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What are your ARFID eating tips?
(lemmy.world)
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The way I experience this is that I don't enjoy eating. Chewing seems like a chore, especially when I could be doing something else. On a few occasions when the food is extremely delicious or I'm actually hungry from exercising, I actually enjoy eating because it finally taste delicious an rewarding. Otherwise, what.a.drag! Another issue I experience is the rest and digest autonomic nervous system response after eating where I get almost food drunk. I become dumb and tired. Noises and interruptions become extra annoying. The last issue, and the most difficult one for me, is that I don't like the feeling of food in my stomach. I feel bloated, heavy, and uncomfortable.
I figured out a few tricks. One, eat in small amounts throughout the day. That way, I'm not spending too much time eating, I don't get that heavy bloated feeling, and I don't feel food drunk. Two, which is a bit more difficult is to do some exercise that really makes me hungry. That way, I create a desire to eat. Three, eat my heaviest meal right before going to bed, that way I can use the food drunk to fall asleep and feeling heavy and annoyed wont matter because I'll be laying down and sleeping. I don't know if this last one is healthy, so I might need to change it up.
Fascinating, I've ended up doing much the same. For a while it wasn't the healthiest as I got too used to replacing every meal of the day with milk. It was just too much milk. Now I manage a sandwich or porridge or some snacks during the day, limit the milk to a smaller amount, then have a larger meal in the evening, and I mostly enjoy that meal as we tend to have extra good local and homegrown ingredients every day.
I'll be outdoors tending to the farm during a most of the day and that's how I manage to get hungry enough to get some snacks in. It's a strange way to eat but works well for me. It took a while to develop naturally. I still get it wrong on some days and end up chewing on something I definitely shouldn't have bothered to prepare and don't really want to eat, and just force some of it down for the sake of it.
I used to buy those expensive liquid meals in the past but ultimately they are just oatmeal with a few additional nutrients. When I really can't get down solid stuff I soak oatmeal in water for a day or half a day, shake it well, pour it through a sieve and drink that. Could mix in fruit, but I prefer really plain.