It's Wednesday, and you know what that means: time to pick Cynthia's brain. Cynthia can answer your questions, but you gotta send them in!

I am trying to improve my eating habits, but two or three days a week, I'm just not hungry enough to reach my recommended number of calories. Should I eat when I am not hungry (but still only whole, good food) to reach a certain amount of calories a day? Is there really that point (I've heard below 1,200 calories) where my body will stop burning fat because it thinks it is starving? I want to stop eating when I am not hungry, but I don't want to eat too little and not get enough nutrients and not lose weight to boot.

You've heard right my friend!  The average 120-130 lb. lady could sit on the couch all day, pick her nose and push a clicker and still burn about 1,200 calories. If you don't consume that much, your body does go into starvation mode and will hang on to every calorie that comes in, instead of burning it as it should.  So do not go below 1,200, eat regular, small meals (yes, that is by far the best way to lose weight) and of course, eat good food. In general, the average woman should not go below about 1,400 if you want to
lose weight. If you really want to figure exactly how many calories to take in per day against your age, activity level, current weight, etc., pick up a sports nutrition book and they will outline the formulas for you. You have to know your weight and body fat percentage for the formulas.

Also, it might be possible that you are not hungry often because your meals are too big when you are eating them.

Out of curiosity, what's a day of eating with you look like exactly? Breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack, booze, everything.

I'm only giving you a day of "normal" eating. I am human and do enjoy a good sake-tini if I have a good date (if he's not a good date, I may actually need two sake-tinis), but that is my 10 percent out of my 90/10 lifestyle.

Breakfast: I eat seasonally, so in the summer it may be a slice of Ezekiel bread and raw almond butter with some fruit, while in the winter I love my steel cut oats with a sprinkling of pumpkin seeds and almond slices, agave nectar and chopped prunes.

Lunch: Some quinoa or barley salad; black bean soup; and a raw salad.

Mid-afternoon mini-meal: Plain goat yogurt with some Brazil nuts and a sprinkling of granola or guacamole with brown rice crackers and raw veggies. In the summer, I also like to eat a lot of raw foods so the meal may look more like some raw nut pate, flax seed crackers, raw sushi rolls and salad.

Din-Din: Often some grilled or pan-sauteed fish with a green, such as broccoli or sautéed green chard and a bit of sweet potato.