Breakfast like a King...

Breakfast like a King/Queen
Lunch like a Prince/cess
Dinner like a Pauper

Have you heard that saying?  I've read it in so many places.  I've read that for good health, we need to eat that good solid breakfast, have a good lunch, then eat a light dinner since we're probably just going to be sleeping it off anyhow.

I always forget about that because evening is when I'm home/alone and when the "I want to eat a little more heavily" seems to strike me.  I think I want to eat more solidly so that I won't be hungry and heading to the kitchen to wander around.

That said, there's lots of good food that's not heavy that would satisfy my needs.  The best would be to just deal and get over those feelings, but for today I still have them.  :)

I am already good at eating breakfast like a queen because I often eat leftovers from dinner which I guess would qualify as more hearty.  I think much of the world eats things like porridge/oats etc for breakfast and would consider beef or other protein a Kingly meal.

I eat a good lunch, generally some sort of protein, chicken salad, leftover beef, ground hamburger topped with cheese, shrimp etc.

So now what about dinner?  Eggs?  Protein pudding? Cheese and cucumber slices?  Green salad?  Greek yogurt with a few berries?  All Atkins of course.

Opinions?  Thoughts?  Validity of the King/Prince/Pauper theory?   Just something to think about on this SuperBowl Sunday.  :)

 I would think the theory makes a lot of sense.  If you front load, you will work it off during the day and not need as much at the close of the day.

But, like you, I seem to want to eat more at night.  I wonder if that is because we are relaxing in a more unstructured way the our otherwise structured day.

I really need to make new habits for evening time.

I think it is the way we were raised.  Most of were raised by having a large family dinner in the evening.  Just think of the Cleavers, Brady Bunch, Etc. 

Delores, I have to agree about what we were raised seeing as "normal".  As a child, I was the family cook during the week because my parents both worked.  Starting in 5th grade, i was responsible for having dinner on the table when the family came home at 5:30.

When I was raising my kids, dinner was sacred time.  Everyone had to be there.  We sat at the table and talked about our day.  The kids reported what they learned in school and talked about their sport teams.  Definitely no TV, just music playing in the background.

We do eat a relatively "kingly" dinner -  but it still mainly consists of protein and 1 or 2 low carb veg - sometimes some lentils or quinoa instead of a veg. I like the routine of making our daily family dinner somewhat of a privileged space in the day, and preparing foods that are a bit special, rather than just scrambling some eggs, helps create that atmosphere. I did this when I was single too - I actually like cooking for myself and prepared dinner plus planned leftovers for the next day's lunch (this was pre WLS - so I wasn't usually low-carbing).

Having said that - I pretty much eat the same way all day - breakfast is either leftovers from dinner, tuna sashimi, or a scrambled or fried egg and homemade turkey sausage patty. Occasionally ricotta or cottage cheese or the pumpkin / ricotta/egg/flaxseed "Hot cereal" recipe from about.com low carb section. (Sounds weird but is really yummy and filling!)  Lunch is leftovers or a few vegetable sticks, a hard boiled egg, and a slice of turkey from the salad bar.

And, having said THAT, I am totally stalling these days, at about 10-15 pounds from goal weight, so maybe what I do isn't all that fabulous a plan!

Margo, I completely understand about the family dinner.  I live alone so it's much easier for me to plan what I want to eat.  I'm not changing anything right now except to add in more fish to see if that will help me along to goal.

I too have that last 10-15 that I want to shed and it's a bear trying to get there.

I have never been much of a breakfast person.  I am not fond of traditional breakfast foods.  I would rather have leftovers from dinner, but it would be more like brunch.

I do like a nice lunch and dinner.  I usually fix a nice dinner because then I have family to enjoy it with me.   I do think there is validity to the the breakfast like a king theory, but I am never that hungry in the morning.   I do think a lighter/early dinner is best, but not always practical.

I do know one thing, if I eat something sweet or carby in the morning, I get ravenous quickly.

Definitely ditto on the carby morning!