Binge eating

I have a habit of waiting WAY to long to eat, then eating everything in sight until I feel sick. (No, I don't purge) On an average day, unless I make a conscious effort to eat, I can wake up at 7am, and forget to eat until around at least 4:00pm when I am STARVING. Then I will literally sit down and consume my entire days worth of calories in one sitting-and then some. My poor body.
I have found though, if I make it a point to eat within an hour of waking up, I will get hungry again. I'm actually learning the difference between hungry and starving, and also the difference between satisfied and sickeningly full.
I'm attempting to learn the discipline of eating small meals every 3 hours or so, instead of eating huge meals. I feel a big difference. I don't get the "hunger over" feeling from food when I eat this way. I don't want to instantly go to sleep. Food actually becomes energizing. Like it's supposed to be.
I'm learning to see the signs of being hungry. For me, I don't feel it in my stomach until I'm starving, so I can't wait for that. Before that, I get tired. Weak. I get cranky. Learning these signs has helped me in HUGE ways!
I usually felt exhausted most of the time. I blamed it on weird sleeping patterns, odd work shifts...but in truth, I was attempting to keep my body going without giving it anything. I've heard the analogy that your body is like a car-it can't run without fuel-plenty of times. It's just now becoming real to me. So that's pretty awesome.
My work/life schedule sometimes requires (1-2 times a week) that I stay up for 24 hours in a row. Yesterday was a perfect example. I had Sunday night off, so I slept from 10pm-6am like a normal person. I went about my day, telling myself I'd take a nap in the evening. Then evening came. Along with the evening came cooking meals for the week, giving my dog a bath (this was absolutely necessary), doing laundry, etc. Then the evening was gone. No nap. I was nervous, because unable to take a nap, I then had to head to work from 11pm-7am. Normally, I would be so exhausted I could barely stay awake. I was tired, don't get me wrong! I'm gettin' too old for all-nighters! BUT- since I planned my meals and ate something small every 3 or so hours, my metabolism stayed up, and I wasn't nearly as exhausted as I usually am.
So, I think I'm liking this whole eating right thing! lol Let's hope I can retain these little life lessons. :D