Timing of meal preparation

[Guest guest]

Hi,

Just wondering if anyone else can relate to a problem I am having

with timing my meal preparation correctly so I can eat before I get

TOO hungry? I seem to have difficulty starting to prepare a meal

unless I am feeling quite hungry. And yet I like to prepare complete

meals at night so it can take about an hour of prep and cooking time.

By the time the meal is finally ready, I am starved! (And then I eat

very fast and too much food.)

As someone who has had a very screwed up relationship with food since

I was a young child, I am still trying to get a handle on this

situation. In the past, I think I always associated feeling hungry

and eating with guilt - so I resisted eating as long as I could. And

then, of course, I would eat very large quantities of whatever was

quick and easy, like pasta and meat sauce, and eat it very fast.

Now I prefer to cook more balanced meals with complex carbs, like

potatoes or brown rice, along with the protein and veggies. So I

can't " whip these up " in 15 minutes like I could before. As I said,

it can take up to an hour before the meal is ready.

My first challenge with intuitive eating was learning to separate

true hunger from emotional eating. I am getting quite good at that.

But now I need to work on figuring out at what point do I start

preparing a meal. It seems like in the case of a meal that takes an

hour of prep and cooking that I would have to start it before I am

actually hungry, and yet that seems VERY foreign to me, both as a

former compulsive overeater and even now, as an intuitive eater.

Does anyone else struggle with this?

B.