Avoidance of fat

[Fuzzyface]

Please can someone tell me if anyone has tips on reintroducing fat into diet? Currently I can only stomach omega supplements.

[lillyofthevalley37]

Organic flaxseed oil capsules would be very beneficial

[Audash]

In my recovery, I bought an actifry (tefal.com/actifry-en). The principle is that to "fry" a all meal you need only one spound of oil. I don't know what you usually eat but deep in my disorder I was only eating vegetables. And with this, I progressively reeintroduce fat. I was always eating vegetable BUT with a small amount of oil olive.

(I have no partnairship with Tefal don't get me wrong 😉)

The second thing I did is switching from no fat to low fat. For cheese for example. I reintroduce cheese but eating the low fat version. This was already a very very big step. Or for yogurt or milk.

But anyway, whatever the thing you are gooing to reintroduce it is normal to have some bloating for example. I was so bloated in my recovery, as I said before I was only eating vegetables for months so the first time I reintroduce something else, my body was like "what the fuck is this thing ? how do I process this ?" I know how you feel, I know this is hard.

[Fuzzyface in reply to Audash]

Thank you this is very useful. I eat large quantities of low cal 0% fat stuff like yoghurt fruit and veg. So my stomach expects vast quantities of food in one sitting. This fills me with fear each time I try something different as I feel I’m going to overeat every time.

[Audash in reply to Fuzzyface]

I understand it so well...

I was doing guided mediation when the fear was too high. I used some YouTube videos and it was very efficient to calm me down.

You don't have to go cold turkey but it is also okay to overeat in recovery. I was overeating in recovery too. Every step is a step. Big or small step, it is still a step in recovery

I was convinced that I would never be a "normal" eater anymore but now my digestion is fine, my hunger cues are normal (no urge to eat, I eat a normal amount)

[Fuzzyface in reply to Audash]

Ok so how did you get your portions down?

[Audash in reply to Fuzzyface]

actually I didn't do anything for that.

as soon as you have no longer physical restriction (by avoiding certain types of food) and mental restriction (by saying to you "I shouldn't", with guilt and shame), your body will trust you again and you will have no signal anymore.

in my recovery I was overeating a lot of bread and wrap. I litterally couldn't stop myself from eating the all baguette or the all package of wrap in a row. Now, it's okay. I can eat just a slide or it can be on the table in front of me and I just don't want eat. Because my body does not need this amount of carbs anymore and as in my mind I think "okay if I want some I can have some", it's like it is not attractive anymore...

Imagine : you are completly broke, you didn't have enough money to live for months/years. If I come to you with a big wallet of money and say it's for you. You will urge to take it all. And if you don't know when it is the next time I will come, maybe tomorrow maybe in two weeks, each time I will come with the wallet, you will urge to take the money even if you don't need this amount. Okay but now, I tell you okay the wallet is here, you can take the money whenever you want and I will refill it constantly with all the money you need. At first, you won't trust me so you will continue to take too much money. But with the time, you will see that there is always money in the wallet. So you don't need to take this much money each time. So you will end taking just what you need.

It is exactly what happen to me with the food...

[Hidden in reply to Fuzzyface]

Keeping portions down is not anything you need to worry about in recovery, or maybe ever. I don't like the term "overeating" either--in recovery, you experience Extreme Hunger which is just your body's reaction to the periods of restriction you put it through. Being severe and judgemental about food is an ED behavior that you are working to undo. Remember, in recovery, you body is not only trying to fuel itself for today, but also replenish the missing calories from restriction. This sounds (and can feel) scary, but over time this calms down. In addition, it is very easy to forget that EDs do a lot of internal damage and in recovery your body needs additional fuel to heal and repair.

[Fuzzyface]

That’s a useful analogy thanks! , it’s just hard to trust myself. Loneliness is a trigger too

[Hidden]

I used to think the world was filled with triggers, and come up with very elaborate explanations about why I was engaging in behaviors. And while I do think emotions can influence our behavior, with a lot of my ED behaviors it turned out not to be especially true I just thought it was true. When I was sick, I believed not only that I could but also should control food and my body, and I got a lot of messages telling me it was possible to do. Therefore, when I would eat a lot of food I thought it was because I was depressed or stressed or whatever. I now realize that I was just starving all the time, which is incredibly stressful to the mind and body, so whenever there was additional stress (from work or relationships or being sad) my "discipline" would falter. I didn't think--if I am starving, I actually cannot keep that up forever--no one can. I was not eating because of emotions, I was eating because I needed to in order to survive. I hope you understand what I am saying here. I definitely not trying to be dismissive at all, but I want you to know that there are a lot of things your ED gets you to believe as an excuse to get you to engage in behaviors, convince you that you cannot trust yourself around food. That is just not true--you are a human animal that is fighting for survival. Once you work to convince your body that there is an abundance of food, things will calm down.

[Fuzzyface in reply to Hidden]

Wow that’s a great reply thanks, I shall be re reading that to hopefully let it sink in to my disordered thinking

[brokenankle75]

I research a lot about this subject and it says to Choose good unsaturated fats.Your body needs healthy fats such as olive oil coconut oil. Avocados, nuts. Stay away from the saturated fats and trans fats. It’s hard for me to use the oils or a avocados because 1 tablespoon of Extra virgin olive oil is 120 cal. Avocados are high in calories as well. These fats help reduce the Of high blood Cholesterol levels And have other health benefits.

[Fuzzyface]

Thanks. How do you incorporate them into your diet?

[Hidden]

Hi, I know I am not the person you asked this question to, but I wanted to share some suggestions to adding fats into your diet. I'm not sure what your intake looks like right now or whether you have any specific dietary restrictions, so I will just share what I did to add fats into my diet when I was first trying to recover. If you drink coffee or tea, you could add heavy whipping cream or half and half and work up to HWC, instead of milk or drinking it black; if you eat eggs, you could use coconut oil, butter, or olive oil to cook them; if you have toast, you could add butter, cream cheese, or peanut butter; if you eat cereal or yogurt, top it with nuts; you could also add avocados to eat as a side with your eggs or use them on top of toast; use sour cream, dressing, and/or cheese as a topping for lunches or dinner meals; or add mayo to sandwiches.

You will notice that my suggestions include a lot of different kinds of fats. I think at this stage of the game you don't necessarily need to try to limit types of fats. Ideally, you want to get to the point where you can eat all types of foods (not just safe foods with strict preparation that omits "extras"). Of course you do not have to take any of these suggestions, but it was very helpful for me to introduce all types of former fear foods to train myself that the world will not end if I eat those things.

[Fuzzyface in reply to Hidden]

Much appreciated thank you