1) Keeping to a good routine with mealtimes. This is difficult if my sleep pattern is all over the place, but it does help enormously.
Yeah.. Due to the circardian rhythm issues I have... even thou drugs are getting me to sleep at right now, I STILL have the circarian issue affecting the rest of my body. So even before i had this issue of no appetite.. my body wasnt like ready to eat till way late in the afternoon (circardian rthym issues can affect digestion and have ones body not wanting to eat at certain times.. apparently those with this issue also digestive processes are affected depending on when one eats).
so before I managed to bring my sleep forward (Once I did that.. I was able to come off of the other sleep things and only then needed melatonin).. my natural eatting time was
breakfast 2-3pm
Lunch 6pm (or often entirely missed due to no hunger till late)
Dinner 9-11pm ..
then sometimes I'd have a fourth meal at 2am as I'd get hungry again before sleep.. I cant do that now as if I eat that late it wil interfere with what Im doing for sleep and my sleep will go back to its old times making me have to take a lot more drugs for it again. So hence with the sleep times better.. I started then missing more meals cause of the circardian rthym issue I still do have affecting the rest of my body.
I can't remember whether you're one of the many people with ME who is overweight or underweight, but I've found that when I was overweight and unhappy about it, if I lost my appetite, then there wasn't much incentive to eat. This was often at the subconscious level. In reality, skipping meals doesn't help weight control, and it can do really peculiar things to your appetite.
Im a good weight currently and very happy with my body, hence not looking to loose any weight. (Im getting concerned I may end up loosing weight to the point where I arent happy with, my inability to make myself cook when Im not feeling hungry and hence not wanting anything..is concerning.. its hard to make oneself do it when one knows one is using so much energy to do it yet not really wanting it).
3) Having a list of the things I can manage to get down even when I'm nauseous or not hungry. At the least, this gets a bit of food into me, and at the best, I end up eating more than expected because they function as appetisers
nods yeah same here... if i can get myself to eat... sometimes i then find that it can stimulate apetite (but that dont always occur for me.. sometimes I will just take a few bites and then ditch the food out as I really really didnt feel like it). I hate to waste food (was brought up by mother that that was a big no no), so knowing I may end up wasting it.. then just further puts me off pushing myself in that way as I then hate that I waste it. (It will often then just sit in the fridge till its moldy).
This is a matter of personal taste, personal diet, and so forth, but many people find that foods which are quite high in water, fresh, small and/or a bit sweet work well. Here are some of mine (I'm vegan):
* Cucumber slices sprinkled with salt
* Small fruit such as grapes, cherries, strawberries, satsumas
* Tomatoes, perhaps cherry tomatoes
* Sugar snaps (think they're called snow peas in American, although that seems to refer to what Brits call mange tout, and no idea about Australian, but anyway, they're the peas-in-a-pod variety where you eat the whole thing without opening it up)
* Carrot sticks
* Red pepper sticks
* Houmous with the above vegetables - veg and a dip are good for nibbling on, and nibbling is good with low appetite
* Nuts e.g. almonds, sometimes mixed with raisins and the odd bit of dark chocolate
* Rice cakes, sometimes smeared with a bit of olive oil and salt, or with various spreads on top
* Ginger in various forms. I'm very fond of pickled ginger, I periodically make my own after discovering how easy and tasty it is, and will occasionally eat slices of that straight for nausea. I also love to put pickled ginger on sushi (vegetable sushi, naturally), although I rarely go to the effort of making that.
* Slices of tofu spread with various things. One variation is basil pesto, that's very light and tasty. Another variation is a bit of fresh miso paste, together with either bits of pickled ginger or bits of nori seaweed, and perhaps some sesame seeds sprinkled on top. It needs to be good-quality, fresh tofu, and I'm lucky enough to have an excellent source sold locally.
* Raita - yoghurt dip made up with plain yoghurt, a dash of olive oil, salt, and various savoury things added. E.g. cucumber and mint, cumin and tomato, almonds and raisins.
* Mint or lemon balm tea
My wants have really shifted.. last week I got a craving for celery and ended up eatting a whole celery with some ricotta (that was all I ended up having that day). Celery is usually a very boring food to me, so something which usually just wilts in my fridge untouched, only to be then all thrown away (the only way I usually eat that is in a stew). I keep my fridge well stocked esp with the heathly stuff Im supposed to be eatting, to try to tempt myself so waste a lot.. then have guilt trips of all the starving kids in the world)
Im not keen on grapes, cherries only in season here around xmas time (I dont know what their carb content is), Ive never heard of satsumas (unless we all them something else here in Aust?).
My dietitan gave me a recipe for making a strawberry thing for breakfast (it was with cottage cheese).. I thou cause i love strawberries went on a massive binge with it and ended up extremely sick as I ate 5 times more then I was supposed to do...so I havent brought strawberries again due to being so ill due to them last time. No self control with them with my low carb diet (and will eat the whole punnet in one go). I dont know but it is possible I may also have fructose intollerence (I was surprised if it was the carbs with the strawberries that I got so ill from it).
Sugar snaps (think they're called snow peas in American
They are called snow peas here in Australia too
IIm not one really for eatting rabbit food and dont find it appealling, hence I wil rarely eat something like a carrot stick, celery or snowpeas or any kind of "plain" salad. If I want to make myself eat things like that.. I usually have to make up something like a chicken salad and add ithe salad veg to it, so its appealing for me (but with going off of meat.. means I wont be eatting those as I cant make them taste nice). To get myself to eat RAW celery, to and lettuce, I used to put it in in a fresh sandwich, cover it with mayo, salt and pepper but now I cant eat bread so i stopped eatting the salad sandwiches I used to eat
I cant eat rice.. due to rice being quite high in carbs.
Raw red capsicum, is actually something I do like and will often eat. I do like yogurt dips (and it is one of the few ways I can get myself to eat celery if Im hungry).
I cant eat peanuts (give tummy pains) and wary with cashews (as they someitmes make me feel sick) but can eat almonds and do often eat those (but get bored of them if Im having them too often).
Could you tell us more about your own dietary needs and preferences?
I cant no longer eat most of my dietary preferences due to the carb issue.. Im not meant to eat pizza, corn, pasta, much potato, rice, bread (I can have one slice a day at the most but try to now avoid it due to carbs and I suspect I also have gluten intollerence), cereals, banana, sugar.. all too high in carb.. I cant eat most of the things which made up my previous diet.
Due to the sugar of fructose, Im meant to have only one small piece of fruit per day (no fruit juices, dried fruits etc)
Who has told you to go on this low-carb diet? What are their credentials? Most of the doctors I've met don't have a clue about nutrition, for instance. What sort of low-carb diet is it meant to be? A lot of people take low-carbing further than is actually necessary, making their diet lacking in nutrition and hard to stick to.
My specialist doctor, an allergist/physicain who also specialises also in hyperinsulinemia issues has me on the low carb diet. My blood lab results have shown I have hyperinsulinemia.... and this issue can cause me VERY SERIOUS issues with carbs (I'd be in hospital more or dead if it wasnt for this doctor.. Im extremely sensitive to my own high insulin.. not sure if the MCS has added to my insulin senstivity).
He also has me under two different fully qualifed nutritionists for my issue.. one who specialises in insulin issues in people and the other who specialises in those who have issues with hypoglycemia (which my blood tests have shown me as quite severely having too before).
The diet I tried with the one who specialies in hypoglycemia.. was more like a diabetic diet which ended up making me sick (with the fruit)... Diabetic diets too are too high in carbs for me. (55g carb of a chickpea salad..with no sugar.. is enough to cause me a severe enough reaction in 20mins for me to end up hospital.)
the other nutritionist who specialises in insulin issues.. actually has the same problem as me with them.. and hence put me on an extremely low (much lower then diabetic diet, low carb diet). That diet to stop any insulin spikes has actually fixed some of my symptoms and hence has allowed me to be able to come off of some of my drugs eg the one for the GERD as my symptoms vanished on this diet... no reflux if very low carb. Its helped some of my ME symptoms too.
IIf push comes to shove, you may be better off straying a bit from the diet, but at least being able to eat regularly, since I imagine that skipping meals is the last thing you want if you have insulin problems. What's the worst that can happen if you break the diet?
Without the diet I end up in hospital A LOT . A normal persons diet caused me to end up being ambulanced to hosptial 5 times in ONE year.. I get suicial on a normal carb diet, Id be dead now I believe if I still was trying to do a normal diet... within 20 mins of eatting too high carbs, I can go inoto a SEVERE MOOD swing to the point where Ive smashed car windows, hit people etc.. I get into so much trouble that suicidal mood swings then soon start to follow. Since following this diet I havent ended up in hospital or in trouble with the law once as I can now control myself as my mood is now fairly stable. (As long as I stay on my diet, II now only get mood swings in the week before my period and they arent no where like they were)
I still sometimes get into verbal fights wth my boyfiriend when I break my diet and eat pizza.. he dreads my once every few week diet breach. I always try to keep the diet breech hidden from him but he always knows cause of the mood it sends me into and I start arguing with people.. the two times Ive got into arguaments at PR have been the times Ive breeched my diet. I lost a PR friend quite a time ago when I got nasty with her due to eatting a high carb meal... we'd be working together doing a lot of good stuff before that
. The whole thing sucks.
On top of that too much carbs give more sore throats (my immune system seems to get knocked down by the carb).. GERD.. and make me more tired and unable to get out of bed in the morning.
sighs.. yeah I do have meds Im meant to take with food or meals and this no appetite thing is having me take on empty stomach.. (fortuantely it isnt irritabing my stomach). With not eatting enough righ now, I arent getting enough sodium for my POTS med to be working well (ended up on my floor today due to that).
I cant buy anything with sugar in it or articfical sweeteners...
I do thou feel better not eatting at all (thou after a while.. not eatting I know from the past will then affect my sleep but that is far better then me going back to a normal diet and ending up in all the trouble I was before.
The only thing Ive eatten in past 24 hrs is 2 eggs, a half finger sized cube of cheese and one cracker biscuit worth 7g carb. (Which I made myself eat with my boyfriends encouragement as he was eatting them)
Tonight.. I did feel like making pumpkin chips and have them covered in salt (Ive got a huge salt craving right now) but unfortunately when I tried to cut the pumpkin in thin slices..it is too hard for me to cut.. trying to do slices with a peeler was just making a mess..so Ive given up on that idea, so I may end up going without dinner tonight as it was the only thing I could think of which was tempting to me ..ohh I so much wanting salt but cant take it off a spoon.. its this need for salt which made me eat the 2 eggs yesterday, I had to have something which I could drown in salt.
