How do you feed yourself?

[EsmeDolce]

This feels like a really basic question but... how do you eat? Often I don't have the energy to cook, but delivery is expensive and a lot of packaged foods seem really unhealthy. Any tips for keeping myself fed?

Thanks!

 

[xchocoholic]

When I'm up to it, I cook extra and freeze it. Bone broths are an easy staple I make regularly and freeze. Baking large quantities of meat in the oven is easy. I combine broth, precooked meat and frozen veggies for a meal. Chicken, peas and acorn squash with curry and coconut manna is yummy.

Large squashes, acorn and spagetti are easy to bake and freeze well.

Fresh fruits are an easy addition.

Several grocery stores near me carry reasonably priced rotisserie chicken. I buy at least 1 of these every week.

Other than that I keep a few gf foods like Rudi's gf bread for a quick snack.

And I've found a couple of restaurants or delis where the prices are decent just in case I run out.

Hth ... x

 

[minkeygirl]

I'm able to still cook but I know of several places that deliver prepared meals should I not be able too

I'm a senior so that may give me more options but look into Meals on Wheels which I don't think is just for seniors.

I found my county had some good resources which led me to other places that I could use and were probably not that more expensive than what I pay now. And there were more options like gluten free, low salt and diabetic Meals.


I found Google to be my best friend when looking for services. You just have to plug away

Oh and I'm housebound so if I can't get it delivered I don't eat it.

 

[minkeygirl]

@EsmeDolce I just remembered. Look into St Dalfour. They have really good meals in s tin. Tuna and pasta, salmon and veggies, a few others. IHerb and Vitacost has them.

 

[belize44]

I eat a lot of PBJ sandwiches, using gluten free bread like Ezekial with all natural peanut butter and all fruit jams. Hard boiled eggs and a banana with the sandwich are cool. This is a staple for low energy days. Homemade chicken soup can last me a week. I also use a crock pot and make one pot meals which can than be frozen. I love my crock pot! You just pile in the meat or chicken and veggies and six to eight hours later, a hot meal awaits you. I like granola with goats milk which I tolerate better than cows milk. Air popped corn is good too!

 

[WoolPippi]

I make a big pan of chicken soup once a week and it from eat twice or thrice a day.

I make it in steps:
1 put chicken in water with salt and vinegar and put on low heat. Lay on couch.
2 cut up sellery stalks with scissors, put in colander, rinse. Lay on couch
3 chop up ginger, place on top of sellery. Place paper towel on chopping plate. Lay on couch.
4 scoop scum from chicken in water and place it on paper towel. This is the hard part since you have to be up and standing at a prefixed time: just before the water boils.
5 put in sellery and ginger. Let boil and simmer for hours. Lay on couch all that time.

This is all I put in the soup. It's nutritious, the gelatine from the bones is very good for the intestines.
Having to scoop the scum is stressful, makes me cry sometimes. But it's important. The scum are big proteines your intestines can't cope with and it makes the soup taste not-good.

The big pan lives in the fridge during the week. I take out big spoons full and have them in a small pan to heat up. Microwave would work too but I'm superstitious about that machine.

Yesterday I sat on the couch listening to yet another mouse scratching in the kitchen walls... only to realize it was my little pan of soup boiling.

Besides the soup I eat chocolate ganache, whipped cream, full fat butter and sometimes rice and chips. Fish stew every other week. I'm on the mend.

 

[Sean]

A mix of lentils, split peas, and brown rice; steamed vegies; raw fruit; bit of wholemeal bread; few other bits and pieces like tomato paste, olive oil, almond meal (for calcium).

About 98% of my diet.

 

[SickOfSickness]

With some research, you can find healthier packaged foods. Unless you are avoiding 3 or more big allergen foods. Even doing gluten-free and dairy-free, there are a bunch of available choices, but it's harder if you are also avoiding soy, corn, nuts, eggs, etc.

I also heard Meals on Wheels will deliver to disabled people. And maybe do special dietary needs.

 

[brenda]

I cut an organic chicken in half and cook each half in my pressure cooker for 30 mins each then cut it all up into pieces and freeze them ready to defrost for quick meals. I freeze the bones then when I ready made stock from it and then soup the present one being squash. I also use the stock to cook soaked and sprouted quinoa with chopped leek, cauliflower, carrots, chopped chicken, topped with roast sesame seeds crushed with sea salt.

 

[ukxmrv]

Work out which foods give you the most energy and functioning for the least energy expenditure. Stop thinking about eating healthily, think more about refueling. Work out what your fuel is.
I do best on plain food and high animal protein, green veges make me worse. Salads work well for me as long as they don't have many sulfurous veges in them. Plain grilled meats (like a steak) or some chicken steamed on top of rice with veges suits me very well.

I can't digest much in the way of fruit or nuts or wholegrains.

Think about energy to make meals and weigh that up with the fueling/health requirements. Avoid things that don't help you even if they are considered "healthy".

Diet for me is a very personal thing and current ideas on healthy eating don't help me to function as well as I can.

 

[alex3619]

I make it in steps:
1 put chicken in water with salt and vinegar and put on low heat. Lay on couch.
2 cut up sellery stalks with scissors, put in colander, rinse. Lay on couch
3 chop up ginger, place on top of sellery. Place paper towel on chopping plate. Lay on couch.
4 scoop scum from chicken in water and place it on paper towel. This is the hard part since you have to be up and standing at a prefixed time: just before the water boils.
5 put in sellery and ginger. Let boil and simmer for hours. Lay on couch all that time.

This is how I cook. Do a bit, rest. Do a bit more. Rest. I only cook simple easy things. On a good day a 20 minute meal will take me 20 minutes. On a bad day it takes 4 hours. Its much more about resting than cooking.

Getting quality groceries is an issue too. If I run out of anything, being housebound, I often have to do without.

 

[Calathea]

I've tried to get Meals on Wheels in the past, but while they did deliver to younger disabled people, they weren't so hot on the special diets aspect. I'm vegan, so that was the end of that. Thankfully I have a home care package from the council as well as a partner, so I'm getting fed OK now.

Are the ME organisations aware of how widespread a problem is, how sometimes people with ME are starving to death, and campaigning about it?

 

[JalapenoLuv]

This feels like a really basic question but... how do you eat? Often I don't have the energy to cook, but delivery is expensive and a lot of packaged foods seem really unhealthy. Any tips for keeping myself fed?

Thanks!

Living alone I have to deal with this issue. Here is what I do. Cook as simply as possible, use frozen vegetables and canned fish, canned beans, organic tomato sauce from a jar and dried meat. I use a Foodsaver vacuum sealer with a wide mouth jar attachment so save unused portions in mason jars. I use a cuisinart electric kettle to boil water for tea.

 

[MikeJackmin]

Sandwiches - cold cuts, tuna, egg salad. Takes less than a minute to throw together.

Make a big bowl of rice and keep it in the fridge. Pour canned lentil soup or chili on it and microwave, or make fried rice (easy).

Crock pot - here's a simple example:
Get two or three boneless chicken breasts - just thrown them in.
Pour two jars of salsa on top.
Pour a bag of frozen corn on top.
Done.
Just plug it in, set it on low and you've got six meals ready, eight hours later.

Best tip? Get a bar stool or something similar and keep it in the kitchen. Cooking always involves waiting, and waiting means sitting, even just for that two minutes while the microwave warms your soup.

 

[CantThink]

I use an ironing chair with a little plastic footstool for my feet so that I can sit at the cooker or kitchen surface as standing usually makes my HR too high and occasionally too low.

When I'm by myself I rely on the slow cooker. I sit at the dining table to prepare vegetables like squash, carrots, celery, sweet potato and I put them in the potpot, plus stock and fresh or dried herbs and some meat like steak or chicken. When I didn't eat meat I'd add pulses and/or beans. I leave that on for hours and then have it with green beans that I put melted butter on. This type of meal usually lasts me a few days.

I also eat bagged salad with meat or fish, olive oil or dressing, and sometimes cheese or hard boiled eggs with mayo. I'll sometimes have a piece of gluten free bread with it. This is the easiest meal for me if I can't prepare anything much as you can just chuck it all on a plate.

I do like homemade soup so I sometimes eat the last of my stew as a soup either blended or chunky.

I buy gluten free breaded fish that goes in the freezer, salmon and chicken also in the freezer - all can be put in the oven and then just eat with some boiled vegetables with butter, mayo, or ketchup.

I find preparing food food a d feeding myself is pretty much what I am using my energy for... It's my priority and I hinge it around resting to prepare to do it, during it and afterwards.

 

[Valentijn]

I use an ironing chair with a little plastic footstool for my feet so that I can sit at the cooker or kitchen surface as standing usually makes my HR too high and occasionally too low.

My heart rate monitor sometimes claims that my HR is really low, when standing too long. But right before and after being "too low", it's actually too high without ever passing through the normal zone. So my theory is that my pulse is getting too weak for the monitor to pick up each heart beat (I get very narrow pulse pressure sometimes), and is only counting one-half or one-third of my heart beats. And indeed, I'll have just had a heart rate of 120, and it'll start saying 60 or 40 (even though I feel exactly the same as 120), then bounce back to 120.

If I stick on my pulse oximeter while this is happening, it also shows the 120 but has never shown the 40 or 60 readings.

 

[CantThink]

@Valentijn do you manually check? I can tell when mine goes too low as I feel a certain feeling, and when I check with my fingers sure enough my heart is beating very slowly. I do have AI thyroid disease though so I wonder if that affects it. I get it lying/half-sitting too. It's just annoying standing up as it makes me feel weak.

 

[Valentijn]

@Valentijn do you manually check? I can tell when mine goes too low as I feel a certain feeling, and when I check with my fingers sure enough my heart is beating very slowly. I do have AI thyroid disease though so I wonder if that affects it. I get it lying/half-sitting too. It's just annoying standing up as it makes me feel weak.

No, I haven't manually checked mine. I guess we have different things going on with our OI

 

[Little Bluestem]

My heart rate monitor sometimes claims that my HR is really low, when standing too long. But right before and after being "too low", it's actually too high without ever passing through the normal zone. So my theory is that my pulse is getting too weak for the monitor to pick up each heart beat (I get very narrow pulse pressure sometimes), and is only counting one-half or one-third of my heart beats. And indeed, I'll have just had a heart rate of 120, and it'll start saying 60 or 40 (even though I feel exactly the same as 120), then bounce back to 120.

If I stick on my pulse oximeter while this is happening, it also shows the 120 but has never shown the 40 or 60 readings.

I get the same type of sudden drop and then rebound in my heart rate with my pulse oximeter.

 

[Little Bluestem]

And now back to our current topic - food.

For those who can handle gluten and lactose, cooked cereal is quick to make in the microwave and inexpensive. I like to add fruit, fresh, frozen, or dried, to it.