I used to lead a life very deprived of fat and sugar in my anorexic days, and surprise surprise, I entered bulimia after 'recovery' from anorexia.
I'm ready to reintroduce these types of foods into my structured eating plan, but I'm wondering how to do it.
Currently I eat breakfast at 7am (porridge made with milk), have an early lunch at 11 am (ham salad roles/pitta bread, soup (sometimes), and yoghurt + some fruit), have a snack (which is fruit at the moment) between 2 and 3 pm and then dinner at 6pm (which ranges from all sorts, pasta, rice, fish, chicken, potato, couscous all accompanied by vegetables). So all in all I have a healthy diet, but it isn't balanced, there isn't much fat in there.
Can anyone offer me any advice of when I can incorporate treat type foods into my structured eating plan? I really love biscuits but not so much chocolate and sweets, but I just don't know where to put them! Should I eat a treat every day until my body realises these foods aren't forbidden any more? Or should I just let my body tell me when it wants them? (I'm a bit wary of this approach as I'm still not great at working out when I'm genuinely hungry yet, and even if I am really hungry, I never really have a strong urge to eat a particular food! Also, in the past, it seems to have to led to me going days without these types of foods and then eating them a lot at once which prompts me to want to restrict...)
How have others reintroduced these types of foods? Any help would be greatly appreciated :)
Well, on the subject of just fats- if you're worried about not getting enough fat in your diet (as I was!), you could try eating nuts! I eat lots of them, because they're pretty much the only source of fat in my diet, they're healthy, and they've got a good amount of calories, which is good for me because I still sometimes tend to not eat quite enough. Additionally, by eating enough fats, I actually find myself craving other foods with lots of fat in them (ice cream was my main one) a lot, lot less!
As for the treats....well, what I've done, is basically just have them whenever a regular opportunity arises and I genuinely want one. I grew up in my family eating vegetables by the pound, fruits and carrots for dessert, so I honestly don't feel like eating treats that often, and I very rarely want them enough to go out and buy them (now that I'm not craving binges!). But for instance, today, I was out helping with a kid's birthday party, there were cupcakes left over, and I was a bit hungry since I missed my usual snack time. So I had a cupcake! I enjoyed it, wouldn't have minded not having it, but it was fun and satisfied my hunger, and allowed me to feel more fitting in with the social situation. So that's basically how I've done it, if that helped any!