Meal ideas please!! Ed recovery

fificrazy

In recovering from an ED, there are just 2 things that matter, really:
1. no less than 2500-3000 calories a day.
2. "unhealthy"/"healthy" are orthorexic terms (and what foods these titles entail literally vary worldwide!) The body doesn't discriminate against any kind of energy, it's all just fuel and every thing you have will nourish and help encourage bodily repairs.

So this leaves meal ideas pretty wide open. Just think what are your favorite foods? Do you like salty or sweet? Hot or cold? Maybe now would be a good time to try out a new restaurant or bakery! Just find foods you really enjoy and have always gravitated toward (prior to ED!). You can essentially gain weight from any food , so you should just take this time to repair your relationship with ALL foods and really challenge yourself to try new things and become comfortable eating the amounts your body needs!

ChelseaWelseyKins

Try to go for higher calorie items I understand it's hard to eat a lot of food physically, but eating smaller amounts of food that have a high calorie count could help you out to begin your journey.

There's no way you'll go from eating so little to eating a LOT of "healthy" foods right off the bat. You'll work your way up to that once your body and mind lets you. Just try high calorie foods like nuts, peanut butter, guacamole, dried fruits, cheese, and quinoa (quinoa is 222 calories a cup when cooked and still really good for you!)

Anonycatgirl

I'm not going to try to advise you--I know too little about what you're going through and what might be useful while you're still trying to become friends with food again. I just want to wish you well in your recovery.

SomeNights246

Tilapia with salsa, grilled veggies. Can't believe people are asking yoy to eat sweets and high fat foods.

Also try granola andfruit with almond milk.

Kind bars and an apple make a fine snack.

Ready Pac salads or wraps

Message me if you need other ideas.

Salads? Veggies? For an anorexic in recovery? Seriously. Maybe do some research before responding. Those are not the sorts of foods that are going to help her gain weight. And actually, high fat foods and some sweets are generally encouraged during weight recovery. Also, she needs to be overcoming fear foods, not continuing that behaviour. Food should not be feared and part of recovery is dealing with that area.

This. So much.

Although, I will say that in the beginning of my recovery, I couldn't do dairy. It would have me running to the bathroom and/or in a lot of pain in my stomach area. There are similar foods that will help, though. Almond milk, for example (sweetened would be ideal in recovery).

Best bet, OP, is a nutritionist. They will usually help you form a meal plan. They might even form one for you, that way they can be sure you're getting enough for recovery.

A tip I can give though, is early in recovery, you might find it beneficial to drink a lot of your calories. It might hurt to eat. It definitely did for me. In the beginning, I lived off almond milk, juice, smoothies, and creamer in my coffee.

swertyqwerty

If you look up "Harvard nutrition" they have a recommended plate which shows you how much protein, veg, etc.. you should eat in a meal. It's useful to get ideas.

SomeNights246

I've been in recovery for 3 years now, so hopefully I can offer some input

The people saying "healthy foods" mean well, but are misinformed about what recovery actually means. I would try to incorporate a wide variety of foods, try things that you would have previously avoided! The goal here is not only to get you to a healthy weight, but to repair your relationship with food. Maybe through this process you'll find some things that you really love.

For some reason when I first started on the recovery path, I was in love with tacos and all things Mexican food. I would have never eaten that stuff before because I was afraid of the fat content.

To start, it would be a great goal to incorporate a protein, fat and carbs into most meals. Pizza, for example has all these things

I wish you the best of luck.

EDIT: I just realized it's actually been 4 years now! Wow!

I find that a lot of us, in recovery, start craving all kinds of random foods that we may not even have liked before! I went through a salmon phase. I hate seafood, but during recovery, I ate a lot of it at one point. Once I introduced solids again in normal amounts, I ate a LOT of bananas and peanut butter. Bananas and peanut butter seem to be common foods for us in recovery...

The best advice, other than what I've said, that I can give is... to just... learn to trust yourself. Your body knows what it needs. And in recovery, it is going to go through periods of needing a lot of protein, and periods of needing a lot of calcium or sugar, etc. Part of recovery is learning to trust it.

And to the person I quoted, congrats on 4 years. Make it 5!

notwhatyouthink

I know that in my EXPERIENCE, even an egg be too much.Amazes me that im covertly being called ignorant and openly attacked for my suggestions. Im appalled that she is being encouraged to eat junk food. Weight can be gained from clean eating.

notwhatyouthink

You explained it better than i could. Thank you.