Posts by gi-jane

How to eat clean (my definition)

• Base all your meals around foods of plant origin....  leafy vegetables, salads, wholegrains, fruit, pulses/legumes, starchy root vegetables, nuts, seeds, tofu
• Use foods like meat, fish, dairy products, eggs and oils/fats to balance your meals
• Flavour your food with herbs and spices rather than salt and sugar
• Cook meals from whole ingredients as far as possible rather than using ready-made, processed foods or things out of packets.
• When using ready-made foods (assuming you're not going to start making your own pasta or mayonnaise) see if they pass the 'six ingredients or fewer' test.  That 'fat-free vanilla yoghurt', for example, how would that measure up?
• Choose organic foods where possible and where your budget allows.
• Avoid any food making a health claim....

So a typical day could be

Breakfast.... Some oatmeal with chopped nuts, honey and milk

Snack... fresh fruit

Lunch... A wholegrain sandwich filled with some home-cooked, sliced chicken & salad leaves.  More fruit or a small point of plain yoghurt sweetened with raisins

Supper... A casserole of chickpeas, tomatoes & vegetables, flavoured with chilli spices and herbs, served with some boiled brown rice.  Dessert... a baked apple sprinkled with cinnamon and served with a little fresh cream

You sound depressed to me and still in the grip of an eating disorder.  Would certainly be worth seeing your doctor rather than driving yourself insane.  When people who are pretty slim start obesessing that they are fat or thinking others are just 'lying' in order to keep them fat... then that's a danger sign that they need to seek help.

In this context, 'bingeing' can be symptomatic of a lot of things.  What you're calling a binge could be a response to an inadequate diet or depression.  Or it could even be that it's topping your intake up to a normal amount of food.

See your doctor.

You don't have to be curious.  Poster #4 is well known for being irrationally frightened of eating whole swathes of perfectly good foods... many fruits included, as you can see.   As CC promotes safe and healthy weight-management and not disordered eating she only gets 'chewed out' when she tries influencing other people to follow the same approach.

'No white' is a bit of dumbed-down way of saying 'no heavily refined starches'.  I've seen people misunderstand it to the level of avoiding cauliflower, blanched almonds and milk.....  LOL

If your daily goal is 1900 then try to work out how each meal/snack looks in advance.  Start with breakfast using up about 25% of your total.... let's say 450 cals.... and work out from there.

If you're 80kgs and you're doing a lot of exercise every day then you are probably using up 2500+ cals a day.  In which case an intake of 1800-1900 should result in weight-loss whilst at the same time giving you adequate nutrition.

If you deliberately or accidentally undereat for prolongued periods this can have several repercussions

• Chronic lack of energy eventually leads to overeating in an effort to catch up
• Nutrition slump leading to low moods, fatigue, digestion issues... exercise becomes difficult, life is miserable, you look ill.
• Slowed metabolism.... weight-loss mysteriously comes to a dead stop

Go with an average if you want a stable daily intake.  1900-2100 would be good for a reasonably active 18 year-old.  Those numbers you're stating above would be more appropriate if you were 20 years older.  Under 21 and you need to add 200 to everything.

Also, try to move away from calorie-counting because it's an artificial way to live.  If you're not so hungry one day, you'll eat a little less.  If you have a bigger appetite another day you'll eat a little more...  That would be a more natural pattern and you'd also start to trust your body and your judgement.

Finally.... your current weight is very low.  If you've always been thin then that might be natural for you and you could maintain it fairly easily.  If you've dieted hard to get there expect to find that a healthy amount of food results in a few gains. 

Your metabolism is very, very slow indeed.  It has slowed down in an effort to keep you alive.   Any normal person on 1000 cals a day would be dropping weight at the rate of 2 - 3lbs a week.... and you're not doing that.  A typical adult female under 21 needs 2000-2200 cals a day just to maintain their weight and be able to function normally, both physically and mentally.   Someone exercising for an hour a day needs more like 2500 cals a day just to stand still.  (No idea where you got 1200 from but it's completely inappropriate for you)

Given that you're severely underweight you should stop exercising because your heart muscles are weak and they could pack up any minute..   Once you've stopped exercising then you need to discuss with your nutritionist how you get from 1000 to 2500 cals in as short a space of time as possible.  You should see quite rapid weight-gains initially, but it's likely that you'll need to increase further from 2500 in order to keep those gains going and get up to a healthy BMI of 20+

If you enjoy having a full tummy then eating plenty of vegetables is a great way to acheive a nice big plateful without it being horribly calorific.  Balance up the veggies with small amounts of wholegrains, protein and fat and you have a perfectly well-balanced diet that is very nutritious at the same time.  

The only side-effect you may find if you're not used to eating a lot of vegetables is 'gas'.  So eat slowly, chew your food thoroughly, drink plenty of fluids and that should be kept to a minimum

Original Post by thevivagirl:

 I want to make it clear that I do believe seeing some kind of doctor would be a VERY good idea

 So ffs why didn't you say so?   This is a person who is confused, very, very sick, slashing her wrists and relapsing massively in her recovery.  To my mind we're way past 'you're worth it' and we're in 'call an ambulance' territory. 

Easy... Follow the instructions on your whole oats or steel-cut oats and cook them the night before.  Refrigerate overnight... in the morning reheat in the microwave.