Posts by tiffanybreak

gi-jane,

Thank you so much for replying so quickly. I am so upset and literally am sitting here hoping that someone out there would read this tonight.

Thank you.  It brings a bit of relief to know that I probably do need about 3000 on days I exercise for up to 4 hours.  Prior to being ill I was always at 103-105lbs. and that was just at having 1600 a day and i only then exercised about 40 minutes 3-4 days per week.

It is hard to accept the "new me", i long for who i was prior to being ill, and also the emotional connection between actually being able to sit down and eat a meal without blacking out or being bed ridden is mind boggling to me. 

Shopping for clothes almost makes me cry now because I used to not beable to buy anything without it literally falling off me.  Actually having a figure is something i thought would never come true again. 

I notice from what i jotted down from my binge tonight is that i had a lot of sweets that i used to not be able to eat at all.  so that isnt good either.  I have to take care of my body now that it is able to digest properly and not be in such pain anymore. 

Thank you for your support and plesae send any more advice/guidance my way as you think of it. You truly saved me tonight I was at a complete lost sitting here in tears. thank you for being so kind.

this is going to sound silly but....how many ... excuse my language "bm's" aka #2 have you gone since your binges? if your constipated, that can be it also...drink more water to help move things along.

I was very sick for several years which caused me to lose a lot of weight, i finally got back up to 100lbs and now have been hovering aroudn 95 for over a year. I have tried to gain and every time it goes back down a bit the most i've gottne to is 102.  However, I am finally able to exercise, go to school, not be cold, eat and not be terribly ill, have a healthy heart rate, blood tests are the bes tthey've ever been and phsyically i feel healthy as ever.  But I feel so little and like nothing when I get comments about how small I am. My dad said to me "you don't care about gaining you look anorexic just eat cashews"  I felt so hurt by that.  I told my physician my distress about tryingto gain and some days i eat so much of what I can eat (i have a limited diet of foods becuase of my health condition) I eat so much on some days because im so desperate to be accepte dinto the "normal looking and not tiny skinny girl" image.  It really sucks.  My physician had to reassure me that I had the healthiest test results he's ever seen for a young woman my age and that my stamina and health have been the best ever.  SO comments like my parents saying im still too thin and asking me how much I weigh make me neurotic.  I refuse to weigh myself and go by how my clothes fit and how i physically feel.   If people only knew what words that they think are helping really do.

I'd finally put on some weight before i went back to school last semester, but over the break i had lost some of the weight due to being really sick for over a month. I'm ALWAYS self conscious about looking "sickly" which ot me, thanks to my mother constantly making me parnoid. is being too skinny.  So I'd try to eat more and more, so a few days before classes began again i got into a panic becase i thought i was sliping down to too thin again and i ate as much as ai could till i was sick to my stomach. i get so angry how my mothers comments get to me and how my fears of looking "Sickly" even when i don't, completely ruin my self image.

luckily i have a doctor that is understanding and sat me down and said that i am as healthy as he's seen someone that has gone through what i have and have the healthiest test results he's seen for any 24 year old EVER.

I just try to remind myself of that when i hear my mothers voice when i pass a mirror, or have not felt well and fall into a panic that i have to eat till i'm sick to make up for the few pounds i lost when i have been ill for a few days in a row.

Hi YES I have a similar situation, not IBS but i get severe intestinal and abdominal pain that I get days where eating has been torture due to the sever pain I experience.

I recommend from what I can eat:

oat bran, peanut butter (organic natural), almond butter, egg whites cooked through, greek yogurt (even 0% i have to be careful of fat content becuase of my liver so i have 0% if you can have regular or 2% have that instead)

make smoothies of: mangos, oranges, strawberries, yogurt with high protein content (greek has highest protein)

can you have protein powders? i can't but if you can add that to shakes...very nutritious vitamin rich way to have healthy weight.

brown rice boiled chicken breasts (perdue has one with no additives) quinoa,

can you have oils? (i can't but these are other options)

olive oil, butter, maybe one with omega 3's

flax seed add to cereals, etc.

speaking of cereals..check whole foods market they have plain puffed rice cereal with NOTHING but just literally puffed rice..not high in calories but extremely gentle on your GI system.

soy milk unsweetened is ok for me too..if you can have sugar etc. then have chocolate vanilla or another flavor of soy, rice even almond milk they are higher in calories.

hope this helps a bit..

oh in terms of vegetables and fruits..if you are in pain i sugest COOKING them only NOTHING RAW...even for a smoothie, cook them in the microwave and then toss them in...or cook them freeze them and then throw them in frozen BUT COOKED..it helps.

zucchini and tomoatoes cooked were vegetable staples for me for a while, i'd mix them with whole wheat pasta or brown rice

can you have soy cheese? check those out put them on rice with boiled chicken and cooked vegetables.

hope this helped

~Tiff

Numbers do not matter, it's HEALTH that matters. Cianderseon08 gave good advice it's important to be "happy and healthy"

to get happy you have to get healthy..so think of it that way..just get HEALTHY don't think numbers at all ok?

I was thinking numbers and weighing myself constantly going "why am I NOT GAINING WHAT THE HECK!!!" I was counting out calories to calculate how much I needed to gain a pound a week and it was driving me insane.. I stopped doing that, I eat and I don't look at the scale and guess what? I looked at my scale this morning and BINGO I gained!!!! FINALLY.. I was overjoyed, I noticed that i Looked healthier, my face did and my stomach had a bit of padding and I though "hmm let me just see if this working" and it was.

My parents are all "you should be 105 blah blah" and I think "I will be where my body wants me to be healthy" and that is exactly what my doctors have said too, that your body knows your healthy weight and it will get you there, take your nutritionist and doctors advice and just focus on your health.

Musle..do YOGA you use your own body weight and as you gain you bulid MUSCLE...i do it daily and i'm getting musles in my legs and arms.

You are NOT giving up on your body, you are HELPING your body GROW STRONG and HEALTHY!  you're scared it makes sense becuase it's a place that you are not familiar with or comfortable with...you're not wrong..your not accepting youre HELPING your body get to a healthy weight.

~tiff

ok first off Hun,

I TOTALLY understand that CRAZY mom issue. My mother makes me feel HORRIBLE about how i look. she always says "you look bad, you look sick, you like looking this way? what is wrong with you? go eat something? did you eat? you didn't eat enough"

Even though she knows about my medical condition and how difficult it is to gain my mother still is the one that makes me feel miserable being underweight and struggle to shovel in as many calories as i can without kicking in my symptoms of sever intestinal pain and heart rate drop etc.

Parents will  NEVER change they are OLD and STUCK IN THERE WAYS. So YOU have to BLOCK HER STUPID WORDS OUT..

your mom, is throwing her concerns about HER OWN IMAGE on YOU. as a way to make YOU the PROBLEM and not HERSELF!

so whenever your mom makes a comment about how you look..just feel sorry for her. she is probably paranoid about her own image so much that it rubs off onto you..it's NOT YOU. it is HER. yes amother wants to help her child in any way that she can, but sometimes they just dont know how to and as a result end up doing and causing more damage rather than remedying a situation.

So if she says anything like "wear more makeup" or "you gained weight" etc. LAUGH it off to yourself and just feel sorry for her. You stay strong and you get healthy don't let anyone make you feel like you look bad, aren't trying hard enough etc. Becuae no one is you but you therefore no one truly understands the struggle it is to go through what you are going through and have gone through. stay strong and good luck!

~Tiff

thank you kate,

yeah i am the type that doesn't ask people to help, i just do everything myself. bad habit. thank you for your help, i hope that i get in touch with this other nutritionist this week. he/she will be able to help me.

hey there,

I can definitely help you with this, I have severe dietary restrictions and gastrointestinal problems... some foods that help me:

First, Can you have nuts? I mean like smooth peanut butter, almond butter? Nutella?? (I LOVED that)

Ok. as for "real food" that is soft:

Oatmeal, cream of wheat, farina, squash soups made with rice milk, soy milk, Beans (lentils can make a delicious lentil vegetable soup. if you want boil the vegetables,(Carrots, zuchini, celeary, onions, etc) and blend them with a food processor or blender) then add in the lentils (cooked obviously) for some texture so you don't feel like you're eating just liquid.

are you allowed to have brown rice? quinoa? millet? barley? those are tiny grains.

also if you really want cereal what you can do is take your favorite cereal and warm it in the microwave with rice milk or whatever milk you can have..get it to a semi-mushy consistancy it's delicious like your own oat meal invention. (if you're lucky and can have like lucky charms or sugar cereals throw some of that in with a heartier fiber cereal for some kick and taste)

Smoothies, possiblities are endless. They make gluten free ice creams, also sorbets are a good option. Fruits go crazy it's summer stock up on whatever your favorite fruites are and freeze them. Yogurts have endless choices I know Whole foods has some nice gluten free optoins.

PUDDINGS...you can get creative, tapioca, rice pudding!!! that's delicious. make a mix of rice pudding with what you can have..

i hope some of these suggestions help I have many many more I suffered with severe GI problems for years so I understand. Please feel free to message me any time.

~Tiff

Thank you for your suggestions..beans and lentils is a great idea I didn't think of combining the two..Also I get full fast and have like zero appetite due to my medical condition so I have to remind myself to eat a scheulded times throughout the day. I notice that it takes almost 5-6 hours for my stomach to handle more food. which is very annoying plus I take thyroid medications that have to be on an empty stomach so i feel like my days are structed around meals. SO FRUSTRATING. but those are excellent suggestions and I will use them thank you any other ideas send my way!

~Tiff