*Trigger warning* Eating for Health and Wellness

[Guest_1055]

I have been struggling eating and eating healthy foods over the last couple of weeks. I really do not want to go back further to how I use to eat, that is eating junk food, takeaways, copious amounts of chocolate, processed junk and comfort eating.

Finding it challenging to stay motivated to actually prepare what I know helps me feel better mentally, emotionally and physically. Plus I have been feeling overwhelmed with other stuff happening in my life, which somehow makes it more challenging. The old unhealthy comfort eating thing is coming back. And I think I am getting concerned and scared about that. I so much do not want to go back to how I use to be. I was so sick. Plus I now have some physical things not right in my body , so I need to be more careful and mindful of what I eat. ( Pre cancer cells , high blood pressure )

I was eating really well since Febuary of this year, it’s just the last couple of weeks I haven’t.

So I would like to use this thread to help me be accountable to Beyond Blue people. So like a diary where I can post and report what I eat. And also any healthy eating tips, motivating strategies to help eat better or anything related to healthy eating for our bodies including our mental health.

[golden82]

Hey Shell, i am up too. It is 1.30am in SA and still 29 degrees.. too hot to sleep in my flat. I felt a bit off, so ate a porridge and half banana just now. Just because i got dizzy and shaky. That happens.. i hadn't eaten since a late breakfast. So i think maybe my blood sugars were low; or bp which is always a bit low anyway. So maybe it is something like that for you too. Maybe why u needed a snack at 10pm. I agree when u say about the emotions and stuff; but maybe also your body needed a lil something missing from your usual diet. I hope u are okay with it and remember that u bounce back everytime. I hope you feel better in the morning.

[Sophie_M]

Hi everyone,

We appreciate the lovely connections being made on this thread. We know it began as a discussion about weight loss, but we want to bring this discussion back to sharing your health and wellbeing journey and things that help keep you going. Instead of food intake, we’d love for anyone participating in this thread to share what’s helped them to focus on mental, emotional and physical health, and how they stay focused on that when things get tough.

While we encourage you to share practices that have contributed to your body confidence, comfort and overall wellbeing, we would prefer you don't share numbers such as current, previous or amount of weight lost. We will no longer be publishing measurements or other quantifiable details such as:

• weight
• BMI
• number of hours of exercise
• intake including lists of food/meals.

We thank you for your understanding, your participation on this thread, and your support of one another over the years here. 

Kind regards,

Sophie M

[golden82]

Hi Sophie,

I can see your issue with numbers and hours exercised. Not that i have ever seen ppl mentioning hours exercised. Or much discussion of exercise at all, other than perhaps saying went for a walk.

However i cannot see how disallowing ppl to share their smoothie or meal concoctions can be an issue. It is not a diet ppl are writing, but nourishing, filling foods which give us ideas of recipes to try. This can only be a positive surely? As nourishing ourselves helps support better mental health.

I have looked closely at your community rules and this discussion of meal ideas and recipes does not breach any of these. Please enlighten me on the issue of this and how it breaches your rules? Thank you.

[Guest_1055]

Hi Sophie

Feel a bit disappointed with what you wrote actually. I started this thread with the intention of helping myself to eat healthy foods. Eating healthy foods helps my mental, physical, and emotional health. One of the ways I was doing that is to keep a record of foods I eat. It was helping me stay on track. So the actual practice of this was/is helping my well being.

Also this thread was never started with any thoughts in regards to eating disorders. As I don't have one. I think these people that experience that may have issues with numbers etc. I don't experience this. I am just trying to eat healthy to help myself. That was my intention... to encourage one another to eat healthy.

So now I have no place to go with this. You have taken my intention away. So I feel so disappointed and sad about that.

[Sophie_M]

Hi Golden82 and Shelll,

Thank you for raising these questions. There are some really good points made. We do recognise how good these discussions can be, it’s just we also need to make sure posts are safe for the community.

We are happy for you to share meals or recipes here. 😊 We’re sorry that was a bit unclear from our message above. However, we’re no longer able to encourage posts with comprehensive food and calorie intake. Research and advice from the Butterfly Foundation and Mindframe show that discussions of intake, calorie and weight can be unsafe for many users, and can encourage competitive behaviours. As this is a space for people of all ages to discuss mental health and wellbeing, we do want to avoid discussions which are potentially dangerous to some of our members and readers. This comes under our community guidelines on safety.

We are sorry to hear you're feeling really disappointed Shelll. We know it’s an adjustment, but we really appreciate your help in making this space safe and welcoming. We want to thank you for making this thread such a great space to connect. We really hope you can continue to connect with your friends here.

Kind regards,

Sophie M

[Guest_1055]

Hi Sophie..

The Butterfly Foundation is primarily for people experiencing or living with disordered eating. Or for folks wanting information about it. That is my understanding.

If you look at the general population you will see there are countless people who experience obesity, diabetes, heart disease and other lifestyle illnesses. This is different to experiencing an eating disorder. They are different issues. Not to mention gaining weight from mental illness meds, which is a huge issue here on Beyond Blue. People with obesity sometimes found it encouraging to see numbers going down on a scale. Especially when they have put so much effort into getting healthier. The doctor even weighs you at the doctors office to see how much you are losing. Though it can be discouraging to see the opposite happening.

Writing what I eat in a day was truly helpful to me. Encouraging me to keep nourishing myself. Helping me to keep on track. Reinforcing what foods were beneficial for me to eat. And also letting me know which foods were affecting me in a not helpful way. Mindful eating perhaps. Thinking more and not just eating mindlessly.

I don't live with disordered eating and you will find many people including members on the forum who don't. And all over the world. But they may struggle with comfort eating, not know what foods are healthy, weight gain from mental illness meds or other meds, binging (that word used liberly, as it may just mean eating heaps of food rather then a diagnosis type thing) they may just want to improve their health in this way and get ideas from in here.

Even discussing healthy food encourages me in other ways. Helping my mental and emotional health. I bit like mindfulness. The scent of food, the texture of it, the colour of all those beautiful fruit and vegetables, how nourishing vegetables feel once inside your body. etc. Its beautiful.

I want to help myself and encourage others do to the same thats all.

[Sophie_M]

Hey Shelll,

We recognise that these are two separate issues, but we think it’s possible for this thread to be a helpful support for the challenges you mention without being a potentially harmful influence or trigger for other community members. That's why we encourage you to continue the discussion around weight loss without including calorie, weight or daily intake.

We've seen amazing things shared here including recipes and tips for health and wellbeing, we hope that can continue. We'll stop jumping in now, but we appreciate your help in making this space safe.

Kind regards, 

Sophie M

[Guest_1055]

Not good at having different opinions to others and voicing them. Feels threatening and my body feels tense. Feels like a scary debate, conflict. I am not even sure what you call it. Don't like it anyway. Emotionally feeling like running or hiding away. Don't won't to turn to crap food to self medicate. Thought has come into my mind though. Will it be beneficial the crap food .. Nope...

Its normal to have a different way at looking at things isn't it. Just talking to myself here.

Just breathe... How I grew up was no conflict, had opinions but never spoke them out. Maybe this can be a learning experience... Scared, just want to curl up in a ball. That is how my body is responding. Keep writing. Just because someone doesn't understand you doesn't mean they hate you does it. And it's ok to have different opinions, everyone is different. And even if they do hate me..... Well reality is not everyone is going to like me.

Struggling today... Very late night last night. Affects things today. More sensitive then other days. Discouraged. Not clear thinking, muddled thoughts now.

[Guest_206]

Thank you Sophie for helping to make this a safe space for the whole community. It's so important for so many reasons.

Golden - I wanted to reach out and say that I have experienced binge eating too and totally agree that eating regular proper meals and snacks throughout the day will help - though it can be really hard because we actually don't realise how much we restrict.

Other things ive found helpful is that it's ok to eat all kinds of foods - there's no such thing as good foods and bad foods, food is just food, they don't have a moral value. And if you do end up binging - that's ok - that's how you've learnt to cope.

And what you weigh and what the scales say? That number does not determine your worth or your health.

I can't remember if I've asked you in the past if you've been in touch with a non diet psychologist? This experience blew my mind in terms of coming to accept my body as it is and as it changes (because bodies will continually change and fluctuate) - though I'm still working on this). And if you're binging it's good to have an evidence based support team around you - I know you mentioned a clinic.

Anyway, I hope you're going ok.

Xg

[Guest_1055]

Hi Xg.. May I make a suggestion to you. Maybe you should start your own thread. Reason being I am reading what you are writing. It's confusing me. People on your thread could discuss disordered eating as a separate issue freely and you should feel safer there.