Daily diet, getting enough cals in small doses

[willjg]

Hello everyone!

I would like to ask what others do about something that I struggle with, consuming enough good calories in small proportions regularly especially during a crash that isn't too much to prepare as I am almost always on my own.

I find large meals knock me out and so try and do about 6 portioned meals a day, I regularly suffer from some nausea and find foods like nuts and seeds to be heavy (shame because they are so convenient and nutritious). I am not on any particular diet.

My only real go to foods are bananas with yoghurt and chicken and rice with a bit of olive oil and perhaps some bread/crackers with butter. I have even been resorting to home delivered oven and microwave meals just to get in the cals, trouble is they are definitely not great for recovery and often large in size.

Also I find that sometimes I wake up in the night really hungry and with an adrenaline surge, does anyone have a bedtime snack that works for them perhaps high in protein to keep their blood sugar up and even a snack for waking up in the night or early morning.

Any info really appreciated, really struggling getting a system going with this one. Thank you. Will

 

[Snowdrop]

I am in somewhat the same position. I am at home during the day alone and it is sometimes difficult to spend much time in food prep.

So I do:
cottage cheese with cantaloupe chunks
hummus with roti or crackers
watermelon that is purchased in chunks or slices
Perogies -- frozen -- they take 4 mins to boil
Avocado -- you can cut it in half and just scoop it out with a spoon although when I feel up to it I put it in pita with tomato
and maybe deli ham
A premix box of spanish rice. I take bits of it and wrap it in tortilla with cheese and heat in microwave.

My husband cooks dinner. Sometimes he makes extra to put in the freezer for me to reheat.

 

[LivingwithFibro]

I have to keep eating every 30 mins or an hour - 3 hours everyday, and sometimes I eat before going to bed otherwise I'm not able to go to sleep.

 

[L'engle]

I have to eat during the night too. What I do is cook a piece of chicken at whatever point in the day I can and then put most of it in the fridge and eat a small piece every few hours so there is always some protein in my system. Each time I eat in the night or day I try to have a bit of protein and a bit of carbohydrate so that the blood sugar stays as even as possible.

I think protein might be better used when eaten in small amounts too, but I don't have any sources on that theory.

Bananas are good but you might want to at them in small pieces in case they cause blood sugar swings. I've had dairy and fruit together cause weird blood sugar feelings, which is too bad since they are easy and tasty.

I know what you mean about some foods being too heavy! When I'm crashed particularly my appetite goes downhill. I don't usually feel hunger but I feel sick if I'm not eating pretty constantly. I don't even try to go without food before bed anymore because being woken up with the type of thing you describe is so unpleasant!

Sometimes for waking up early a very dense food like a piece of dark chocolate can be a good way to get calories with only a few bites and no cooking.

 

[panckage]

I find milk to be a great filler. I more or less use it to replace 1 meal a day (peanuts too but looks like you can't have those )

 

[Thinktank]

I always prepare a large slowcooker-dish in the morning that serves 3 meals. Just toss in some meat, vegetables, herbs or whatever is on my rotation-list. After a few hours it's done, then i set it to "low" so it stays warm rest of the day.
Preparing this takes only 5 to 10 minutes and is a way better option than any processed, pre-packaged garbagemeal.

 

[LivingwithFibro]

I always prepare a large slowcooker-dish in the morning that serves 3 meals. Just toss in some meat, vegetables, herbs or whatever is on my rotation-list. After a few hours it's done, then i set it to "low" so it stays warm rest of the day.
Preparing this takes only 5 to 10 minutes and is a way better option than any processed, pre-packaged garbagemeal.

LOVE THAT!

 

[ahmo]

I used to rely on complex carbs, but have switched to a high fat diet. Unable to return to sleep in the night, I would eat some carb. Now, it would be a spoonful of seed/nut butter. I've also found, counter-intuitively, that a sense of nausea and light-headedness indicates a need for fat. As well as avocados, you might consider sour cream, ghee, coconut oil, duck fat, fatty meat.

 

[Kati]

Cheese and cracker is a ready to eat snack.
Yogurt and fruits ( blueberry, raspberry, pineapple etc)
Granola and milk
Peanut butter toast
Bagel and cream cheese ( and strawberry jam)
Smoothie (some are ready to go, like Odwalla brand)
Bakes potatoes, or yam , reheat, add cheese, sour cream, salsa. Save some for leftovers.
Rotisserie chicken is handy.
Deli section may have all kinds of ready made healthy grain salads, like couscous.
Cold pizza.
Dried fruits: apricots, mangoes, figs, raisins are my favorite.
Corn chips and salsa/ guacamole/7 layers dip/ hummus
Cookies and milk. Especially the chewy cookies you'd find at bakeries (lots of calories intake those)


Lots of options for those who need calories. Sadly, I just need to imagine how tasty these foods sound to me, because I have to watch how much I eat.

 

[alex3619]

I think protein might be better used when eaten in small amounts too, but I don't have any sources on that theory.

In theory any more than a small amount will just be converted to sugar. So regular small amounts give you higher intake and use of actual protein. How much that is depends on liver function, I think.

 

[ghosalb]

my two cents.....

I used to eat protein rich meals 5 times a day....still hungry often....light headed when hungry....frequent low sugar attacks......gaining weight.......keep boiled egg ready for instant protein.
Then I watched Dr. Joel Furhman presentation on PBS about how to boost our immune system with right kind of food and lose weight as a bonus. Looked too good to be true. But with CFS, I thought anything that boost my immune system should be good. And his reasoning was convincing. He thinks our regular diet just don't have enough nutrients and that is why we feel hungry and feel weak when stomach is empty. And he mentioned that it is not good to have frequent small meals.....because our body is in one mode while digesting food we ate and in another mode when digestion is over...in this post digestion mode, our body goes into cell repair mode. Therefore, if our stomach is always full, it never gets to repair defective cells.

I thought I will give it a one month trial....because he said one should see effect within a month. My diet changed from : 3 eggwhites+one toast+tea (breakfast)....chicken+toast or rice+lentil+some vegetable (lunch).....yogurt or banana or some snack (snack).........salmon+rice+lentil+vegetables...boiled egg plus some snack before going to bed. I rarely ate fatty or fried food and still gained some weight.
New diet :
boiled oats+strawberry/blueberry (breakfast)....boiled kale (or equivalent green)+spicy lentil+brown rice (lunch).......half avocado+raw walnut paste+radish spread+lots of green lettuce in one thin tortilla bread sandwitch (snack)..........mushroom/tofu/red onion curry (anti-cancer per Dr.Fuhrman)+cabbage curry+some green leafy vegetable i.e. spinach (no carb dinner)....will eat fruits with some meals. Meat or fish is allowed but I became vegetarian and love it. I chose each item for each category with highest nutrient and lowest calories (not perfect but close).

results : I don't feel hungry all the time.....don't feel weak when hungry....low sugar attack very rare......can go on w/o eating for 6 hours or more...started loosing weight within a month and lost 20 pound from 155 to 135 and maintaining for 2 years......muscle tone w/o exercise (too late for my age) ........head/brain feels more clear. I am still mostly homebound and was on my way up from severe to low-moderate...so not sure how much this new diet helped my CFS but I can feel a difference......feel more at peace with life and this decease. I can easily avoid unhealthy food now.

Sorry for this long post......hope someone gets something useful out of my experience........