big who-cares meal for me! But of course if I skip it I wind up snacking on lots of “healthy junk.” About the only veg I have the energy for at lunch is carrot sticks unless I’m picking up a salad from my favorite place!
Dinner I’m all about veg, good grains, good protein!
Kath Younger says
I can’t believe they forced you to buy! Hope you’re eating whatevs now 🙂
Lisa says
What a fun post! I work from home and start my shift at 6am. As it’s so early, I don’t feel particularly hungry until after 9. I guess I intuitively intermittently fast without choosing to do so? I typically lean towards a fiber-dense cereal and have my coffee with and after my breakfast. It’s a nice way to sip on my coffee, digest, and pour over my tasks. Love these kind of posts from you. I still remember enjoy reading your squiggly line post. An eye opener for sure!
Robin says
The timing of the post is spot-on, as my 16-year old insists the “only” way to eat breakfast is savory leftovers. She loves leftover stuffing/dressing, sweet potatoes, stir-fry, you name it! According to her tastes, traditional breakfast foods are best left for dinner time.
Johannah Niemi says
Can you please share the recipe that is pictured under lunches and just before afternoon snacks!?
Kath Younger says
That would be the BBQ tofu bowl from Roots – a take out salad spot here in Cville!
Meghan says
Fun post! I always drink my coffee with breakfast or after. Never before. I love carbs at breakfast – half of a bagel, a muffin or cereal. I make myself eat eggs 3 times a week to cut down on carbs, but I don’t love them. I do eat egg salad on bread. That’s about non-breakfast food as I will eat.
My ideal lunch is a big salad with protein and fruit on the side. However, I rarely prep a salad to take to work. I rely on frozen “healthy” protein bowls. A few Amy’s frozen products for “special” days. I only eat apples and peaches sliced. I also must have a vegetable at dinner. We do a lot of broccoli – steamed or roasted – because that’s what the kids like.