Which meal is the hardest for you to control what you eat?

.....For me it is dinner.  I'm so good at work for bkfst and lunch; I bag it and stay focused.  But for some reason I get home from work and overdo the portions at dinner - even a healthy dinner can be overdone if portions are messed up.

*sigh*    just venting - thanks for listening 

May is my month - my month to stay focused at dinner.

ann

Lunch. Is always the hardest because for Lunch...It seems as if there are more options and more ways to fix a hearty unhealthy meal.

DINNER DINNER DINNER!

for me, it's definately after school snack at around 4. before 4 i'm usually only eating 500 calories and exercise for 75 minutes. so then by the time 4 comes around, i'm eating maybe 500 calories (mostly on fruits though) and then i eat a 200 cal dinner... grah

always dinner.

I have to make sure I won't be hungry after I eat (which is usually around 8) so that I won't be hungry while I'm awake (which is usually until 1 AM).

Ugh, it's so hard!

Dinner or after dinner.  I'm with you - I bag it for breakfast and lunch and do fine.  But I get home and/or get busy and off I go to the pantry for a pre-dinner snack or post-dinner nibble.  I've recently started brushing my teeth right after dinner.  You know how a lot of stuff tastes nasty right after you brush?  (Like orange juice - ICK!) I'm hoping the tooth brushing will curb the post dinner munchies.  I KNOW I'm not hungry - but DH will make popcorn or something and I will most often eat it.  Have to find a way to stop that.  He works 12 hours shifts, so by the time he gets home and showers on work days, it's 8 p.m.  I can't very well ask him NOT to eat, but I have to not join him!

Yeah for me too it's dinner! I love dinner! It is the best meal of the day by far and I do have a tendency to enjoy it a little too much haha...

For me its lunch.  I eat breakfast in my apartment and dinner is usually something small.  But at lunch I eat in the cafeteria here at school (i'm in seminary) and its hard to get the right combination of protein and vegetables.  I usually try to eat salad with vinaigrette and some turkey and cottage cheese.  However sometimes its difficult to resist the good food in the hot line.  I have to make a conscious effort not to overeat at lunch so that I can enjoy dinner.

Cynthia :-)

Dinner is definitely a problem for me if I let myself get to hungry during the day (even worse is the snacking while i prepare/wait for dinner to cook!).  We get tired, our resistance is down, etc.  In psychology it's called "resource depletion" - when we're tired or stressed, we have fewer resources to draw on for resisting our impulses.

Try eating a few almonds about a half-hour before dinner (take them to work/school with you, if it helps, and eat them before you leave for home).  Almonds are supposed to stimulate the production of some neurotransmitter that makes you feel full.

I struggle with after dinner snacks more than anything.  I'm with you on the breakfast and lunch thing... no problems.  Dinner is okay now that I have some 'fall back' meals that I can always go to even on days I don't plan.  But NOT eating after that and before bed is hard for me.  Or not over-eating I should say.  That's part of the reason I instilled my own, No Eating After 9pm rule.  Just one more way to keep me on track.

i'm ok with meals .... it's the snacking in the evening that gets me. right around 10 i get the munchies. i think it's really that i'm bored and not sure what else to do with myself. i don't usually get tired enough to sleep until midnight. hasn't been bad lately though - at least the snacks are healthier and lower in fat since i joined here.

*sigh* baby steps ....

I suggest you establish your cut-off time, and just before that time, allow yourself a small amount of something really satisfying.  I just had three little crackers with brie before my 7:30 cut off.  how could i feel deprived after that?

mine's def. after school snack and it's been like that for years. i just feel like eating and grazing from the fridge. i used to eat like a full dinner after school and then eat another dinner after that. i'm a lot better now, because i literally force myself to exit the kitchen. 

Lunch is hard for me.  I eat breakfast at home and then spend 9 hours at work, so I pack my lunch and snacks for mid-morning and afternoon.  Usually I keep it under control but on days where I don't bring enough, I have to go buy something to tide me over and that's where it can get ugly.  

breakfast actually... if i don't drink my coffee before i eat then i will eat all the fruit that i can until i feel sick... i know fruit is good but those sugary carb calories add up... i love fruit, and when theres lots in the kitchen i become overwhelmed and have to try all of it... its so frusterating... blah

lunch is easy cause its always planned, and dinner is usually pretty easy too since im never too hungry for it...

Like most of you, dinner's hardest for me, and that's because I'm usually with my fiance by that point and I want to eat what he's eating. Breakfast is usually cereal and fruit, which I love, and lunch can be various things but I almost always eat very healthily early in the day. Then my fiance comes home and wants pizza and Burger King for dinner, and I get bored from having eaten healthily all day and decide I want ice cream, and that's where the tough part comes in. 

Mines not really a meal so much as snacking at night. Letting boredom get the better of me and eating. Its def one I struggle with.

I have pretty tight control during the week.  Sometimes even forcing myself to eat enough, but on the weekends......whoa...watchout.  I Definately have trouble controlling myself on the weekends for every meal lol

Dinner or evening , sometimes I don't eat dinner so than I get hungry later and eat something. Try to eat breakfast, pack lunch and working on eating dinner.  If I eat a big lunch than I don't eat in evening.   Trying to get use to cooking for 1 person.

Breakfast is the worst for me because I'm grouchy and it's too early and I will eat anything put in front of me if I'm with other people. I also sleep in too late and don't get a chance to make something for myself. Lately I've been doing a bit better and eating high fibre cereal with banana slices and 1% milk, but it's really difficult not to eat way too much bacon or remember that I stopped using coffee cream or to eat some fruit.

Ann,

I have been known to have a similar issue.  What works for me?  Eat less calories during the day time then, and 'bank' more for dinner.  Contrary to whatever you read, I FIRMLY believe that it does not matter what time you eat the meals, as long as during the entire day, you are within the calorie-range you set in-advance.  I'm pretty sure I read that Bill Phillips (Body for Life/Eating for Life) wrote he does the same thing.  I like a bigger dinner.  And I get it by eating less calorie-dense food throughout the day. :)

Susan