Scheduling

I am posting twice today because I feel like it is necessary to explain my eating schedule before we move on to planning menus. I will be the first to admit that I am addicted to food. My emotions drive my eating habits, with most emotions resulting in me wanting to eat. To overcome this, I like to think of how I eat as "feeding the machine." I eat on a strict schedule to make sure that I am not overeating due to boredom or my emotional state. I like to eat every 3-4 hours to make sure that I am keeping my metabolism at a semi-constant rate.

The amount of food you eat at each of these meals depends on the number of calories you are eating to lose or maintain weight. There are a lot of great websites out there that you give your information to and they determine how many calories you should be eating to safely and slowly lose weight. I am 5'6" and currently weigh 168 pounds. I am trying to lose a little weight to get ready for bathing suit season so I am currently eating 1600 calories a day and exercising at least 5 times a week for 20 minutes. When I am trying to maintain my weight lose, I eat 2000 calories.

This is my eating schedule (weekends may shift the times slightly but the overall theme is the same):
7:00 - breakfast (typically oatmeal, cereal, or toast with fruit)
10:00 - small snack (typically a small piece of fruit and a starch like crackers)
12:00 - lunch (typically leftovers from the previous night's dinner)
3:00 - small snack (typically a small piece of fruit and a starch)
6:00 - dinner (varies drastically, but we will get into this more starting tomorrow)
8:00 - small snack (usually something sweet like fruit and whipped cream)