Sunday 10 May 2015

Sunday weigh in and altered meal plan

I weighed myself again this morning as it has been over half a week since I last weighed myself and once again was shocked to see I hadnt gained anymore weight. While I feel as though I am getting much bigger and I can see physical differences in myself, it doesnt seem to be trsnlating to the scales. Obviously my anorexia is still trying to get me to see my body through distorted eyes but I wont let this change the progress I am making in my recovery. I know I cant trust my anorexia in any eay.

My weight gain has looked liked this so far:
* I have substituted the first number with an X so you see how much weight I have gained without seeing my actual weight just incase you find that triggering.

22/4 (Wed)
X3.8 kg
(Increased intake)

26/4 (Sun)
X4.2 kg
(Increased intake)

30/4 (Wed)
X4.7 kg

3/5 (Sun)
X4.5 kg
(Increased intake)

6/5 (Wed)
X5.0 kg

10/5 (Sun)
X4.9 kg
(Increased intake)

I would like to just wait and see if I gain weight between now and Wednesday before increasing my intake again but I know that this would mean giving into my anorexia, afterall it is my anorexia telling me I dont want to increase my intake again. The real me knows that while i am managing to make some progress with my weight gain, I am not gaining weight at a fast enough rate.


So once again I know I must increase my calories, as it is the right thing for me and my recovery. I am going to add a small piece of fruit to my morning tea each day for example a mandarin, kiwi fruit or some dried apricots. I have also increased my dessert portion so that it alone now contains the same amount of energy as my other snacks and my hot chocolate is just an extra. Before now my dessert and hot chocolate together contained the same amount of calories as my others snacks.


So I have made two small changes to my old meal plan which has once again increased my overall daily intake. My updated plan is as follows;

Breakfast
~1 sachet of Uncle Toby's flavoured oats prepared with 1/2 Cup of milk and
topped with 1 small apple/banana
~2 slices of wholemeal toast with extra thickly spread nut butter

Morning Tea
~1 large serving of cake (i.e. lamington, muffin, slice)
~1 Up and Go meal supplement drink
~ 1 small piece of fruit (mandarin, kiwi fruit or dried apricots)

Lunch
~1 sandwich made with 2 slices of wholemeal bread, butter, protein (i.e. thickly cut belgium, ham or cheese) and Thickly spread tomato Relish
~1 dairy Dessert (i.e. Lerice creamed rice, Danone full fat yoghurt, Custard Snak Pack)
~1 large serving of fruit (i.e. 1 large Banana, 1 cup of grapes, 1 large pear)

Afternoon Tea
~ Chocolate bar (Picnic, Violet crumble, Kit Kat)
~ fruit (Apple, orange)
~ 1 Just juice fruit juice
or
~Chocolate bar (Twirl, Time Out, Aero)
~Vanilla yoghurt
~1 tub of apple puree, stewed rhubarb or sultanas
or
~Nut bar
~Fruit Tub
~2 sweet biscuits (anzacs, custard creams, choc chip cookies)

Tea
~Meat (chicken, fish, silverside, Duck, Venison) or casserole
~Mashed potato
~Vegetables
~Sauce
or
~Large serving of pasta or rice
~Vegetables

Dessert
~1 large serve of Pudding (i.e. Lemon, chocolate, sticky date) or 1 hot apple pie
~2 large scoops of vanilla icecream

Supper
~1 hot chocolate


What do you think of my meal plan? Do you think it is well balanced and adequate?Also, do you think it is a good idea to weigh myself twise a week as I am currently doing or would it be better for me to just do it weekly?

5 comments:

  1. I think your doing fantastic at your meal plan you've got all foods included and a variety. I found it hard gaining physically and mentally. When i was inpatient i had juice at all meals as well, the same breakfast as you plus a pottle of yogurt and juice, extra 1/2 sandwich at lunch, supplement drinks and I had a food item at supper to go with a hot chocolate also. These additions helped with gaining but I'm not going to lie....I didn't enjoy the recovering process.

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    Replies
    1. P.s Your doing so well, keep strong! :D

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    2. Thank you so much for your encouraging words. Hopefully the changes I have made will be enough to get my weight increasing again but otherwise I think I will just start adding in more drinks as you suggested as all my meals are already getting so big. :) x I hope that you are now doing well! :D

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  2. Hi Karly,
    I love reading your blog and admire you so much for what you have achieved so far. I think that the decisions you are making are really sensible and exactly what you need to recover. I also love that the foods that you eat are real, every day sort of foods, not food given a healthy makeover or falling victom to the latest health fads!! Its actually really refreshing to read :)
    As for advice on yor meal plan. I can see that you're soon going to get to a point where the volume of food that you need to eat to obtain your required calorie intake for putting on weight may be too large to eat comfortably (at least, this is what I've personaly experienced). To make it easier you could perhaps try substituting your Up & Go for a Sustagen tetra pack or even making your own Sustagen using the hospital strength formula which you can buy at your local chemist/Priceline/Chemist Warehouse (I'm also from Australia). Sustagen is a bit more nutrient dense than an Up & GO so you can get a bit more nutrition for the same volume. You could also try Ensure, Fortisip, Resource Plus but these can be quite expensive (you can buy them in bulk off the internet to save a bit of money though). Another idea would be to add a small handful of nuts to your meals (rather than fruit) as these are small and quite nutrient dense as well.
    Keep up the amazing work and best of luck with the changes.

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    Replies
    1. Thankyou so much for this wonderful advice and I will definetely consider substituting my Up and Go for a more calorie dense supplement drink when I need to increase my intake again, I certainly wouldnt want to increase the volume of food I am currently eating.

      Thanks for commenting on the fact that I eat 'real' food. Sometimes I feel as though I should try to eat 'healthier' foods as this is what so many others do in recovery but that isnt how I ate before I got sick and it has been really good for me to become comfortable with eating so many of my fear foods Again. I think that as long as I eat plenty of fruit and vegetables as well, there is nothing at all wrong with eating foods like cakes, chocolate bars and puddings If they are what I enjoy eating. :D

      Thanks so much for wishing me luck. This type of support helps me enormously whilst fighting my anorexia. I hope you are now doing really well with your recovery and that you are happy and healthy.
      <3

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