Need help with gaining weight

[Night Elf]

I know I've asked this before but I can't remember what was recommended except avocados. I'm bulimic and on a new eating program that has me eating more than before when I was restricting so heavily. However, I've been doing this for a month and have only gained 1 lb. I'm not looking to gain weight overnight. I don't want to resort to junk food. I eat fairly healthy but I eat small amounts because that is what I'm used to doing. If I try to eat more than usual in one sitting I feel sick, so I've been eating 5-6 small meals a day. What sorts of foods can I add that are healthy? I found a good bread I like, Dave's Killer Bread, Good Seed. It's the first non-white bread I've ever liked. I am eating some avocado every day as a snack. I bought some nuts but I don't think I'm eating enough of them. I am still measuring some things such as the nuts. I eat an ounce a day. I guess I could increase that. What about a good cold cereal? I've been eating Post Selects Blueberry Morning but I'm burned out on that and need something new. I also thought about switching it up and eating oatmeal. 

A typical meal for me is about 300 calories. 

[moonflower]

Why are you measuring the nuts?  ( I don't mean this judgmentally, just as a matter of curiosity)

[Katy]

Eating higher fat foods and higher calorie density foods is how anyone gains weight.  However if you're serious about sticking to intuitive eating, stop getting on the scale and stop worrying about it at all. Eat what you crave, only until you are full, stop trying to make yourself sick, and stop thinking about the scale.

[Laurie]

If you like peanut butter or other nut butters,  I'd make some nut butter and jelly sandwiches on your new bread.    Nut butter balls are also easy to make and taste good.

Do you eat dairy products?  I think full fat dairy products are very helpful for weight gain...this has worked for my daughter.   Do you like cheesecake?   I make crustless cheesecake for her that's easy to make.  Egg custard would be really good, too.

 

[Laurie]

About the oatmeal...this might sound odd, but you can make several servings of oatmeal to keep in the refrigerator and make some instant vanilla pudding.  When you're ready to eat some oatmeal, mix in some of the pudding instead of milk and then microwave.  It makes a nice, creamy cereal!  You can include a sliced banana and/or raisins, too, if you like them warm and soft. 

[Pen]

Hmmm. Lol: Avocado is on my plan to lose weight.

Are you actively bulimic?

 I discovered that a handful of sunflower seeds has a lot of calories. 

Oatmeal with half and half and some fruit on top sounds healthy and delicious. 

Fruit with cream. 

Dave’s Killer has bagels which you could spread with cream cheese 

 

sweet or baked potato.  With butter and seasoning or sour cream and green onion. 

[katilac]

41 minutes ago, Katy said:

Eating higher fat foods and higher calorie density foods is how anyone gains weight.  However if you're serious about sticking to intuitive eating, stop getting on the scale and stop worrying about it at all. Eat what you crave, only until you are full, stop trying to make yourself sick, and stop thinking about the scale.

 

She's bulimic and I believe her eating program is medically supervised. This is a health issue for her and not something she can just stop worrying about. 

[Soror]

Why do you need to gain weight? I thought the purpose was to learn to maintain without stressing- not to gain or lose? I was thinking that was a great sign you've only gained a pound because your intuitive eating is close to how much your body needs. I must have missed where you were told you need to gain weight.

[Night Elf]

1 hour ago, moonflower said:

Why are you measuring the nuts?  ( I don't mean this judgmentally, just as a matter of curiosity)

Because I have a habit of measuring everything I eat. I'm still doing it some of the time. Dinner is the only time I stopped measuring. I'm trying to let go of measuring but there are so many changes I'm trying to make at one time that it's overwhelming. I just can't do it all at one time. I gave my My Fitness Pal so I'm not tracking anymore. That was a HUGE thing for me and I'm still reeling from that.

[Night Elf]

1 hour ago, Katy said:

Eating higher fat foods and higher calorie density foods is how anyone gains weight.  However if you're serious about sticking to intuitive eating, stop getting on the scale and stop worrying about it at all. Eat what you crave, only until you are full, stop trying to make yourself sick, and stop thinking about the scale.

I've been trying that. Giving up the scale is way harder than giving up tracking was, and that wasn't easy. I lasted 4 days without weighing but the compulsion to weigh today was just really strong so I gave in. I am trying to follow my body's cues and am trying to eat when I'm hungry and eat until I'm comfortably full but that's not really a lot of food. I got used to ignoring my hunger or using coffee or hot tea to get past it. I'm actually trying to eat every 2-3 hours. It's great when I feel hunger coming on and I try to hold off so my body can experience what it feels like. I don't let myself get too hungry though or I'll overeat which makes me feel sick. 

I don't know what higher fat foods I could add. I bought regular peanut butter whereas I was eating reduced fat peanut butter. I'm also eating more peanut butter than ever. I have a peanut butter sandwich every day. I feel very guilty about that but I'm trying to let that go. I don't  even what higher calorie density foods looks like.

[Night Elf]

50 minutes ago, Laurie said:

About the oatmeal...this might sound odd, but you can make several servings of oatmeal to keep in the refrigerator and make some instant vanilla pudding.  When you're ready to eat some oatmeal, mix in some of the pudding instead of milk and then microwave.  It makes a nice, creamy cereal!  You can include a sliced banana and/or raisins, too, if you like them warm and soft. 

Thank you, I'll try that. Sounds really good.

I've also started eating oatmeal the way I had it as a child, with butter and milk. I've been buying sugar free oatmeal since it's less calories. I don't buy the large container of oatmeal. I like the instant packets.

[Night Elf]

37 minutes ago, katilac said:

 

She's bulimic and I believe her eating program is medically supervised. This is a health issue for her and not something she can just stop worrying about. 

Thank you. I'm really trying hard and I have a wonderful support team. I need to ask my nutritionist at our next session what are calorie dense foods. She didn't mention that. Right now she's just concerned about me getting in more calories than when I was heavily restricting. It's so hard!

[Tanaqui]

Sticking out four days without weighing is still an accomplishment!

This is sort of junky, and I wouldn't advise it for most people, but I will in this situation: My mother regained a lot of her weight after chemo by drinking copious amounts of Ensure Plus (or Boost Plus if that was cheaper). If you're more okay with drinking things than eating things it might be useful as a stopgap while you build to healthy eating habits, just to help you gain a bit more.

[Night Elf]

29 minutes ago, soror said:

Why do you need to gain weight? I thought the purpose was to learn to maintain without stressing- not to gain or lose? I was thinking that was a great sign you've only gained a pound because your intuitive eating is close to how much your body needs. I must have missed where you were told you need to gain weight.

Because my weight finally dipped below my healthy weight range. That made me underweight. All 3 of my support people think I should weigh more than I do. We haven't discussed a number. In fact, they are trying to get me away from focusing on any numbers. It's a very hard habit to break.

[Night Elf]

2 minutes ago, Tanaqui said:

Sticking out four days without weighing is still an accomplishment!

This is sort of junky, and I wouldn't advise it for most people, but I will in this situation: My mother regained a lot of her weight after chemo by drinking copious amounts of Ensure Plus (or Boost Plus if that was cheaper). If you're more okay with drinking things than eating things it might be useful as a stopgap while you build to healthy eating habits, just to help you gain a bit more.

Thanks. I'll try that. Drinking some calories would be nice. I had gotten used to not drinking calories, except my coffee which was 40 calories a cup because of the half and half I use. 

[Soror]

2 minutes ago, Night Elf said:

Because my weight finally dipped below my healthy weight range. That made me underweight. All 3 of my support people think I should weigh more than I do. We haven't discussed a number. In fact, they are trying to get me away from focusing on any numbers. It's a very hard habit to break.

I'm sorry I missed that post about you being underweight! How about drinking more calories? Milkshakes and smoothies can cram a lot of calories in a smaller volume.

[Night Elf]

6 minutes ago, soror said:

I'm sorry I missed that post about you being underweight! How about drinking more calories? Milkshakes and smoothies can cram a lot of calories in a smaller volume.

It's okay. I didn't mention I was underweight until that one post. It's embarrassing. Someone suggested Ensure Plus. I'm going to buy some of those tomorrow. I might also try Carnation Breakfast drink. My dd drank those for breakfast when she was in high school and really liked them. I don't like milkshakes anymore after having gone years without one. I tried my son's recently and it was just wasn't great. I don't know if I'd like smoothies because I don't like fruity drinks. I don't drink any kind of juice. And I don't eat a lot of fruit. I prefer vegetables to fruit, although I've been eating raspberries every day. Those are delicious.

[Kassia]

You are doing fantastic!  I am so impressed with how hard you are working towards recovery.   There is no reason to feel embarrassed!  ❤️

My DH and sons were told to do things like use full-fat products (like you are doing with the peanut butter) and add butter to foods like veggies, potatoes, bread, etc. to add calories without having to eat more food.  Carnation Instant Breakfast is a great idea.

 

[Night Elf]

Thank you all for the support. It's just a tough time I'm going through and I'm having a hard time seeing to the end of it. Just asking about help to gain weight is hard because I have a fear of gaining weight. Mostly it's the stupid scale. I hate seeing that number go up. That's why I have to give up the scale completely. I know this is logical. Compulsions and obsessions don't care whether or not something is logical. I am proud I went 4 days without weighing. I'm going to try it again. My counselor and I agreed on every 3rd day so she'll be pleasantly surprised I was able to go another day. She's on vacation and I'd like to show her I'm doing well when she gets back. I don't want to backslide again.

[Tsuga]

I gain weight and feel great when I am building muscle and exercising. Weight training, as long as you can find a program that does not focus on measurements, could work well. It is especially good because you gain and look better and younger. Do not use Beach Body programs for this--while great they are numbers based and would not be mentally healthy for you.

[Night Elf]

23 minutes ago, Tsuga said:

I gain weight and feel great when I am building muscle and exercising. Weight training, as long as you can find a program that does not focus on measurements, could work well. It is especially good because you gain and look better and younger. Do not use Beach Body programs for this--while great they are numbers based and would not be mentally healthy for you.

My dd wants me to join her gym. I'm giving it some thought. As long as I'm working I don't even have the energy to walk on the treadmill. I've got 2 more weeks before my supervisor is due back and my job will drop back down to volunteer status and volunteering only 2 hours a day. Then I can get back into my groove on my treadmill which I was really enjoying.

My dd's boyfriend is super busy now but he's always said if I join their gym, he'll help me build an exercise routine using machines and free weights. That sounds so scary to me! I joined the YMCA once for their gym and loved working on the machines. It was a small place though and there was never a lot of people there. Dd's gym is always full. Seeing the number of cars in that huge parking lot is overwhelming. I'm afraid I'll feel out of place.

[Kassia]

Could you get some free weights to use at home?  It would be cheaper than the gym membership and you could use them whenever it's convenient for you.

[LadyR]

 I make what I call breakfast cookies and keep them available to snack on throughout the day for my son who is trying to gain weight.  Each cookie has about 230 calories and has oatmeal, banana, chia seeds, flake coconut, nuts, etc.  So something like that might be helpful.  You can add in other ingredients that you like.  If you'd like the recipe I use I'd be happy to pass it on to you.

[Tsuga]

The YmCA is very friendly. I think you should visit. You don't have to work out. Just ask for a tour.

[maize]

My husband drinks these for breakfast:

https://www.amazon.com/Orgain-Chocolate-11-Ounce-Container-Packaging/dp/B003FDG4K4/ref=redir_mobile_desktop?_encoding=UTF8&ref=yo_pop_d_pd_title&th=1

I like the ingredients list better than most nutrition shakes, and they taste pretty good.

I don't drink them because I eat plenty of calories and mostly just drink water, but Dh doesn't like to eat and at least this gets decent nutrients into him in the morning ?

[maize]

Cheese is calorie dense, are there any varieties you like? Maybe try some new ones? I really like cheese and fruit together.

Also lots of different types of nuts to try.

[jpinal205]

Boathouse Honey Banana Almond protein smoothie or any protein flavor. Everytime I pass the fridge, I take a sip. Usually by the end of the day I've finished one. I've struggled with anorexia for decades. I have six children and being pregnant was the only time it was completely under control. Recent stress has resulted in a flare up so I have to be extra careful. I've found liquid calories to be easier to deal with. Never bulimic so don't know if my strategies would be helpful

Susan

was JPinAL before board upgrde

[freesia]

I always gain weight when I don't restrict nuts and when I have multiple salads with ranch or blue cheese dressing. Adding guacamole helps, too. A dollop of sour cream to lots of dishes can help. And, yes, cheese 

[Night Elf]

11 hours ago, maize said:

My husband drinks these for breakfast:

https://www.amazon.com/Orgain-Chocolate-11-Ounce-Container-Packaging/dp/B003FDG4K4/ref=redir_mobile_desktop?_encoding=UTF8&ref=yo_pop_d_pd_title&th=1

I like the ingredients list better than most nutrition shakes, and they taste pretty good.

I don't drink them because I eat plenty of calories and mostly just drink water, but Dh doesn't like to eat and at least this gets decent nutrients into him in the morning ?

Oh yikes that's a crazy price. I don't think I can pay that. I bought just plain Carnation high protein drinks. I plan to have one before work since I'm working for 4 hours and don't have time to eat. I usually just take a couple of cookies to eat but I'm pretty hungry by the time I get off work. I'm hoping this drink will keep me full while I'm working.

[Night Elf]

11 hours ago, maize said:

Cheese is calorie dense, are there any varieties you like? Maybe try some new ones? I really like cheese and fruit together.

Also lots of different types of nuts to try.

A typical lunch for me is deli turkey, some type of cheese, and raspberries. I recently discovered I like havarti cheese. Maybe I'll get some more of that. I"ve been eating cheese sticks, half mozzarella and half cheddar, but they're low calorie.

[Night Elf]

9 hours ago, freesia said:

I always gain weight when I don't restrict nuts and when I have multiple salads with ranch or blue cheese dressing. Adding guacamole helps, too. A dollop of sour cream to lots of dishes can help. And, yes, cheese 

My problem with salads is I only like full salads, meaning lots of good stuff in them. I don't like the prep work to make a salad. I have to buy all the ingredients too. I like tomatoes, zucchini, yellow squash, carrots, celery, green peppers and some kind of meat like ham.  If I were to really eat a big salad a day, it would be worth it but I am not a huge salad person so I don't know if I"d want one every day. 

[Carrie12345]

I hadn't realized your weight had dipped so low, but that makes your working thread make much more sense to me!  Fully nourishing your body should definitely help with energy and physical adaptations!!!

Eggs are always top on my list.  Nuts can be fantastic, though I tend to buy a trail mix to squeeze a litttle extra fruit in.  Dh is a full-fat yogurt person, but the pickings can be slim. Most of the yogurt in my stores are low or no fat @@.   My son supplements with the Pure Protein brand protein powder.  We've tried a lot of brands, but that's the only one he's happy with.

I am a huge fan of whole grain spaghetti these days.  I find it almost impossible to overeat, but it's so yummy and packs a lot of energy!

[MaeFlowers]

2 hours ago, Night Elf said:

A typical lunch for me is deli turkey, some type of cheese, and raspberries. I recently discovered I like havarti cheese. Maybe I'll get some more of that. I"ve been eating cheese sticks, half mozzarella and half cheddar, but they're low calorie.

 

Making small changes like changing the turkey to ham can be helpful. Eat cream dressings instead of oil based dressings if you eat salad.

I dont know why you dont like milkshakes but you can add your Carnation Instant Breakfast mix to one. I drank those for breakfast when I was in middle school. 

[maize]

2 hours ago, Night Elf said:

A typical lunch for me is deli turkey, some type of cheese, and raspberries. I recently discovered I like havarti cheese. Maybe I'll get some more of that. I"ve been eating cheese sticks, half mozzarella and half cheddar, but they're low calorie.

Havarti is a great cheese!

What about creamy cheeses like brie? Double cream brie on bread is fabulous.

I'm inauthentic, I cut off the rind and just eat the creamy part ?

Pistachios are one of my favorite snacks.

Apples or bananas with peanut butter.

Ham or Turkey lunch meat spread with cream cheese and rolled up. Or a lunch meat and cream cheese sandwich.

Home made ice cream.

[kitten18]

9 hours ago, Night Elf said:

A typical lunch for me is deli turkey, some type of cheese, and raspberries. I recently discovered I like havarti cheese. Maybe I'll get some more of that. I"ve been eating cheese sticks, half mozzarella and half cheddar, but they're low calorie.

I would suggest you add a little bit of carbs to this. If you add a slice of bread or a few crackers your insulin will go up and that will help you to gain weight. 

[Night Elf]

7 minutes ago, kitten18 said:

I would suggest you add a little bit of carbs to this. If you add a slice of bread or a few crackers your insulin will go up and that will help you to gain weight. 

Yeah. I have my Dave's Killer Bread that I like so much. For a while when I was still restricting I'd have 10 pretzel sticks and half a tablespoon of hummus. It goes bad before I can finish it at only half a tablespoon a day and my pretzels went stale. Now that I'm not tracking food, I think I'll buy some more and just eat a larger portion.

[Night Elf]

9 hours ago, Carrie12345 said:

I hadn't realized your weight had dipped so low, but that makes your working thread make much more sense to me!  Fully nourishing your body should definitely help with energy and physical adaptations!!!

DH and I were talking about this last night. Before I increased my work hours, I was walking on the treadmill 45 mins. a day 4 days a week and was volunteering 6 hours a week which kept me on my feet most of the time. Now I've increased my hours to 16 a week and I'm the main worker so I'm really busy. That 4 hours goes quickly! My activity level is way up from where it was so I think that is one reason I'm having trouble gaining. 

[Night Elf]

7 hours ago, MaeFlowers said:

 

Making small changes like changing the turkey to ham can be helpful. Eat cream dressings instead of oil based dressings if you eat salad.

I dont know why you dont like milkshakes but you can add your Carnation Instant Breakfast mix to one. I drank those for breakfast when I was in middle school. 

I don't know. There's only one place I tried a milkshake and it was chocolate. I didn't give it a fair shot. I might have liked another flavor.

I bought the ready to drink Carnation breakfast essentials high protein. It was really very good! I was skeptical. ?

I prefer ranch or honey mustard dressing. I buy the regular kind, not fat free or lite or anything, but I just use such a small amount of it. I don't even pour it on my salad. I put the salad on my fork and lightly dip it into the dressing. I eat much less that way. I wonder if I'd even like dressing on my salad now. It just seems like it would be so much!

[freesia]

1 minute ago, Night Elf said:

I don't know. There's only one place I tried a milkshake and it was chocolate. I didn't give it a fair shot. I might have liked another flavor.

I bought the ready to drink Carnation breakfast essentials high protein. It was really very good! I was skeptical. ?

I prefer ranch or honey mustard dressing. I buy the regular kind, not fat free or lite or anything, but I just use such a small amount of it. I don't even pour it on my salad. I put the salad on my fork and lightly dip it into the dressing. I eat much less that way. I wonder if I'd even like dressing on my salad now. It just seems like it would be so much!

Try pouring it on. It's yummy.:-)  Too yummy.:-)

[Night Elf]

7 hours ago, maize said:

Havarti is a great cheese!

What about creamy cheeses like brie? Double cream brie on bread is fabulous.

I'm inauthentic, I cut off the rind and just eat the creamy part ?

Pistachios are one of my favorite snacks.

Apples or bananas with peanut butter.

Ham or Turkey lunch meat spread with cream cheese and rolled up. Or a lunch meat and cream cheese sandwich.

Home made ice cream.

I've never tried brie. I usually eat pepper jack when I get sub sandwiches. And I've never thought to put cream cheese with deli meat. Sounds interesting. I do like cream cheese. That's just one of those foods I didn't allow myself to eat. Gosh, I can buy bagels and cream cheese now! Now that would be really good. I can't remember the last time I had a bagel with cream cheese.

A couple of days ago I had a peanut butter and banana sandwich. It was really good.

[73349]

10 hours ago, Carrie12345 said:

 Dh is a full-fat yogurt person, but the pickings can be slim. Most of the yogurt in my stores are low or no fat @@.  

 

Yogurt is really easy to make at home, so if you have access to whole milk, you can have whole-milk yogurt.

1) Heat milk (say, 3 cups) on the stovetop to ~175F.

2) Let cool to under 110F.

3) Add at least a half cup of store-bought yogurt as starter. If you want vanilla yogurt, add a bit of sugar and vanilla extract (start with 1/8 cup and 1/2 teaspoon and see how it turns out).

4) Let stand several hours in a warm place. I leave mine in the oven overnight with just the light on.

5) Strain if you want it thick like Greek yogurt, or just move to the fridge. A sprinkle of granola on top when serving is nice if you want something a bit crunchy.

[Carrie12345]

1 minute ago, whitehawk said:

 

Yogurt is really easy to make at home, so if you have access to whole milk, you can have whole-milk yogurt.

1) Heat milk (say, 3 cups) on the stovetop to ~175F.

2) Let cool to under 110F.

3) Add at least a half cup of store-bought yogurt as starter. If you want vanilla yogurt, add a bit of sugar and vanilla extract (start with 1/8 cup and 1/2 teaspoon and see how it turns out).

4) Let stand several hours in a warm place. I leave mine in the oven overnight with just the light on.

5) Strain if you want it thick like Greek yogurt, or just move to the fridge. A sprinkle of granola on top when serving is nice if you want something a bit crunchy.

 He hates my homemade yogurt @@.  It's a crazy texture thing.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, freesia said:

Try pouring it on. It's yummy.:-)  Too yummy.:-)

Gag. I’m with Night Elf; I hate a lot of dressing! If I eat a salad out, I always request the dressing on the side because they give way too much and it’s like a bowl of dressing. Blech. 

[freesia]

3 minutes ago, Quill said:

Gag. I’m with Night Elf; I hate a lot of dressing! If I eat a salad out, I always request the dressing on the side because they give way too much and it’s like a bowl of dressing. Blech. 

 

3 minutes ago, Quill said:

Gag. I’m with Night Elf; I hate a lot of dressing! If I eat a salad out, I always request the dressing on the side because they give way too much and it’s like a bowl of dressing. Blech. 

But she didn't say she didn't like it. She said she didn't know if she'd like it. Maybe she'd love it! 

I think NE hadn't let herself try things bc if her restricting.  Part of breaking from that may be trying some of these things. And what better time to try high calorie things than when you want to gain weight. 

 

[bensonduck]

Hi friend.  Fellow adult ED sufferer here, recovering from anorexia.  Congratulations on making the choice to recover and wishing you the best of health. 

Gently, I’d think twice about embarking on any exercise program while you are in the process of ED recovery. Your body needs to rest and heal. At best, exercising just increases the amount you have to eat to gain weight and at worst, it puts more strain on your heart and other organs which need to be repaired —- and EDs can be sneaky, you don’t want your ED to turn into an exercise addiction or purging via excessive exercise.  

Have you read any of Tabitha Farrar’s blog? It’s super helpful information on ED recovery for adults. Also look at Gwyneth Olwyn’s work. Her position is that adults need 2500-3000+ daily calories depending on age and activity level to fully recover from an ED. I’m also going to drop a link to the Psychology Today Hunger Artist blog.  These three resources have been incredibly helpful for me in my recovery.

It sounds like you are already working with a professional- might they be able to help with a meal plan so you aren’t trying to wing it on the food front? Choosing between options for your meals and snacks is somewhat easier than facing a vast array of choice and trying to figure out what you want/what you are hungry for/etc.

Are you on Instagram? There is a super active ED recovery community.  As with anything on social media, it has its positives and negatives but generally is a safe positive inspiring environment.

here are the links I mentioned:

Tabitha Farrar www.tabithafarrar.com

Emily Troscianko/ Hunger Artist https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/hunger-artist/201709/12-reasons-use-meal-plan-in-recovery-anorexia

Gwyneth Olwyn - https://edinstitute.org/

wishing you the best!

[Night Elf]

8 hours ago, bensonduck said:

Hi friend.  Fellow adult ED sufferer here, recovering from anorexia.  Congratulations on making the choice to recover and wishing you the best of health. 

Gently, I’d think twice about embarking on any exercise program while you are in the process of ED recovery. Your body needs to rest and heal. At best, exercising just increases the amount you have to eat to gain weight and at worst, it puts more strain on your heart and other organs which need to be repaired —- and EDs can be sneaky, you don’t want your ED to turn into an exercise addiction or purging via excessive exercise.  

It wouldn't be a new exercise program. It's just returning to the plan I started last February. My activity increased when my hours at work increased, even more than what I was walking on the treadmill. So when I'm able to decrease my hours back down to the original schedule, I'll go back to walking on the treadmill because it made me feel good. I never walked for weight loss. I didn't want to work that hard.

Have you read any of Tabitha Farrar’s blog? It’s super helpful information on ED recovery for adults. Also look at Gwyneth Olwyn’s work. Her position is that adults need 2500-3000+ daily calories depending on age and activity level to fully recover from an ED. I’m also going to drop a link to the Psychology Today Hunger Artist blog.  These three resources have been incredibly helpful for me in my recovery.

I'll take a look. That number of calories shocks me. I could never eat that many. I'd be sick all day long. As I said above, my activity level usually isn't even moderate. It seems that amount of calories would pack on lots of weight really fast. I don't want to do that. I'd feel out of control. Just doing what I'm doing now is taking an extraordinary amount of willpower.

It sounds like you are already working with a professional- might they be able to help with a meal plan so you aren’t trying to wing it on the food front? Choosing between options for your meals and snacks is somewhat easier than facing a vast array of choice and trying to figure out what you want/what you are hungry for/etc.

I don't want my nutritionist to give me a specific meal plan of what foods to eat. That's too micromanaging. I'm working on becoming an Intuitive Eater and I'm learning to listen to my body for when and what to eat and how much. I don't have a huge variety of choices. I've just added in some new foods to what I was eating when I was restricting, and trying to eat a little more of it than usual. My nutritionist is more interested in making sure I'm eating balanced meals. So it's like 1 meat, 1 veggie, 1 starch kind of thing. I'm not seeing her a lot because I don't feel a need to. I'm feeling good about my progress.

Are you on Instagram? There is a super active ED recovery community.  As with anything on social media, it has its positives and negatives but generally is a safe positive inspiring environment.

I tried Instagram and didn't like it. 

here are the links I mentioned:

Tabitha Farrar www.tabithafarrar.com

Emily Troscianko/ Hunger Artist https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/hunger-artist/201709/12-reasons-use-meal-plan-in-recovery-anorexia

Gwyneth Olwyn - https://edinstitute.org/

wishing you the best!

Thank you for your help.

 

[Night Elf]

8 hours ago, bensonduck said:

It sounds like you are already working with a professional- might they be able to help with a meal plan so you aren’t trying to wing it on the food front? Choosing between options for your meals and snacks is somewhat easier than facing a vast array of choice and trying to figure out what you want/what you are hungry for/etc.

I also forgot to mention we use both Home Chef and Hello Fresh. We cook 5 nights a week, whether it's from our box which we get twice a month, or from former recipe cards. We even have a couple of days of either leftovers or bringing in food. This still leaves lots of good food in the fridge. I'm not flying by the seat of my pants but I am making conscious choices to make sure I'm eating what I want to eat because I wait until I'm hungry to eat. So the 12 reasons to use a meal plan link you sent to me isn't starting off helpful to me. Intuitive Eating resonates with me. It just makes so much sense and is my ideal way to live. No more worrying about counting calories, eating by the clock, choosing foods that are all low calorie, or measuring out everything I eat. A quarter cup of this. A tablespoon of that. Letting go of those things was so freeing!