Try This

Prepare for Your Difficult Time of Day

Eating can feel very different depending on what time of day it is, how much energy you have, what has already happened and what demands are still ahead.

Rather than expecting yourself to manage food in exactly the same way throughout the day, identify the times when eating tends to become more difficult and plan around your actual needs.

When does eating become hardest?

Think about your usual day:

Morning – little appetite, rushing, nausea, medication, sensory sensitivity or difficulty getting started?

Afternoon – busy, distracted, hyperfocused or suddenly realising you haven't eaten?

After work – mentally exhausted, overstimulated or without enough energy to cook?

Late evening – hungry after eating very little during the day, but too tired to prepare something?

There may be another difficult time that is completely individual to you.

What makes that particular time difficult?

Try looking beyond the food itself.

Could it be:

Low energy • decision fatigue • sensory overload • poor appetite • executive functioning • lack of time • stress • forgetting • limited safe foods • difficulty cooking • too many choices • being alone

Understanding the barrier can make it easier to find a strategy that actually helps.

Prepare for the difficult moment

Choose one or two things that could reduce the effort required.

You might:

Prepare something beforehand so there is less to do later.

Keep an easy or familiar snack nearby where you can see and reach it.

Use ready-made or convenience foods when cooking feels unrealistic.

Keep reliable foods available for days when choice or sensory demands feel harder.

Set a gentle reminder before you usually become very hungry or tired.

Ask someone for practical support with shopping, preparing food or eating together.

Reduce decisions by having two familiar options to choose between.

Create a backup meal that requires very little preparation.

Build Your Own Backup Plan

My difficult time of day is:

Eating becomes harder because:

One food or meal that feels manageable is:

Something I could prepare beforehand is:

Someone or something that could support me is:

Make the easier option genuinely easy

If you know that you are exhausted after work, planning an elaborate evening meal may not solve the problem.

A more useful question might be:

“What could I put in place earlier in the day so that eating later requires less thinking, planning and energy?”

Your solution does not need to look like somebody else's idea of a perfect meal.

Something accessible is more useful than something ideal that you cannot manage.

Experiment, Don't Judge

Try your plan for several days and notice what happens.

Did you eat a little earlier?
Was choosing food easier?
Did you have more energy?
Did having something prepared reduce stress?
What would make it even easier next time?

If it doesn't work, that isn't failure. It is information you can use to adjust the environment or strategy.

Work With Yourself, Not Against Yourself

Preparing for a difficult part of the day isn't giving in or taking the easy option.

It is recognising your patterns and creating support before you need it.

Plan for the energy you are likely to have — not the energy you think you should have.

Space to Breathe

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