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Weight Gainers: What did YOU eat today?

I am copying the many times copied thread, "What did you eat today?" in hopes of helping some of those who are just starting to gain and have no clue what to eat. I know that when I began weight recovery, I was eating tons of low-cal foods just because that's what I was used to. I learned the hard way that dense foods are essential to weight gain when you have high caloric requirements (at one point I needed 4500 cal to maintain my weight on BEDREST). Perhaps newbies can get some ideas if we post our weight gain meal plans! Even if you're not gaining anymore, grab an old one and post it!:]
Please note that every body is different and some will need more or less calories than others to gain. This thread is just so that you can get an idea of what you need.
Oh, and yes, I'm breaking the "no calories, no portions" rule, since it is pretty helpful in this case. If you want to post cals/portions you can. I just ask that you don't post if you're not eating enough, though as this is a weight gain thread, I would hope none of you are undereating.;]
I'll start....
Breakfast (875 cal)*

• 1/2 cup oatmeal (150) cooked with
• 1 cup evaporated whole milk (300)
• 1 mashed banana (100)
• 2 tbsp peanut butter (200)
• 1 tbsp ground flaxseed and cinnamon to taste (50) 
• 1 hard-boiled egg (75 cal)

Morning Snack (300 cal)*

• 1/4 cup mixed nuts (200)
• 1/4 cup dried apricots (100)

Lunch (660 cal)*

• 1/4 cup rice cooked in 1 cup chicken stock (300) and
• 1/2 cup canned or cooked chickpeas (145) and
• 1/3 cup shredded cheese (150) and
• 1/4 cup each onion, peppers, and tomato (30) cooked with
• 1 tbsp olive oil and curry powder to taste (120)

Afternoon snack (390 cal)*

• 1 serving baby carrots (35)
• 1/4 cup hummus (155)
• 1/4 cup mixed nuts (200)

Dinner (875 cal)*

• 1 cup of my insane Mac & Cheese recipe (515)
• 2 cups tossed salad (45)
• 2 tbsp rasins (60)
• 2 tbsp sunflower seeds (105)
• 2 tbsp dressing (150)

Evening snack (480)*

• 1 cup plain whole milk yogurt (180)
• 1/2 cup homemade granola (300)

About 3600 calories :]

Lala what flavours do they stock in your Sainsbury's? Mine only do apple pie, pecan pie and ginger snap. I go to wholefoods or freshnwild for others.

And yes, my bed is from Ikea XD

I just wrote 1500 words on Margaret Thatcher. Booooorink. Maggie T - what a gal. :-P

I admit quite liking beansprouts - mostly in stir frys and stuff, gives a bit of crunch.

But then I like all veggies pretty much.. except um.. well I'm not crazy on..

No I like all of them.

I just got a text from a friend from IP, funnily enough. We have a strange relationship... I love her to bits but I find her a very negative influence. Not quite sure how to deal with the whole thing really. Poo. And I've eaten like a horse today despite literally lying on my ass all day (been in bed, complete with cat, laptop and schoolbooks writing out essays. Woo.) aside from a 20 minute walk to Sainsburys to go to the bank and seeing my teacher this morning.. but my Dad drove me there and back (aww Daddy) so I feel something of a lazy bum. Mum and brother been on 7 mile walk too. Guilt.

On the other hand, my bum is sore from sitting ON MY BED. That can't be a good sign.

Hey everyone:

First off, I’m really curious hear how others structure their meal plans? I know lala said something about serving sizes, mashed has something of her own, Rebel’s got her standard 2500 base [waiting to be built on as “planned”??!!]…but I’d really, really love to hear specifics about how you do this.  I feel like I can’t take it any more.  Thinking about it. I just want an easy “ok I need to eat here’s what” or to just plain not care at all.  But then I’m feeling lost.  Plus I know I can swing back and forth-from easily over 4000 on a relaxing, good stomach day, to a tummy low-point and/or crazy busy one.  I feel like I need some sort of structure, but I’m tired of thinking about it all the time and I hate counting! With a passion and then some.

Speaking of confusion, this hospital thing is weird.  Don’t they let you pick your menu’s?  I know they do here, at least they did when I’ve been there. Or maybe you just have a different system in Europe. I don’t know what sort of internet guideline we have though cuz I didn’t have a computer, much less a laptop, back then!

  Anyhow, I will sure miss you lady:-by hell you better be back! Or should I say, back minus the hell you live with here now.  And your words described me, exactly.  Thank you for understanding.  I truly want to be independent and hate the pity, but feel so lost and confused I want to be “fixed” first.

Mashed: I always sensed you had my sense of humor! LOL I would have laughed too!  I bet you were the fun one on the floor. 

Rebel: 1lb gain isn’t too bad the weigh-in following a big gain!  As long as it’s consistently moving forward instead of up-down-up-down, especially in this crucial stage.  I hope you get on top or ramping up your meal plan soon!  You’ll never be ready, but you’ve gota mission to take over your life AND something to prove—stay on top of your game, or should I say, make it your game—play by your rules, do what you determined to do!

Ok miss you all, but half the day has been spent figuring out meal plans and feeling more frustrated than ever! Now time to eat, then shower and hopefully anything not related to food! >grr<

hullo all =} currently 5''1 103 lbs and not really coutning or eating structured anymore just whenever i feel like it and its a bit better

hair

still

falling

but hopefully my hair donation to cancer society will help someone

i heard something about dollys account being deactivated, what happened?

hope your all doing well =)
lala just a question, but is there still a chance of me growing any taller?

Tears; I don't know what makes you say that. I have increased my calories - I just don't post them. If you'd like a for-instance - that tuna casserole contains whipping cream! I tend to do a lot of things that increase my calories without increasing the volume of food very much, or I up the portion of things (IE two tablespoons of chocolate chips isntead of one, extra almonds or nuts, extra PB, etc) Also, I didn't think it was "bad" that I gained 3/4 of a pound, I was actually quite comfortable with it. It just sorta put me off that the gain had slowed and I wasn't really expecting that.

Something I have found to help me for planning out meals is to figure out how many calories I need to get each meal and what I can use to get myself there. For example - my breakfast is about 700 calories. Snacks are about 400. Lunch is 500-550. Dinner is 400. I have a hard time eating dinner, don't really care for most "dinner" foods - so I tend to keep it smaller. Anyways! If you have a basic idea of the calories you need for each, it helps you know what to have. If you go by exchanges - a 3400 calorie diet would be 3 servings of dairy/dairy substitute, 2-3 veggies, 10 fruits, 17 starches, 8oz protein, and 8 fats. But since you use dairy substitute, you need to add 2-3 extra fats and an extra starch (lactaid = not as many calories as whole milk). When I was planning menus in IP, a typical breakfast for me was : 8oz whole milk, 8oz orange juice, apple, 2 hardboiled eggs, 3 boxes of cereal, and a breakfast pastry, or a bagel with 2 pats of butter. That provided 1 milk, 3 fruits, 2 proteins, 6 starches and 2-3 fats. Your meals don't have to be quite that large, since you have the option of eating snacks, but thats the basic idea.

Since I'm bored...

Breakfast: 1/2 cup oats (while they were dry mind you) with 1 chopped apple and scoop of raisins,  2 scoops protein powder, cinnamon coffee creamer, and another scoop of nuts. Bowl of melon, glass of cran plum juice

Snack: Greek yogurt swirled with honey and topped with chocolate-coconut granola, glass of juice

Lunch: PBJ pita-wich, 2 clementines, cup of veggies, and I finished off the remainder of the cherry cobbler with whipped cream. I made a little star shape on top with it too ^.^

Snack: will be Vanilla yogurt with 2 scoops each of chopped almonds and chocolate chips, sultanas

Dinner: will be Bulgur or pasta with cheese, hummus dressing, cooked veggie with hummus dressing, some sort of fish? I think its salmon?

Snack: will be essentially the usual pumpkin pie oats with brown sugar, flaked coconut, and dried cranberries. Though I am going to use a mixed-grain hot cereal instead of oats tonight.

So I have this friend...well actually she is my brother's friend. And she is a recovered anorexic. I've been hanging out with her a lot lately. And she told me something interesting today, something that gave me hope.

"Will you ever be able to just sit down and eat something like that girl over there? Probably not. It might always feel a bit different for you, and you will have days where you need to tell yourself to eat. But will this consume you the way it does now for the rest of your life? No. I can eat pizza with my friends and not worry about it. And even if I check the container of something to see how many calories it is, I don't let the number stop me from eating it. I can eat my cookies and birthday cake and I can go out to dinner and have a good time. It took a bit of time, for sure, but everything you are doing right now will lead you there - you will be able to live your life."

Still haven't made it to the shower yet [and I'm about to pee my pants after the pumpkin shake I just made! -much tastier when not on top of a bedtime cram, I might add!], but I wanted to reply to Rebel:

I'm sorry if I misunderstood again!  I just got the impression that you were still for the most part at the 25-2700 [or 2500+ level] from some of your posts.  I remember weeks ago when you thought jumping to 3000 [which your body desperately needs!] would be too much of a challenge, but you were going to add frequent 200 calorie steps to make sure you still got a steady increase.  That's why I was wondering how the heck you were still stuck at 25-2700!  Did the steps happen or did Anorexia some how hide behind changes in your meal plan so overall you didn't make those actual continuous increases?

And I should also say you have definitely come a long way.  I would never want to take that away from you! I just fear for myself and those I care about the danger of getting caught up in how bad it was, as we make the initial improvements, and forget that we've got a long journey ahead, and it's getting all the way there that will bring us our real goals--and the PROVING ourselves that we both need!

Mashed: Yep, only ginger snap, apple pie and pecan pie. I am having an apple pie one later. Incidentally, they also sold nak'd bars in five packs of the 30g bars - only Cocoa Loco and Berry Cheeky but they never had those before! There were Trek bars, and 9 Bars (I like those too :D) too - and Food Doctor bars, though those're a bit too low-cal for my liking :\ But still, Sainsburys did some serious overhauling!

Haha, that's creepy. I don't think my bed is the same make as yours, though. Mine doesn't have a curve in the frame.

My dislike of most veg comes in how and what it is served in.

What did she send you? To be honest, if she triggers you at all and is negative or a negative influence, you might want to evaluate your friendship. If she's simply struggling with her ED provide support for her and give her positive advice. I personally lost a lot of my old friend group because they were far too vain and image-and-diet obsessed. It upset me, and they had a large part in furthering my habits. The moments I would ask myself, "is this bad?" I'd go and ask them in turn because I'd want some sort of solace - or at times, was crying for help - and they'd always go: "oh, no, that's normal to work out that much" or "psh, I eat even less some days!" - yeah, most of them harboured their own eating problems now I think on it.

You're not lazy. Hell, I've done even less exercise than you today and I have eaten more. And I don't feel piggy at all. [: So neither should you! If anything, I'm bloody hungry again - but I have a lovely little Innocent pot that was in the reduced section. Sweet potato chili!

Tears: I begin with a rough structure of breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner, snack. Breakfast is, most days, my only steady meal of the day in that I can predict when it happens - because it is right after I wake up. Beyond that I carry emergency food in case something happens to make me miss out on calories and put me under and then I stick with it best I can. I am at a point where I have some sort of schedule, but not so much so that I have to be excessively rigid.

We're talking about inpatient dealing with girls who either have a history of being unable to be trusted with food or simply cannot be trusted with food and making choices about it. You can't pick your menus. D;

This is it ladies!
Mashed & Rebel  - you've no idea how much that calmed me. i think i've over packed. including both my pillow-lovers(don't stick to one, then you don't feel like a slapper). two doonas, so many books, ipod is filled to brim with RickyGervais Podcasts, Metal School Ensembles, Early to Late Punk, All Beatles albums(this took 4 hours) and plenty of good tunes. I spent two hours telling my cat i was leaving and getting frustrated that he couldn't understand me.. then this morning he wanted to cuddle and accidentally stepped on my throat... i dry reached for 10 minutes... what asweetheart....

But i'm kind of excited. I hope they don't put me on suppliments. I've done that, i like real food now. And i have appetite. But i am going to go along withwhatever they say. They DO know best, and the more i co operate the more they'll see i wanna get better.

Luckily i told all my professionals competitive anorexia is my biggest fear. Because i'll have no say in the matter. That'll be ED.

I'm not sure what to do for breakfast. So i'm finishing everything.

1/2C Oats with Protein Powder and One crushed Weetbix(seriously.. it's hi fibre.. but... i need some movement.. please!!!) Last drop of vanilla soy and Banana plus a Crumpet with Maple syrup. Tastes like a pancake:)

I don't know what the hell to expect he rest of the day.. so.... this way i've covered all main food groups.

Lala - i'm going to miss you so effing much. noone, or everyone says this enough.. You're just the bees knees. Without you around.. dammit we'd all be up the duff i'm fair sure of that.
You're not just the backbone of this place, you've helped young and old rediscover so fricken much about so much. From 'seriously why do they deep fry something that already came OUT of liquid...." People forget you're amongst recovery as well... and still handle the battle from both sides. I adore the fitted peter pan tights off of you. I'll eat a pie for you. With Mushy Peas. and HP sauce(i hate hp sauce. everyone else in my house could sniff it they love it so much.. blurgh)

i told my brothers about the i love pies teeshirt and they pissed themselves. they told me to take in books and dvds like 'jamie olivers best of' and 'oprahs favourite recipes'.. for a laugh.
"we'll make you teeshirts!!" and we sat around poking fun. Which is what i would have done to lift the spirit.
"Just tell them all they're too skinny."
"Constantly smile and whisper at your food... at least it'll make YOU laugh"
"Offer your food away like you're dealing drugs"

But at the same time, everyone is so supportive. My nephews don't understand. Gabriel asks me why i don't eat gummi bears with him anymore. :(

This is all good.
Guys, i am completely here while i'm away. To ALL of you. I love the absolute **** out of you.

Please everyone take care and just ... like everyone.. who isn't anorexic has always said.

'JUST EAT SOMETHING'

ANYTHING.
PB to Brocolli in Cheese Sauce.
I wanna be able to hug some real womens not anymore bags o' bones!
I've never met such a fit deserveing beautiful fricken group of people.

I'm taking one for the team, i expect you guys to work your way from the outside in... i'm going undercover ;]

XXXXX

journal...

help?

I don't know what's happening to me, but i can't take this anymore and this time it's not physical aunguish.

Gah, Lady. You need to remove the email from your post and PM it individually; it's against PGs to include it in your post. If you don't see this before you go, hon, I will edit it out for you and PM it around.

You'll be missed too, don't doubt that! :D I will be sure to raise a glass (or a pie) to you next time I start getting antsy and ED tries to get in and say "F it, this is for Lauren."

Nice on the recipebook suggestion. XD And HAH! I love the whispering to your food thing, too. SERANADE IT.

Lauren: Mhm, I'm doing the same thing Ellie is.  Any stupid freakouts because of oil or butter or an unplanned potato chip—screw it!  This is for Lauren.  :)  You're so strong hon, show them how awesome you are!

<3

Lauren - I'm jumping on the bandwagon - no freakouts. And I'm going to add butter to my jacket potato tomorrow at lunch. For you. <3 You will be fine, chica, I just know it.

hello hello hello! I've been taking a break from here but have kept up with the reading to be sure you're all doing well. I care about all of you far too much to leave entirely! I've been doing well. I think probably super low on calories, ugh. It's just so easy to slip down bit by bit until lower numbers feel normal for me. And then I knowingly overestimate to make myself think it's ok. BAD BAD ME!! everyone please feel free to scold me!

And I've been really social and with friends and family all the time so i'm eating normally by other people standards but obviously not enough for me. I NEED to step it back up and get some curves back! I went to the top gay dance club in houston last night! I had a blast, danced the night away! And even had a rum and punch with probably all kinds of crappy ingredients in the punch. I've been eating out a lot, eating tons of cake and cookies, and really enjoying my friends being home for the holidays. However, I was kind of dissapointed last night because I got no compliments whatsoever at this club and it's well known for being a big self esteem boost for straight ladies, you go and all the gay guys tell you you look fabulous. All my friends got funny compliments, butt's grabbed, etc, even lesbians telling them they were hot. And yes, i know that can be demeaning, but at this place it's all in fun, and why not? But me? did anyone grab my butt? oh yeah thats right, what butt???! no compliments, funny comments, no one dancing with me, grrr. I need to get back on the gaining bandwagon, i've maintained long enough to mentally heal myself more and now it's time. 

Lauren- you have my facebook! you're going to do so great in IP! And it won't be too long, I know how much you'll miss your cat, i talk to mine all the time then get really upset when she doesnt listen. I love your brothers tips and Ellie's too! I couldnt stop laughing! Try and make it as fun as possilbe, make friends with the girls that truly want to recover, and you'll be out before you know it. Plus, Ricky Gervais= OMG pee my pants funny! 

tears- i'll go check out the journal in a sec. I'm sorry you seem to be struggling not just with the physical aspects of this. That's how it all started for me too, but unfortunately did not have the knowledge or support I do now. Feel free to message me if you need anything and use this forum as support. You have heard firsthand what can happen from all of us here, and you don't want to go down that road. And I know you're strong enough to get through this! As for meal plans, yes, I know i've become very obsessive with it. I fear I'll never be able to eat normally again, even though its no longer with restriction. now i'm even obsessive about eating enough, eating the right foods, keeping my stomach mostly pain free, etc. Whats helped me most, especially when i was eating 4000 a day to gain steadily, was getting about 1000 of those at breakfast, first of all. Get off to a good start, you seem to know what to do with the oats, you can really rack up the calories with those mix ins, use protein powder, creamer is good or half and half or coconut milk, nut butter, nuts and dried fruit, and even eggs. I also keep 4 lb bags of nuts on my kitchen counter, i dont even put them away and they're always open so i snack on them pretty much anytime i walk by the kitchen. I'm not even sure what it adds up to at the end of the day but that helps a lot, and if i'm ever unsure i go for the jar of pb with a spoon. 

rebel- congrats on the gain!

mashed- you too! you've been doing great so keep it up, and dont let those restrictive thoughts get to you, i know it's scary eating so much, and it seems so counter intuitive, but it's good for you! I also love every single vegetable out there, just be sure to dress em up nicely for now. Olive oil really does taste wonderful on some steamed veggies. 

lala- you're so great! really, thank you so much for everything you do on here, i do hope you're still taking care of yourself. I ssay make some cake from that site i sent you and lick the bowl when you're done! 

slr- :::big hugs:::: you are so awesome! I love your attitude about all of this, you've really made a ton of progress! 

what happened to dolly? 

okie dokes, well i'm lazy and hungry so everyone else I missed, i'm sorry and I do still love you! you're all really doing wonderfully so keep it up and know that i'm getting back to gaining with all of you! :) 

Slr: Donating your hair is a really good idea. :D How old are you, again? There's a chance you could still grow if you keep feeding yourself well (though, as far as I am aware, you are!)

Hi all I've spent a long time reading the messages on the weight gain forum, and have been convincing myself that I'm not like a lot of the people here with ED's.

 I look at the messages about how people are finding it hard to not feel horrible about themselves after eating 2500,3000 whatever really. I kept thinking 'how can they not see that they need to gain this weight and its going to make them look and feel so much better'.  

I've finally realised that I am exactly the same.  Just because I am not at as low a weight as some of the people here it doesn't mean I don't need to still put on weight (BMI on here of 16.6).  However I continually make excuses for myself when I don't reach at least 2500 - I finish most days telling myself 'Oh well I'll make it up tomorrow" and I hardly ever end up doing that.  

Its because I don't plan and although I don't restrict I've found that usually just eating whatever I feel like doesn't get me to what I need to gain weight.  In some way part of me wants to put off getting to a healthy/healthier weight because it seems that when I do reach it I'll have to be careful about what I eat. But I KNOW this isn't true - I've proved it to myself that I can eat what I want freely without putting on anything. 

I'm not sure what the point of this post is :P but I felt I needed to say it to push myself and finally make myself realise that I need to do this now and not put it off any longer.

Thanks :) and hope everyone is going well!

I DID GOOD IN MY BUSINESS EXAM

All that cacking myself for nothing! It turned out to be on, of all things, women's fashion accessories. BWAHAHA.

yay^^:)

Lala; Congrats! Heh, I remember taking my final for Art History - I was sooo jazzed up about not being able to remember the names and dates of different things. Then the teacher gave us a "hand-out" so we would know how to spell the names of all the historical pieces in the slides. The list was in the same order as the exam. Oh, it was a beautiful thing.

I'm a bit nervous today. I feel like I'm going through menopause. I get suddenly very very warm, maybe 20 minutes or so after I eat. I mean hot though - like I need to take off my sweater and I'm still warm. I always sleep with a fleece blanket in my bed with me, and I've had a few nights where I could not sleep with it, couldn't even have it in my bed with me, because I was so uncomfortable. I'm not entirely sure what it means, that my body is begining to work on repairing itself maybe? Or maybe its just some weird anxiety thing? I decided my lunch-dessert would be some dark-chocolate dried fruit mix that my mom's friend sent us, though I don't feel nervous over that...but it could be?

Rebel, that sounds like your metabolism speeding up. Seriously, hot flushes after eating and in general are a key sign of that happening. I remember how bad my sweats'd get!

Hmmm.... lemme try.  I do realize I may be cheating myself out of healthy calories by eating the junk food burger and fries below...but I had a craving this week. I also try to add in extra calories by drinking Ensure Plus which gives an easy 350 calories and curbs hunger between meals.

Breakfast (1486 cal)*
·    1 cup grits (569 cal)
·    2 tbsp butter (200 cal)
·    2 scrambled eggs (367 cal)
·    1 Ensure Plus (350 cal)

Lunch (1300 cal)*
·    Backyard Burger Mushroom Swiss Burger (540 cal)
·    Backyard Burger Traditional Fries (190 cal)
·    Backyard Burger 16 oz. Mountain Dew (220 cal)
·    1 Ensure Plus (350 cal)

Afternoon snack (350 cal)*
·    1 Ensure Plus (350 cal)

Dinner (455.5 cal)*
·    1 cups white rice (205 cal)
·    Beef meatballs (3 pieces) (135 cal)
·    1/2 cup pan gravy (61.5 cal)
·    1 cup green beans prepared in chicken broth (54 cal)

Evening snack (350)*
·    1 Ensure Plus (350 cal)

About 3941 calories!

lala im fourteen in march, are my chances of growing anymore slim or not?