Help for food and eating issues
I've noticed a lot of people here have been struggling with various eating issues.
There are heaps of reasons someone might struggle with eating, but here are a few examples:
•eating disorders
•too busy with work or study to eat properly
•negative body image
•feeling too tired or sick to cook/ eat
•sensory issues with certain foods
•being really, really bad at cooking (or maybe that's just me, idk)
I've made this thread so that people have a place to share their experiences, tips, and perhaps a few quick and mostly un-ruin-able recipe ideas.
What a great thread @Tiny_leaf!
- My family and I find that preparing some meals in advance can be really helpful, especially when we're too stressed or don't have much time to cook. We always have something in the fridge that we can just heat up. You can find a lot of free guides and recipes that are suitable for this online. In some cases, this can also save you money and you can use reusable food storage methods.
- I echo @queenP's advice about getting someone to eat with you. Sometimes being around people can encourage you to eat more.
- There are lots of ways you can use a microwave to make meals, which might be helpful if you're a student, don't have a lot of time, are on a budget or aren't a great cook. I have made soup and cake in the microwave using mugs, for example. You can also steam vegetables quickly and easily this way. There are a lot of recipes online which are really good.
- Some people struggle to swallow food. Foods like macaroni and cheese, yogurt, jelly, baked beans, bananas, avocados, and smoothies might be helpful for days like this. You can also make your own vegetable purees and spreads and flavour them with garlic or herbs.
@WheresMySquishy I like those ideas. 
If you look up microwave mug recipes there are heaps of things you can make in like 5 minutes in a single mug/ bowl.
@Tiny_leafSome of those recipes look delish! I didn't know that you could make pizza in a mug! There are also lots of microwave gadgets that can help you cook things like pasta, bacon, potatoes and eggs in the microwave. I love using the microwave to cook.
@Tiny_leaf I love mac and cheese too! I haven't made it in a mug yet but I should.
I know a lot of people who struggle to tell when they've had too much to eat. I find that eating something minty can help with resisting the urge to eat more when you're already full. Eating foods that need utensils can also help people eat more slowly. Some people also practice something called mindful eating.
@blobbyI love grilled cheese sandwiches! We have a sandwich maker and we've made lots of different types of sandwiches with it.
@Tiny_leaf Sorry for the late reply! I love jaffles with baked beans, Vegemite sandwiches, tomato and cheese sandwiches, cucumber and cream cheese sandwiches, cream cheese sandwiches, sandwiches with a smoked salmon spread, sandwiches with pesto and cheese, and grilled cheese sandwiches! I like to experiment with lots of different types of cheeses.
I just found this really cool website which I think should be fitting for this thread: https://www.supercook.com/
It lets you enter the ingredients you have on hand and it will suggest a recipe.
@WheresMySquishy I need to look at that website now... thanks for mentioning it!!
And what are jaffles sorry..? Was it meant to be "waffles" or am I missing a new food? And grilled cheese sandwiches are great! I have to have a really specific craving before I'll eat them for some reason though...
@Tiny_leafJaffles are like toasties or paninis. They're toasted sandwiches. Wonder how they came up with that word...
I feel the same about grilled cheese sandwiches! I haven't eaten one in ages.
It is a weird word...
And also another thing I'll need to check out!
Does anyone else here struggle to work out if they've eaten too much or not eaten enough/ get mixed up between the two?
Hey @Sammyye
I just wanted to stop by on this thread because I can see there's been some conversation about eating disorders here. Firstly, I want to say thank you so much for caring about people with eating disorders. It's obvious that you wanted to help by sharing what you did 
Even though your intentions were good, I did need to remove the post and the comments that followed it as the conversation was stepping outside of the community guidelines.
Eating disorders are one of the topics that we have to be mindful of when discussing with the community. In our guidelines we say that it's best to steer clear from descriptions of eating disorders and methods. The reason for this is because eating disorders are varying and complex. Because of this recovery from an eating disorder is not a one size fits all approach. We want to be careful that we aren't oversimplifying what is a complicated experience for many people here on the forums We are planning on going into more detail about this in a separate post so we can make sure there's no confusion. In the meantime for anyone who is wondering The Butterfly Foundation are the experts in this area and would be the best people to get some support from if you're struggling.
@Tiny_leaf you made some really insightful comments on this topic and thank you for tagging us so we could make sure the community is safe. We really appreciate how you look out for the community.
"We are planning on going into more detail about this in a separate post so we can make sure there's no confusion."
@Bre-RO would you be able to tag me in that discussion/ post please?
Um, so, it's new year time.
And a lot of people and tv ads and everything are talking about losing weight after the holiday period and resolutions about dieting and eating "good" foods and weight loss and meal plans and stuff.
The problem is that these are really big triggers for me.
Like if I think about them too much, I get overwhelmed, so being reminded of this stuff so frequently is really damaging for me.
Has anyone here experienced anything like this, or have any suggestions on coping with it?
Because right now I'm full of anxiety just thinking about what I had for lunch today...
Hi @Tiny_leaf , just wanted to check in with how you're doing with this? It really can be such a problematic time for people who find talk of weight loss and dieting triggering, because it seems like it's everywhere at the moment. I have found that one thing that can be helpful as far as social media goes, is to intentionally follow a lot of people who share positive messages about things, such as the Health At Every Size movement, and also hide advertisements that are unhelpful/ triggering, that way you should eventually see less of them.
I think you speak to a much bigger issue though, society still seems to really push ideas of weight loss/ transformation/ dieting being something to aspire to, especially in the new year, even when we know that these things are often unhelpful 😞
There's been some great advice on this thread, we are always here for support when you need it
@Janine-RO it's hard because my mum listens to all this diet stuff and doesn't realize how shit it is for me.
(TW because I'm about to share an example of that)
Like bought some vegetable tempura (fried vegetables, really good) and mum was just like "oh I was going to get that but it's fried and too fatty" just as I was about to eat it.
Like thanks mum. Now I'm spiraling into needless anxiety instead of enjoying my food.
Or like I'll spend ages worrying but eventually reach a point where I can get myself to eat x food and it takes effort and pep-talks and then mum's just like "x isn't very healthy is it? You should really be eating y food more"
Y tends to be either a sensory nope or something that's completely unavailable to me by the way.
And when you go into what actually is healthy it's so freaking complicated and no-one agrees and it's just a rabbit hole that leads to me being hungry and miserable.
(I'm rambling a bit sorry it's just been a bit intense today)
Hi @Tiny_leaf ,
That sounds really tough with your mum - I think it can be pretty common, unfortunately. Do you think your mum is aware of the effect her comments may have on you? I know it can be a really tough conversation to have, do you think you'd be able to let her know that you find comments like that about food triggering? I totally understand if it wouldn't be a conversation you're comfortable having, though.
(Also - vegetable tempura is one of my favourite things in the world!! I went to Japan a few years ago and ate some of the best tempura of my life, I'm still trying to find somewhere in Australia that comes close!)
Have you heard about the mindful approach to eating? I really like it, because it aims to get rid of all of the guilt, shame, conflicting information, and worrying about what we eat. Instead, it encourages us to be present, and accepting while we eat,: "Mindful eating simply invites us to be present while cooking or eating, allowing us to truly savor our food without any judgment, guilt, anxiety, or inner commentary" .
Because I think you're spot on, there can be so much conflicting and complicated information about what is 'healthy', and I'm hearing that this is making you feel even more distress around eating.
I hope you were able to enjoy some of that delicious tempura goodness in the end 🙂
@Janine-RO well I gave it a shot by asking mum why weight loss ads were so common, when ...(insert basic HAES principles here).
My brother felt the need to interject with ill informed opinions to... idk, show off...? , which really slowed down the conversation. (and yes I did just put ... ? and , right next to each other and no grammar is not my greatest strength)
If nothing else it convinced her that equal access to healthcare is more important than weight loss.
As for vegetable tempura, try fancy Japanese restaurants. They can be a bit expensive so probably not possible to eat every night unfortunately, but I've had some really good, traditional Japanese tempura and oh, my, gosh. Magical.
For me my parents said that if I wanted to be vegetarian I had to properly research nutrition. Me being me managed to get halfway to being a nutritionist (not literally but I did go into way too much depth), freak out about the complexity of it all and manage to associate food with anxiety.
As for mindful eating that's something I've been meaning to look into for a while...
@Tiny_leaf I'm sorry to hear that the conversation with your mum was made a bit trickier with your brother interjecting, that sounds pretty frustrating - but it's great that you were able to chat a bit about some of the health at every size principles, and it sounds like you were able to help her to see that there's some complexities there that she hasn't been aware of. I think that's really fantastic - hopefully it will plant a seed for her. Like you've said, unhelpful ideas about food/ dieting/ weight can be so deeply ingrained in us, so I think it's excellent that you were able to have a conversation with her that challenged those thoughts a bit.
I used to live near a pretty fancy Japanese restaurant, and their tempura was out of this world! The best I've had outside of Japan, and now I am craving it 😉
I think you show a lot of self-awareness about how researching this stuff can increase unhelpful anxiety around food - maybe mindful eating could be a good thing to check out when you have the chance 🙂
