Brinens and Things

I don't eat at *exactly* the same times of day, but my windows are narrower than yours.

A normal day for me, food-wise, looks something like this:

• Somewhere between 8:30 - 9:30: Wake up


• 10 - 11:30 (partially depending on what time I woke up): A cranberry-yogurt high-fibre granola bar


• 12 - 13: Three scoops of peanut butter on a teaspoon


• 14 - 15:30: Two chocolate-covered almonds


• 17:50 - 18:40 (aiming for 18, but often not quite managing it): Dinner (I cooked Tuesday's dinner myself, so it makes a particularly good example: one-third of a 9-inch-diameter (four-egg) crustless mushroom quiche, with a side of crispy potatoes)


• 19:15 - 20:45: Six chocolate-covered almonds


• 21 - 22: One single-serving mango-applesauce cup


• 22 - 23: One potful (maybe eight cups?) of stove-popped popcorn in canola oil


• 23:45 - 00:30: Bedtime

(Note: I am aware that this is not a great deal of food. Rest assured that my weight remains stable: I am blessed with the combination of a low metabolism and equally low appetite.

(I mean that unironically: I like that I don't need a very large food budget to survive, and that I don't have to fight my subconscious sense of how much food I should eat in order to eat the *actual* right amount.))


Common variations:

• If I'm working a lunch shift, peanut butter on a spoon is replaced by scarfing down a peanut butter granola bar in the back between customers. (Legally you don't get a meal break if your shift is five hours or less, but I am not a three-meals-a-day person and usually cannot comfortably go five waking hours without eating.)


• If I'm working a dinner shift, dinner is one hour before work starts (often crowding out the mid-afternoon chocolate), and if the dinner shift runs later than 19:30 I will usually either buy a dessert there (it's pretty cheap with an employee discount) or bring a few pieces of individually wrapped chocolate if I happen to have any lying around, again scarfing the food down in the back between customers.


• If I'm unusually hungry, I'll eat a piece of fruit in either the late afternoon or the late evening (replacing the (smaller) applesauce cup). If it's been more than a couple days since I had a piece of fruit and I'm *not* unusually hungry, I'll replace the applesauce cup *and* the popcorn with one apple.


• If I'm unusually *non*-hungry, I'll make a smaller batch of popcorn or skip it completely. I aim to have popcorn at *least* three times a week, and on as many days as possible.