Your recent experience rings a familiar bell. Arriving on a no food flight especially late at night seems to set me up to make unwise food choices when I finally escape the confines of airplane and terminal. It helps if I bring a little something good to eat during the flight.
Saturday night before my red eye from Lax to Atl I stopped at a Whole Foods on the Pacific Coast Highway and bought some salad: mostly potato salad with some edamame and a few small cubes of marinated tofu. It was better than anything I could purchase in the terminal and it made a big difference in how I felt.
Mind the cart please.