Food diary

I Herbalife shake made with 250mL lite Soy milk, 1 banana, 3 strawberries, 6 ice cubes, 2 scoops of vanilla nutritional mix and 1 dash of cinnamon

2 portions of honey roasted nut oats made with 125mL soy milk, 250mL water, 1 scoop Herbalife personalised protein powder, 1 tsp vanilla essence

Baby spinach, cherry tomatoes and scrambled eggs (2 eggs, 1/4 c soy milk) on two slices of wholegrain toast and topped with tomato relish + 1 small cookies and cream protein bar

1 packet of salt and vinegar Mini rice cakes, 1 apple and 1 Chobani Strawberry yoghurt

Beef cannelloni with boiled veggies (sweet potato, carrot, broccoli and peas)

Herbalife microwave mug cake (1 egg, 1/4 cup of milk, 1 tbs protein powder, 2 tbs cookies and cream nutritional shake mix) topped with natural greek yogurt

Throughout the day I also make sure I stay hydrated with plenty of water,  herbalife peach tea and herbalife Aloe concentrate I also take 4 different supplements, 3 times per day :)

Weekend plans

Its Saturday morning and I am just writing a quick post before I head to a pump gym class. My boyfriend is working today so we were both awake relatively early this morning. I am feeling totally energised after having my morning Herbalife Shake and bowl of delicious oats and my mind is nice and clear.

My parents are coming up to Launceston (where I live) today to bring my little sister to a school event so I am going to meet them somewhere for lunch. I havent seen them all for a while now so it will be good to catch up with them, especially since tomorrow is fathers day. It is also my birthday Monday so it will be good to see my family today as otherwise I wouldnt have seen them for my birthday at all.

Tomorrow my boyfriend and I are meeting with all of his family at a restaurant for lunch too, so that we can celebrate fathers day. I love it how Nathans family are all so close and family orientated. And I also love the way his parents and siblings have accepted me into the family so well. His parents just treat me like another one of their children and I really enjoy ataying with them and spending time with them. I am also really close to Nathans siblings, especially the brother and sister that I live with all the time.

I will also have to spend a fair bit of time studying this weekend also as I have two mid semester tests next week. Surprisingly I am not really feeling stressed out about them at all and I am managing to keep a really healthy balanced life, despite having tests coming up. It helps that I am feeling relatively prepared for these tests as I have been getting lots of productive study done over the last week or so.

This time a few years ago I wouldnt have been able to have a single break from studying as the guilt would have been to much for me to deal with and my anxiety levels would have been through the roof. I am feeling great at the moment now though and know that it isnt healthy to study as much as I used to. I still study of course and do my best, however now I have other things in my life that are important too which allows me to stay happy and healthy whilst at university.

So those are my weekend plans, nothing too exciting just a quiet weekend spending time with family and my wonderful boyfriend. I hope you have a great weekend :) xx

On top of the world

After having quite a bad cold for most of last week, I have been feeling particularly incredible this week with more energy then I can remember having for a long time. I seemed to recover from my cold really quickly and I believe that this is purely due to how well I am looking after myself at the moment. Through resting, keeping up with my Herbalife products as well as eating lots of nutritious foods, I suppose my immune system is super atrong and I also providing my body with adequate energy to do what it needed to do to get well again.

My poor boyfriend hasnt been so lucky and has been sick for twice as long as me, most likely because he doesn't look after himself so well. Although I have tried to get him eating more nutritiously, I would never try to pressure him into it as I believe it is a very personal choice and everybody should have the right to choose how they live and what they eat themselves.

I have only had one work shift this week which has really suited me as it has meant that I have had heaps of time to catch up on my university work. I still cant believe just how much I am enjoying university this time around and I know that it is purely because I am now in a much better head space then I was last time I was at uni. I know it can be tempting to try and get your university course completed as soon as possible but I highly reccommend taking a break if your not happy and just focusing on getting well for a while. Studying really can be enjoyable and it should be enjoyable but you need to be in the right frame of mind for this to be possible.

I have been trying some new gym classes this week and I have loved all of them. I feel so motivated for exercise now that I am bursting with all this energy and exercise no longer feels like a chore for me. I love the way it makes me feel and I can feel myself getting fitter and stronger too. I became so weak whilst suffering from anorexia and it feels so wonderful to be slowly reversing that.

I am heading home to Swansea this weekend which I am really looking forward to as I haven't seen my family for ages. It will be great to catch up with everyone although I am a little nervous about what my family will think about my new herbalife products. I am worried that they will be really quick to judge and jump to the conclusion that it is some kind of weight loss program. Fingers crossed I am wrong and they are more open minded to what I am acfually doing Herbalife for.

I hope everyone is having a fantastic week and that your weekend is wonderful too. Stay strong and keep fighting guys... you've got this! <3 xxx

Feeling Fantastic and loving 'Herbalife'

Since starting Herbalifes wellness program, I have been overwhelmed by just how fantastic and positive I am feeling. Even though I am about 5 times busier now then I was before, I feel less tired and more full of energy then I used to. Since starting Herbalife, each day I find myself bounding out of bed at 6am ready to start my day. I am not missing my old eating routine one little bit as the foods I eat now are just as yummy, the only difference is that they are less processed and more nutritious.

The most wonderful thing about Herbalife for me by far is the fact that it is helping me to change my mindset in regards to food. For so long I have wanted nothing more then to change my realtionship with food so that I no longer feel the need to count calories and so that I start seeing food for all that it really is, which  is fuel for my body. Although I know that changing my old unhealthy mindset will take time as it is so well engrained into me, however I can feel it slowly changing and that gives me so much hope for the future.

I just feel so bubbly and happy right now and I think it is because I have such a wonderfully balanced life at the moment, which is something I have always really struggled to achieve in the past. I am studying at uni and meeting new friends as well as socialising with old ones, I am regularly going to the gym, I am spending heaps of time with my wonderful boyfriend, I am working a few shifts a week at mcdonalds (I'm glad im not working too much though as I dont think I would have enough time) and I am taking the time to cook and enjoy lovely nutricious foods to keep me fueled so that I can achieve all of this.

Would I reccommend something like Herbalife for everyone in recovery from an eating disorder?... Definetely not! I think it is the kind of thing that definetely has the potential to help in the very last stages of recovery however going on a program like this could do much more damage then harm if someone was to go onto it too early or before they were ready for it. So my advice would be to work away at recovery yourself (or with your treatment team) until you are weight restored and relatively healthy and then if you wanted to try something like Herbalife to help you make that final step to having a totally healthy relationship with food, then go for it. Maybe you will find it as helpful as I am! :)

Getting home from the gym today

Yesterdays lunch: wholemeal noodles with vegetables and 1 tin of tuna on crispbread

Todays lunch: Chicken and sweet potato curry with rice and mixed vegetables and a mug of herbalife peach tea

Today's visual food diary

BREAKFAST: Herbalife shake made with 3 scoops of vanilla nutritional mix, 1 scoop of personalized protein powder, 1 cup if almond milk, 1 banana, 7 strawberries, cinnamon and sweetner

MORNING TEA: 1 sachet of berry oats, 1diced apple and 150ml of almond milk, 1scoop of protein powder and cinnamon

LUNCH: Pasta salad (80g of pasta shells, 5 slices of diced ham, 1 boiled egg, capsicum, 2 tbs of  fat free mayo) served on a bed of baby spinach with a cup of hot peach herbalife tea

AFTERNOON TEA: 1 banana and 1 large protein bar





TEA: Vegetable Lasagna with lightly salted vegetables (carrot, broccoli, peas and sweet potato)

DESSERT: 1 red berry layered Danone Greek Ultimate Yoghurt with a large pear

Today's intake

Morning shake (6:00am)
2 scoops of french vanilla nutritional shake mix, 1 scoop of personalied protein powder, 250mL of almond milk, 1 banana, 3 strawberries

 

Morning snack: (9:00am)
Cup of herbalife peach tea and
1 portion of uncle toby's oats prepared with 150mL almond milk and mixed with 1 apple and cinnomon

Lunch (12:00)
Salt and pepper calamari with brown rice and quinoa and mixed vegetables

Afternoon tea (3:00pm)
1 tub of diced peaches, 1 protein bar and 1 boiled egg

Tea (6:00pm)
Beef and vegetable soup and 3 slices of buttered toast

Supper (8:00pm)
1 yoghurt and 2 kiwi fruits

Eating when I dont feel hungry

At the moment, I still force myself to eat practically the same amount every single day no matter how hungry I may or may not be. Lately, my appetite really has not been very good at all so I just feel as thoug I am constantly forcing food into myself all day every day. Something I wonder about is, when can I actually start just listening to my body like a normal person does and no longer force myself to eat the same amount all the time no matter what.

If a normal person is feeling unwell or not hungry, they will not always eat as much as they usually do. This does not necesarily lead to them losing weight or anything like that. It is just a part of a normal diet as far as I can tell. Sometimes people eat more or less then usual but fortunately our bodies can deal with that without anything drastic happening. And this is exactly what I would like to be able to do too.

I am getting to the stage now that I am feeling ready to start eating more intuitively but I just don't know if it is too soon. I am weight restored so no longer need to worry about gaining anymore weight but don't know if beginning to eat intuitively would be a bad decision at this stage in my recovery. I guess that the reason I am struggling is because sometimes I have an extra big lunch or something like that, which leads to me not being hungry for my usual sized afternoon tea. Other days I really just dont have a great appetite.

Perhaps a good idea would be to continue eating my 3 main meals (Breakfast, lunch and tea) as normal but then allowing myself to eat intuitively for my snacks most days. I suppose I can see how it goes anyway and if it doesn't work out in the first couple of weeks for me to do this, I can go back to eating more set amounts for a while longer. Atleast that way I know I am getting a god amount of nutritious food in for my main meals and it therefore shouldbe ok for me to just eat what I feel like for snacks.

I think that the most important thing to remember about eating intuitively is that this does not only mea eating less when you are not quite as hungry, it also involves eating more if you are extra hungry. So while it may be ok for me to not eat quite as much one day if I am not hungry, I also need to be strong enough to eat some extra food on days that I am particularly hungry. I think that doing this will be the most challenging part of eating intuiutively however it is a challenge that I am wiling to face.

What I ate today

Breakfast: 2 slices of toast with Honey nut spread and 1 sachet of honey oats prepared with milk

Morning Tea: 2 chocolate caramel biscuits and 1 banana

Lunch: 1 belgium and sauce sandwich, 1 apple and 1 marvelous creations chocolate bar

Afternoon Tea: 1 creamy raspberry and white chocolate yoghurt and fresh Strawberries

Tea: Black bean stir fry with mixed vegetables

Dessert: 1 tub of peaches, 1 apple and 1 chocolate icecream

I only just realised just how much chocolate I have eaten today. I guess that is what happens when you lwt yourself eat exactly what you feel like and you love chocolate, haha. While it may not be healthy to eat this much chocolate every single day, I also know that it wont hurt me to eat this much in one day either. To me, eating like this and not feeling too terible is all a part of having a healthy relationship with food. Some people may not agree with me and thaat is completely ok as I believe that everyone is entitled to have their own opinon. I just need to do what I think is best for me and my recovery and my life.

Paleo Diet

Last night I watched a program called 'Sunday Night' which featured a story about a man doing a Paleo diet challenge which I found quite interesting. Dieticians are very sceptical about this type of diet and I must say that I completely agree. While I had heard the term Paleo diet used before, I actually didn't realise just how restrictive the Paleo diet is. The definition of the Pa\aleo diet is as follows

Paleo diet

ˈpalɪəʊ dʌɪət/

noun

noun: Paleo diet; plural noun: Paleo diets; noun: Paleodiet; plural noun: Paleodiets; noun: Palaeo diet; plural noun:Palaeo diets

1. a diet based on the types of foods presumed to have been eaten by early humans, consisting chiefly of meat, fish, vegetables, and fruit and excluding dairy or cereal products and processed food.

I honestly think that if a person wants to limit their intake of sugar and processed foods then that is their choice however I am not convinced that going completely paleo is a very good idea for anyone. For example, I do not think that people need to cut out all dairy products, legumes and wholegrains in order to be healthy. Early humans may have survived on only meat, fruit ad vegetables however I do not think that this means that it is necessarily the best way to live. Afterall, the life expectancy of people was much less back then, than it is now.

I do not think it is a bad idea to try and limit the amount of processed foods you eat and I think it is good to eat as much nutritious food as you possibely can however I think that eating only Paleo foods is extremely restrictive and not necessarily healthy at all. One reason why I would never go fully 'Paleo' is because I simply enjoy non Paleo foods too much. Some people claim that it is better to only eat Paleo foods as all other foods are not good for our bodies. I think it is fine to eat non-Paleo foods however, as long as you eat them along with nutritious foods and in moderation.

Some people may be intollerant to various food groups and may feel better for cutting prticular foods out of their diet however I do not think that there is any need to cut the non paleo food groups out of your diet if your body seems to cope with them fine. For example, no food groups make me feel unwell or cause me digestive discomfort so I do not avoid any food groups and do not think it is necessary for me to do so. I think I have spent enough of my life worrying about food and restricting what I eat to continue doing it anymore for no good reason. 

I agree with what was written as the 'bottom line' on the UPMC website

My Bottom Line

If you want to "health up" your diet, by all means do. But rather than going paleo, try this:

• Do eat three meals a day.
• Do include some protein at every meal and snack.
• Do include foods with color at every meal or snack.
• Do include some grains at every meal and snack, such as cereal, whole grain bread, rice, or pasta.
• Do include a little fat at each meal, such as nuts, butter, salad dressing, oil , or a little mayonnaise.
• Do be selective with some of the less healthy foods.

What are your opinions on the Paleo diet? Would you ever try to follow it yourself?

Teaching children about healthy eating

While I think it is a fabulous idea to encourage children to eat healthily, I do not think that adults should tell children hat some foods are really bad.For example, my mum always says to my little sister when she eats chocolate or something like that "Amy you have to stop eating so much shit all the time." I hate it when mum says this to Amy as I do not want Amy to think that any type of food is 'shit'.

Perhaps mum has a point and Amy does not eat enough healthy foods but I do not think this is the correct way to tell a child about eating a balanced diet. I think it is important that children are taught about having a balanced diet. I do not think certain foods should be described as bad, or 'shit', but instead perhaps describes as sometimes foods, that need to be eaten along with lots of healthy and nutritious foods.

Sometimes I worry that healthy eating is stressed too much in schools and by parents these days and wonder if this could have anything to do with why eating disorders are becoming more common. In some schools, children are even taught how to count calories and read nutritional values on the backs of food packets and I definetely do not agree with this.

Children are extremely vulunerable and could easily become scared of 'unhealthy foods', if they are told that they are bad for them in the wrong way which Idefinetely do not think is healthy for a child. What is your opinion on this? Have any of you had similar experiences to the ones I have been talking about which you feel may have contributed to your eating disorder?

What is a healthy diet?

I often find myself wondering whether or not what I eat each day is healthy or if I have too many 'unhealthy foods'. The conclusion I have come to is that it is ok to eat a some 'unhealthy food' as long as you eat lots of other nutritious foods as well. For example although I eat cakes, puddings and chocolate everyday, I also eat lots of fruit and vegetables. I have atleast 4 pieces of fruit every single day and I also have lots of vegetables with my tea each night.

I also try to have alot of dairy products so that my body is recieving lots of calcium. Dairy products I have throughout the day include milk (in my oats/hot chocolate), my up and Go I have with morning Tea, my dairy desssert I have with lunch each day, icecream with my pudding at night and even in my chocolate bar that I have for afternoon Tea. Ioften also have either yoghurt or creamed rice with my afternoon tea. I also try to have some meat each day for iron as I have sufferened from iron defficiency in the past.

I think that it is important to eat foods that are typically clasified as unhealthy in recovery so that the fear associated with these foods dissapears. Also, since a high calorie diet is needed during recovery, these types of foods help a person recovering to reach their high calorie intake goals. To be completely honest, the main reason I eat typically unhealthy food in my recovery is because I really enjoy them. I have spent so much of my life stopping myself from eating nice foods that I love that I dont want to do it anymore.

So as long as I enjoy eating things like chocolate and cake, I will continue to eat them. Afterall If I wanted to spend the rest of my life worrying about what I was eating, I wouldnt be going to the effort of trying to recover from anorexia. I dont judge other people who are dedicated to eating healthily as I believe that this is a personal choice that everyone is entitled to make but I do not think that it is healthy for me to take on this kind of approach to food. So while I may not have the healthiest diet in the world, I believe that it is healthy FOR ME, which is all that really matters.

Counting Macros

An old anorexic behaviour of mine that I once obsessivelely did was counting macro-nutrients. I became obsessed with counting macro nutrients when I was in my half recovered state and made sure I ate the exact same number of macronutrients each day. It could take hours for me to make a combination of foods that fitted perfectly into my macro nutrient goal and I found myslf eatng things that I didn't even enjoy, just so that I could eat the 'correct' amounts of fats, protein and carbs eacch day.

Each day I would try to eat 75g of protein, 305g of carbohydrates and 42g of fat. I know that lots of anorexics are quite scared of carbs but I never really was. My main issue was just with fat. I rememeber going through a stage when I thought that eating 10g of fat was far too much and that I tried to limit my intake to around 5g of fat per day. It was very hard for me to increase this to 42g but I knew that 42g was still really too low.While cooking wth oil is something I still need to get more comfortable with, eating foods high in fat really does not bother me anymore at all.

While I still see how much energy things contain while grocery shopping (as I really need to see if the food item will fit into my meal plan or not), I honestly never look at the fat content anymore. The other day when I was about to have an icecream, I caught glimpse of the fat content when I pulled the icecream out of the packet and I was surprised to see that the single icecream contained more then 20g of fat. Once I would not have even been able to even consider eating something so high in fat but I can honestly say that I did not even think twise about eating it, as I seriously did not care one little bit abut how many grams of fat it contained.

If I was having a sandwich for lunch when I counted macronutients, what I put in it would not be determined by what I felt like, but instead by what macronutrients I needed to increase/decrease for that day. If I needed to eat more fat, I would put in something like peanut butter or cream cheese. f I needed more carbs I would have jam or honey and if I needed more protein I would have ham or cheese. Looking back I am soo glad that I no longer do this aa now I can just eat exactly what I feel like.

I honestly have no idea how many of each macronutrient I eat each day and I honestly don't really care. I don't really think it matters what form I am giving my body the energy in. What I think matters is that I am giving my body the energy it needs by eating both foods that are healthy and also foods that I enjoy. The only macronutrient I Sometimes need to make a conscious effort to eat is protein as this is the macronutrient that I probably eat the least of. I get most of my protein through dairy products like milk, cheese, yoghurt and icecream but I know my teas are often lacking in protein. This is why I try and have meat and vegetables at least every few nights.

If you obsessively count macronutrients like I did, I highly suggest you try and stop as it is one of the best things I have ever done. Wasting so much time each day to try and come up with a combination of foods that wll allow you to hit your maconutrient targets is just crazy and I am sure you have so many other ways you could better spend that time.  At the end of the day, as long as your diet is reasonabely balanced, all that truly matters is that you are giving your body the energy it needs in order to recover. Remember that your body is smart enough to use the energy you give it, no matter what form it may be in.

Getting unwanted recovery advice

Today I went and saw my pharmacist as she wanted me to talk to her about by skin. My skin still isn't all that nice which has been making me feel really self conscious but hopefully I will be able to get on top of it now. I realised yesterday that my shampoo had possibly been causing some of my acne problems as my skin has only got really bad since I ran out of the shampoo I was previously using and changed products. I had never considered that what I was putting in my hair could have been giving me pimples but it only makes sence, that the oils move from our hair and onto the skin and the rest of our face. The pharmacist recommended some new skin care products for me that will hopefully help me and she also reccommended a multi vitamin and zinc tablets that I will start taking each day.

I was honest with the pharmacist and explained to her that I was currently intentionally gaining weight and eating a very high calorie diet and what she then told me surprised me a lot. She told me that just because I am thin does not mean I should eat junk food like cake and chocolate and that it was still damaging my body. She told me not to eat anything that came in a wrapper as it would be bad for my body and skin. While she is entitled to her opinion, I do not think that this was a very good thing to be telling a recovering anorexic.

I have already spent years denying myself of yummy foods and I really dont want to start doing it again. I want to recover from anorexia so that I no longer have to worry about what I am eating, and being super health conscious will not allow me to do that. I know that eating a chocolate bar as well as a pudding for dessert everyday may not be healthy for the average person,  but I believe that it is fine for me to do that, atleast until I am weight restored. And once I am weight restored I would like to think that I can still have those types of foods sometimes, as they are what I enjoy. Afterall, along with the unhealthier foods I eat, I also have a lot of healthy wholegrains, fruit and vegetables as well.




She also told me that I should be doing some toning exercises so that the weight I gain wouldn't just be 'horrible flabby weight.' She said that it would be much better if I just gain the weight in muscle, instead of fat. This I really dont agree with. I know for a fact that our bodies need a certain amount of fat so that they can function optimally and only gaining muscle weight is not healthy in recovery.

Something else she told me that I dont completely agree with is that I should try and eat as little as I possibly can, and just choose the right foods so I still gain weight. I dont believe that eating tiny amounts of high calorie foods is the best way to recover from an eating disorder and gain weight.  Recovery should be about learning how to eat like a normal person again and learning to enjoy eating. It should not be about eating the least amount of food as possible. 

My anorexia was delighted when the pharmacist told me all of these things which is exactly why I am not going to listen to what she has told me to do. While we would like to think that we can always trust professionals when they give medical advice, unfortunately this is not always the case. I would say that the pharmacist has very little knowledge about eating disorders and I therefore do not think she shouId be trying to give advice to people suffering from them. 

Fortunately I am in a good enough mindset so that I know better then to listen to what the pharmacist said to me but I can remember a time when I would not have coped with this 'advice' at all. Hearing these types of things would have once been very damaging to me and my recovery, as I am sure it would be to others as well. Please, dont just automatically believe what anyone tells you about eating disorders and recovery. Even the professionals dont know everything and while we should listen to them as much as possible, it is not always sensible to do so (like with what I experienced today). If you have any doubts about anything you have been advised of in regards to your recovery, dont be afraid to get a second opinion, just in case. 

The same goes with advice and information that I give about eating disorders and recovery. what I share on my blog as well as the advice I give in emails is only based on what I have learnt through my own experiences and research. Just because something did or did not work for me in my recovery, does not necessarily mean that it will be the same for you. I love trying to help others but please always remember that I am not a professional and may not always have perfectly accurate answers to your questions. While I cant promise that my opinion on a topic will always be the best one, I can promise you that I would never make up information or intentionally share misleading information. :)

Trying to gain weight + meal plan

Gaining weight is something I know I need to do and something I do want to do even though it scares the absolute hell out of me. I reached my lowest weight after I was discharged from hospital and since then I have managed to gain 6 kilos on my own. This has been an extremely slow process for me (it has actually taken me almost a year to gain 6 kg) and I still need to gain another 6 kilos before I  am considered to have a healthy bmi. I find that while I can gain weight eating a particular amount for a short period of time, my metabolism soon 'catches up' so I need to continuously Increase my Intake to keep gaining weight.

I know that as an Inpatient I would have been forced to gain weight much faster but at the time this slow weight gain is all I could cope with. Sometimes I think that I would rather become an inpatient somewhere so that food could be taken out of my control. As I do not have private health cover I can't afford to go to a clinic and since technically besides my weight I am quite healthy Ie. My heart rate and blood pressure are both good, I can't be admitted to a hospital. While I check In to my local GP from time to time I haven't really had any professional care or support through my journey with anorexia. Everything I have been able to achieve I have done completely on my own which I am proud of.

I live on my own and have a gorgeous 18 month old kelpie dog with lots of  energy so I see walking her as unavoidable exercise. I work two part time jobs which aren't overly physically demanding. I work at a bank where I sit all day and and also in a grocery store where I stand. I do count calories as I feel I eat a lot more when I am aiming to reach a certain calorie goal for the day but I don't plan to share exact calorie  numbers here as I know it can be triggering. I am going to post a typical days intake for me and I would love any insight or any advice about what you think. I have just recently increased to this amount (in the last week) and I hope I am gaining weight. If I don't gain weight in the next week or two I will need to increase again.

Breakfast: 2 slices of toast with thickly spread peanut butter or cashew butter
And 1 portion of oats prepared with milk and topped with 1/2 banana or 1 small apple

Morning tea: 1 muffin ( or 1 'up and go' meal replacement drink)
And a piece of fruit

Lunch: 1 sandwich (butter+ cheese or cold meat and relish or Belgium and sauce or ham and cheese)
And 1 large serving of fruit (1 cup of grapes or 3 peaches or a large banana
And a dairy dessert (full fat Greek yoghurt or vanilla creamed rice or snak pack custard)

Afternoon tea: 1 large chocolate bar (50g)
And 1 Piece of fruit

Tea: pasta and vegetables or casserole and mashed potato or fish, chips and salad or rice and vegetables or chicken and cheesy vegetables or pizza or caesar salad etc.

Dessert: 1 bowl of icecream with chocolate topping or 1 hot chocolate with two sweet biscuits

As you can see I try to get a balanced diet with lots of fruit and veggies but also yummy foods that I love but went years without eating. Everyone around me comments on how much I eat but I try not to let this bother me. I have had people say things like "if I ate what you ate i would be the size of a house" and "how the hell are you so thin if you eat this much" but i just remind myself that it is exactly what my body needs.