This Sunday, 25 October, the clocks go back an hour across Europe. In Prague, Berlin, Amsterdam and Paris, 3 AM becomes 2 AM. In the UK, 2 AM becomes 1 AM. You get an extra hour of sleep.
I get an extra hour of temptation.
Saturday night is an hour longer
My rule is the pre-bed snack at 10 to 10:30 PM, never at 3 AM. The reason is in the post about why I eat at 10:30 PM. On Saturday the night between that snack and breakfast is one hour longer than usual. And on Sunday morning your body wakes up an hour “early” by the new clock, which is exactly when the kitchen starts calling.
So on Saturday I eat the snack at 10:30 PM, not 10. A slightly bigger one if I’m hungry: yogurt and a banana. Then I stay in bed.
Sunday: the wall clock decides
For the first few days your body tells you it’s an hour off. I don’t follow it. Breakfast, the mid-morning snack, lunch, the afternoon snack and dinner stay at the same times on the wall clock. If I’m truly not hungry at one of them, I eat a smaller version. I don’t skip it.
Skipping is how the day ends with one big meal, and one big meal is the thing the five-meal pattern exists to avoid.
Dark before 5 PM
On Monday 26 October the sun sets at 4:49 PM in Prague. A week earlier it was still light at a quarter to six. That’s when the cravings change: warm, heavy, comforting food starts to look very good at 5 PM.
So I plan a warm, light dinner on purpose. A soup, a baked potato, rice with poached chicken. Hot food that stays inside the fat budget.
In the US? Your turn is next week
The clocks in the US go back one week later, on Sunday 1 November. Same rules, same snack.
I’m a patient, not a doctor. This is what works for me. If you’re on insulin or diabetes medicine, ask your doctor about meal timing before you shift anything.
Stepan’s Rule: the clock on the wall decides when I eat. The extra hour in bed is for sleeping.
Does your routine wobble when the clocks change? Tell us how you handle it in the PancreasZen community, and steal someone else’s trick.