Meal plans, do they recover you?

Meal plans, do they work?✍🏻

Okay so I am 100% not a healthcare professional so pleaasseee don’t take my advice 100%, you know your body. However, I do have a big opinion on them as they have ruled my eating for the last 2 years😩

My experience

My experience with meal plans were initially great, after a long time of malnourishment and restricting it finally gave me a guide on ‘regular and normal’ eating. It seemed like a huge amount at the time which is totally untrue because my meal plan I would say is actually less calories than an anorexic recoverers needs. The meal plan led to very rigid and restricted eating as in only eating what was on my meal plan at the designsted snack time meaning I was only eating the same things over and over again. This didn’t help with my recovery and led to my quasi state I’m trying to get out of! Furthermore, I would try to substitute the meal plan in order to find lowest calorie of each item listed again tottally not a good idea! I also found that meal plans made me never eat above them, I would only eat that meal plan day in day out and it became my safety net. It led to me only mainting my weight and then only adding in food for gaining one at a time and making sure that became safe as though it’s another part of my meal plan. It all became to safe and rigid, no eating out, above or different. 

However when I started to go away from the meal plan, I wasn’t mentally recovered enough and skipped foods which isn’t good either. So I would say keep the meal plan as the base line of what you eat every day but change the snacks, eat out and eat more if your hungry but also don’t compensate your or restrict certain snacks because ‘you ate a fear food at lunch’. You have to eat the snacks too because  you are trying to recover from malnourishment and if you compensate or restrict your eating disorder is just winning again and don’t let it! Eat your base line meal plan but don’t get caught up in the rigidity of it and try and eat over as I can tell you of being in quasi recovery for about 1 year, it’s not any easier. 

Problems of living life in a restrictive meal plan;

•Eating enough

•Can function but also can’t maintain focus or join in

•Has a little energy but not enough

•Feelings of hunger

•Extreme cravings

•Insomnia

•Missing out

•Not being able to do the same if you was full of energy

•Still being scared and ruled by food

•Weighing food

 not being able to be flexible around eating out or meal times

Eating your meal plan whilst not being restrictive;

•Listening to hunger

•Heal your body

•I found reduced bloating

•More energy to do things you love

•Flexibility around meals (big one for me!)

•Conversations!

•School work (concentration)

•Aim to be free from you’re Ed despite the thoughts

Overall🧐;

So all in all, I advise you eat your meal plan I’m not saying you shouldn’t, you really should! But don’t be restrictive and I don’t mean having your fav dinner then skipping a snack, I mean having ur fav dinner that isn’t on ur meal  plan and then ur fav snack! Your allowed to eat over, meal plans are our base line to start eating around enough! And I’m my opinion meal plans given in Camhs for example aren’t enough and you may gain weight but if you are a little more it often speeds your metabolism and you actually need more than the plan as I did eventually! But again it’s about living beyond ridgity and comfort of a meal plan and doing scary things! I believe you should challenge your eating disorder at least once a day, so if you’re guilty of sticking to your meal plan, please try a new food at a different time with no compensation or restriction for it! It’s for you not anybody else, love yourself and your body😘 xoxo xoxo