Stressed and not eating.

cecrossley

I have been on this weight loss journey for 6 months now. I've had good success, and even better once I upped my calories 4 weeks ago. However, this last week I was dealt a serious blow. One of those life changing, now what, type things.

Now, I can't eat.

i have to force myself to eat ANYthing. I, who am not a drinker, have even taken to having a beer or two for calories and comfort. I know what I'm doing is not healthy. I WANT to keep up with my diet in a healthy, long term way. I also am a runner training for a half and am up to 9 miles. I know there is no way I can keep up my running on this kind of diet.

Does anyone have any suggestions to get past the general nausea and lack of appetite caused by extreme duress?

GumballMachine

Just get yourself to eat a bite of something here and there, you will slowly work your way up to eating fairly normally again. I dealt with this a year ago when some big marital issues blew up in my face, caused a big plateau in my weight loss because I just couldn't stomach food. I was able to get back to a fairly normal place with it after a few days of just making myself eat a little something here and there. I mean, thats what worked for me, but of course the idea might not be stand-able for you and I can totally understand that. Sorry you're having a rough time with whatever's been happening.

taso42_DELETED

Sorry to hear that. I think you somehow have to address the root cause of the stress. Not sure what the cause of your stress might be, but it sounds heavy. Is it possible for you talk to a counselor or therapist? Or friend or family member?

Other than that, the only thing I can really think is to just "brute force" it and eat?

ladyhawk00

Honestly, it sounds like counseling/therapy may be in order. If it is effecting you enough emotionally that you can't physically eat, and causing you to drink when you don't normally, I'd say you need to work on sorting out the emotional side of things. It can be a huge help.

As for eating, if you can't bring yourself to eat, try at least drinking (something other than beer/alcohol.) Might try a fruit smoothie, protein shake or just chocolate milk. That will at least get some nutrition in. And try mild things, just like when you're sick - toast, oatmeal, soup, etc.

ladyhawk00

Sorry to hear that. I think you somehow have to address the root cause of the stress. Not sure what the cause of your stress might be, but it sounds heavy. Is it possible for you talk to a counselor or therapist? Or friend or family member?

Other than that, the only thing I can really think is to just "brute force" it and eat?

Get out of my head. :grumble:

elliecolorado

For me it just took time. I went through a bad break up not to long ago and I had a really hard time eating anything for a few weeks afterwords, and most of the calories I consumed came from alcohol :-( For me exercising helped a lot, it helped relieve some of the stress and gave me more of an appetite, some days it was a struggle to make myself exercise, but once I started I just put all of my aggression into that.

AngelsKisses75

Surround your self with friends and family in your time of need. Open up, let it out, work through it. Our emotions are a huge part of our health and when they run amuck look out! :noway:

I offer great virtual hugs

**Great Big Hugs**

cecrossley

I should probably stress that i have had A BEER OR TWO. Like literally, last night I had two and tonight I had one.

It is a pretty deep issue, and yes I do know exactly the root of the problem, the main issue is the lack of resolution. I definitely believe in counseling and think it could be beneficial.

My main concern is HOW to eat when you don't want to.

cecrossley

Surround your self with friends and family in your time of need. Open up, let it out, work through it. Our emotions are a huge part of our health and when they run amuck look out! :noway:

I offer great virtual hugs

**Great Big Hugs**

Thank you. I really struggle with sharing my emotions (#duh, I can't even type out the whole problem to people who I will never ever see in my life) but with this problem, I haven't even told any family or friends. I hate to put any kind of burden on others; I am typically the strong one that people come to, not the other way around. But, another part of it is that I really don't know what is going to happen. I'm sure most of you have guessed (it seems like a common theme among women) that it is marital issues. I don't believe in talking negative about people that are important to you. It would do no good to go around bashing the crap outta my husband only to a.) ruin his image to my kids (NEVER will that happen) or b.)we stay together and I have to pull a, "oh, J/K everything is totes magotes cool" If I had an idea of resolution, I would probably be more comfortable talking with others, but for now, I don't want the 20 questions with no answers crap.

ladyhawk00

I should probably stress that i have had A BEER OR TWO. Like literally, last night I had two and tonight I had one.

It is a pretty deep issue, and yes I do know exactly the root of the problem, the main issue is the lack of resolution. I definitely believe in counseling and think it could be beneficial.

My main concern is HOW to eat when you don't want to.

I didn't mean to make it sound like I thought you were binge drinking or something. Obviously, a couple of beers is no big deal. But using it for comfort is, of course, just a symptom of the real issue.

I've had these issues off and on for decades now - when I'm stressed I either stop eating, or binge. For me, it truly comes down to just deciding I have to eat, and ignoring the nausea. Usually I find that while the thought of food may make me nauseous, and even the first few bites, it never actually makes me throw up. So once I get past the first part, I feel ok. And a lot of times, the nausea actually comes from not eating - so even though I don't feel like eating, the food can actually help.

Again, try drinking something with good nutrients, until you can get some real food down.

Pebble321

I'm sorry to hear you are having a rough time, well done for looking for ways to keep strong and healthy while you work your way through the hard stuff.
My best suggestion is to find something you can eat and try to get a few healthy calories in this way. For me, this usually means toast - if I make it wholegrain with cheese and tomato, or avocado or peanut butter then it's not a bad option.
Good luck with everything, stay strong.

lunamare

Been there, done that. You need to eat to stay healthy. Try things that give you the most bang for the buck. Yogurt. Good protein, vitamins, etc. Don't bother with the fat free, you need some fat in your diet. When I was like that it was the winter so I lived on soup. Easy to get down and filled me up. Try try try to get in vegetables. Find something that you really like and eat it. Bread, don't be afraid of it. Sometimes a piece of toast and peanutbutter will sustain you. Hang in there. It won't last forever and you're strong. Whatever has you down you CAN get past it. Trust me.

kittytompsett

I have a friend who is anorexic, she is currently working hard to gain weight. When she finds it hard to eat solids she has soup or smoothies. You can really put your calories in if you blend a whole bunch of fruit with some yogurt (or if you're really low on cals then ice cream) or make a home mead soup and blend. If it's the actual psychological element of eating but you're ok drinking try drinking the soup out of a flask. Sometimes it's all about tricking your mind.

stinabear13

yeah ive felt the same way recently, husband asked for a divorce, cant handle the kids (my kids he was their step dad) and the 2nd reason was he didnt find me attractive anymore because of my weight and he wanted to go see whats out there. oddly he and i are remaining friends and hes better friend towards me than he had been as a husband. counciling can help, oddly i had a shrink on my facebook that when news broke he offered his services free of charge and over the phone to me which is unconventional but extreamly helpful for me. it took me a while to get over the sick feeling id only tried this 2 days before he asked for divorce, so yeah that where the 10 lbs came from. i still do have to force myself to eat. it can help to set up to meeta friend out somewhere and yall order food together, after the meal then order a beer and catch up with your friend, time will keep passing and the sick feeling will go away, but i know it sucks when you feel sick and partly afraid to eat because you think you might puke if you do with your stomach doing flip flops.

wendycheng

Try to make yourself eat healthy portion sizes at appropriate times. It might hurt a little but it is worth it. I was not eating for a month of extreme stress and dropped 10lbs. I cheered up and got productive eventually. I gained all the weight back immediately and then some. I got to be the heaviest I have ever been from going from starving to normal eating.

TourThePast

However, this last week I was dealt a serious blow. One of those life changing, now what, type things.

Does anyone have any suggestions to get past the general nausea and lack of appetite caused by extreme duress?

Sounds like awfully poor dietary advice, but at a time when I had completely lost my appetite after an illness I found that a glass of nice crisp dry white wine in the evening made me feel a bit less disgusted by the thought of food. Not the whole bottle though, eh!

Yes some sort of counselling might be in order in the long term, BUT remember that you've just had a major shock, your world has been shaken and it's PERFECTLY NORMAL to react to that by not feeling hungry, and by feeling angry and upset and all sorts of other reactions.

Of course it's going to upset your whole system, please don't let food issues add to your stress, you will regain your appetite but it might not happen overnight.

And yes I'm exactly the same as you, I'm always the one that people come to and never ever the one that asks for help, I still haven't told my parents that I had a fire in my house! It just seems easier to deal with things on my own. So I do know just how hard it is for you to ask for help. Good luck dealing with the nasty situation you're in.

Mom2rh

I have been going through similar stresses...with similar reaction. I know it is physically impossible to make yourself eat at a time like this. Don't stress about it. I was seriously worried that I would thwart my weight loss efforts by putting my body into starvation mode or something.

After about a week I started eating more normally. I am seeing a counselor, I saw my medical doctor and got some "pharmaceutical" help so I could sleep, etc. After about a week of no exercise, I have started exercising again.

You can get through this. Take one day at a time. Surround yourself with friends and family...do not try to do this alone.

cecrossley

Thank you, all, for the support. It's comforting to know that I am not the only one to have gone through both my circumstances and the effects. I appreciate your kind word and advice more than you can know. I managed to break 1000 calories today so that was a big #win. One day at a time.... Thanks again.

TourThePast

Breaking that 1000 calorie barrier is a huge step forward, well done!

It does get easier. I know you've heard it before and it's easy for me to say but time does eventually work its magic.

TavistockToad

I should probably stress that i have had A BEER OR TWO. Like literally, last night I had two and tonight I had one.

It is a pretty deep issue, and yes I do know exactly the root of the problem, the main issue is the lack of resolution. I definitely believe in counseling and think it could be beneficial.

My main concern is HOW to eat when you don't want to.

It sounds like you're having a really tough time, and i hope things get better for you soon.

As for the eating, i would say just go for things you like, dont worry too much about the cals at the moment, and just try and tempt yourself with your favourites? Just little portions, chunks of cheese or some biscuits etc & just try and eat a bit, knowing that even if you dont really want to, its for the good of your health. xx