According to a recent NPR piece , Earhart had come up with three key rules that dictated what she ate while flying. The first was that she must eat enough to give her energy but not so much that she would become tired. Anyone who has had to pinch themselves to stay awake during an afternoon meeting understands how important this balance would be to a pilot in those days. The second rule she made sure to follow was that her food must be easy to eat. Earhart herself explained in a 1930s interview, "Since pilots have only two hands and dozens of things to do, mealtime technique has to be simple." No cutting up a steak dinner while flying across continents for this woman.