Is this too much to eat in a day?

[SENSummer]

I’ve lost all perspective. So many hormone triggered gastro issues since having my kids and my daily diet has gone out of the window. I feel nauseas a lot but regardless of what I do/don’t eat. I wake up early (5am) and finish eating for the day at 4/5pm.

Today I’ve had:

Small porridge with banana and oat milk

slice of toast

a small plain chocolate cupcake (homemade) & a Kit Kat chunky

a salmon fishcakes with a couple of new potatoes and garden peas

a digestive biscuit AND about 3/4 of a bag of twirl bites!

I’m done for the day now but honestly feel awful (and a bit sick at how much sweet stuff I’ve had)

I will caveat this by saying I’m rather slim and definitely in the ‘a few extra pounds wouldn’t hurt’ category and I’m pretty physically active.

Fairly clear that you have a very disordered relationship with food and eating if you are underweight (if you need to gain a few pounds) and are bingeing on chocolate. You don't need randomers on MN - where a lettuce leaf sustains a family for a fortnight - to comment on your eating patterns to validate your disordered habits, you need to address those issues by yourself and understand what's going on.

I feed the kids super healthily and then binge sweets In my car.

So you know how when you're on an aeroplane and they're doing the safety demonstration, they say to put on your own oxygen mask before helping others with theirs, since you're no good to them if you're unconscious? This is the equivalent.

Obviously you are an important person in your own right and deserve nutritious food just by virtue of being a human being, but people with your mentality (I don't mean that in a rude way, by the way!) will often only take care of themselves if they see it as a step towards taking care of their children. I find that is especially true of mums with SEN children.

It's not a lot, but it's not healthy if that's how you eat regularly. But I think you know that. One off won't hurt. You're not disgusting.

I`ve been eating all day had a lot more than you op.
Ive had 3 doughnuts already noddle pork pies apple pie pringles and the rest im just a bin today.
My coffee in take is worse about 5 -7 cups a day plus coke 3 -4 cans a day.

No much quantity but a lot on the sugary side, that may be why you are felling sick

A cupcake, a chocolate bar, 3/4 of a share size bag of chocolate and a biscuit is a lot of junk in one day.

Greek yoghurt, add some berries, grate some chocolate over it or crush up a meringue
rice cakes with cottage cheese and honey
piece of toast with cottage cheese, pesto, sun dried tomatoes
piece of cheese and an apple

If you remove the all the garage chocolate and biscuit and cupcake, you have a healthy diet. Is this an everyday pattern or a one off?

Not really helpful, the op is struggling. It would be more helpful to her to guide her in the right direction instead of calling what she ate "junk".

Poor you. Sounds like you're stress eating/not eating. When you have more energy in the morning (a new day and all that) could you make something up for dinner to stock in the fridge? Even a soup and pitta or something do you go to bed nourished.

I mean it’s lots of little bits and bobs and not a lot of protein. You’d probably feel better if you ate more and had it as 3 square meals a day with protein in each.

Also I promise a couple of bits of UPF won’t kill you. You’re not disgusting but you do sound a little eating disordered.

Some suggestions:

Houmous with corn cakes (much tastier than rice cakes!) and sliced carrot/cucumber/pepper.

Avocado and poached/scrambled eggs on toast.

Avocado and cream cheese on toast.

Apple slices spread with peanut butter.

I appreciate your being light hearted but please don’t describe yourself as disgusting

im guessing the chocolate is a much needed pick me up from what sounds like a a dam hard day/ night / evening

don’t be so hard on yourself , but do make steps too prioritise your health and wellbeing as you need to be functioning at your optimum

I had to think hard about my diet recently because, for one reason and another I just physically can't eat much. Slightly different problem to you I know. I used AI, told it what I had eaten and what I was capable of eating and asked it where I was lacking, nutritionally. After some to and fro it came up with a really good plan for me.

In case anyone is thinking it, I'm definitely not a competitive undereater, I've just been ill.

If her BMI is 18, she is also underweight. She also says her BMI has been as low as 16 in the past which is classed as "seriously underweight" and malnourished.

This is someone with an eating disorder, and to be fair, a lot of other things going on in her life. She needs a lot more than advice to eat greek yoghurt and granola, ffs.

No.
I do exercise a lot but more in the ‘I don’t sit down’ way than the ‘go to the gym’ way

Not for lack of trying but it’s certainly not what I was expecting with DS’s very high level of special needs. It’s getting a little better now but it has been an exceedingly hard few years.

So your days are at home waiting for DS to come back? No work, no exercise, no socialising?

Op sounds like you are trying to find happiness in sugar

I'd switch out at least some of the cakes / chocolate for another proper meal of some kind. doesn't have to be heavy but currently it looks like the bulk of your calories are from junk so no wonder you feel not great.

Chalk it down to a bad day. Try to get lots of protein and fibre in tomorrow.

Your blood sugar must be up and down like a yo yo, no wonder you feel sick by the end of the day, added to the stress of parenting!

Agree with others that it’s quality, rather than quantity that is the issue here. I would suggest making a meal plan that has more protein, healthy fats, fresh veg at regular intervals through the day - and trying to stick to it. If you have a helpful GP they might be able to refer you to a dietitian if you need more help with this. ChatGPT is great for ideas too!

You could download the My Fitness Pal which is free ( although they have a premium version) Its very easy to scan the labels and it tells you exactly what all of that adds up to...how many carbs/protein/fat etc. They've got various types of diet plans... although it doesnt sound like you need to restrict calories at all. But perhaps get more nutrients and fiber out of the calories you do have.

I'd say that there doesn't seem to be a lot on the veggie front... Greens etc..
You could chuck in an avocado, some salad.. Peas aren't bad but they are are considered to be a starchy veg, if you have toast, try to have wholegrain/wholemeal.
Nothing wrong with the odd bit of choc,,, but you could try veering towards dark choc as Kit Kats choc is much higher in Sugar. or replace one of the snacks with fruit... ( maybe keep a stash of frozen fruit to have with greek yog and sprinkle with some nuts that would be very filling)

You could get a blood test to check for vitamin deficiency... and boost that with some supplements. I discovered i had really low Vit D and B12 for example and that is despite having food which is supposed to be high in them. And now take daily supplements and eating more protein, oily fish, tofu etc.
I make a breakfast shake or overnight oats with it. (Wellwoman) recently I noticed that my dry skin, thinning hair and brittle nails have really improved but it took at least six months. ( and I used to believe you could get all your vitamins from food)

It's good that you are looking into it. I hadn't tweaked my diet for years and info about this is getting better all the time.

No expert - but looks like sugar highs then crashes which must feel like living with a hangover (equally guilty)….
Try going cold turkey off sugar for a week - you will probably get a banging headache on day 3 but should get better from there

You're sending yourself on a blood sugar rollercoaster, it's going to make you feel awful and nauseous.

Even if you just changed your breakfast to something protein rich, it would help you out for the rest of the day. The porridge + banana is going to send you on a big spike first thing.

• halloumi and egg
• scrambled eggs with avocado
• steak and eggs
• courgette and egg scramble

Sorry I do agree with this (despite me giving her healthy snack ideas). I missed the part about eating the chocolate in the car.

Therefore I don’t think Mumsnet is the best pace for advice. There’s too many of the ‘1200 calories a day is fine’ brigade on here.

You need to eat about twice the amount of fruit & vegetables (potatoes don't count) than you are at the moment.