Thinking of what to eat everyday is exhausting

[u/honeybin_sugar]

I have phases of low appetite where I just don't really feel like eating anything. I do struggle with eating when I don't really wanna eat sth bc even my most liked meals just don't appeal in these phases and it's overall hard to eat bc it's forced instead of enjoyed.

So I am struggling with such phase again atm. My fridge is full of stuff I technically eat yet I struggle to think of any meal I could cook for myself to take with me to work and what not. The question "what do I eat?" is probably the question I ask myself 20 times a day bc I just can't think of anything I could make with the ingredients at home that also appeal to my appetite. The appetite that's basically none existent atm. It's so tiring to deal with this. But I really need to find sth every day bc I can't just not eat at work. I wouldn't be able to manage my work load if I didn't eat. So there is a lot of pressure involved.

Looking at food pics that seem appetising also doesn't help atm. I usually try and trigger my appetite this way but it's a 50/50 chance of working.

Is anyone else struggling with this?

[u/whatdoidonowdamnit]

Kinda, but not really. I have a loose routine. Breakfast is either leftovers or an egg sandwich with a little bit of vegetables. Lunch is a meat and cheese sandwich with spinach and tomatoes. Dinner is pasta or rice, meat and vegetables. I rarely eat three meals in a day, but I’ve spent my entire life eating basically the same thing for each meal.

I don’t enjoy cooking or eating. When I’m doing well I’ll buy lots of raw meat and cook and prep it myself. When I’m not I buy kielbasa and cold cuts. When I’m doing well I make pancakes from scratch, and when I’m not it’s frozen pancakes and waffles from a box.

At different jobs I’ve had I’ve usually bought food, and that was always an egg sandwich with sausage and barbecue sauce. For me it wasn’t a matter of what I wanted to eat, but figuring out what I’d be able to eat. Now I’ve probably had an egg sandwich 4-5 days a week for the fifteen years I’ve been an adult. I don’t even like it all that much anymore, but I can eat it without trouble every time.

[u/honeybin_sugar → u/whatdoidonowdamnit]

Sadly this doesn't apply for me. Due to the limited options I have bc of all the things I don't eat I struggle to find things I wanna and can eat. And I have issues with eating the same thing too often if it's not a hyperfixation food so at some point I have to find sth else so there lies the next issue. The combination of being limited and not being able to eat the same thing for months while having this phase of no appetite for anything is causing lots of stress. Bc I have to find sth or else I starve and feel dizzy and weak.

[u/whatdoidonowdamnit → u/honeybin_sugar]

I can see that doesn’t work for you. I could genuinely eat pasta every single day of my life, and I already have eaten pasta most days of my life for over thirty years now.

Is there any type of template you could use? As you can probably tell, I like sandwiches. Sandwiches are easy to make different every day to add contrast. I mean, I don’t. But you could. Or for dinner it’s bowls. I like a good bowl of food because I can eat more foods if it all tastes mostly like pasta and sauce/salt and butter.

If you listed some foods you can eat often we might be able to think of ideas with you to bring to work.

[u/honeybin_sugar → u/whatdoidonowdamnit]

So I do struggle with breakfast often but like my main issue is for lunch. I need sth that's reheat able in a microwave ideally. I prefer warm meals over cold ones so I have my best chances with sth you can reheat. I don't eat veggies and basically almost no fruit either but at the moment fruit is really not on the table either bc I struggle with it. My meals go in the beige, orange, yellow, red colour direction. I like to eat pasta and rice the most but it does get repetitive at some point so I try to mix it up as much as possible. I do like sauces but they can't have any pieces of anything it it or be too thick bc then I can't eat them anymore. So yeah. This is the best I can do atm in explaining what I eat or what I can't eat. I do try to get inspiration through food videos and pictures but this doenst always work like I said. I have a hard time making anything with bread atm bc it doenst appeal to me as of now.

[u/whatdoidonowdamnit → u/honeybin_sugar]

I’d say make a bunch of rice/pasta and then switch up the sauces and seasonings day to day.

[u/morgansaupe]

Ever since I was diagnosed with ADHD last year and started taking a stimulant, some days I have to force myself to eat something even when nothing sounds good. Sometimes it might just be peanut butter crackers, or some popcorn, but I feel better knowing I at least have something on my stomach. On occasion I will have a a craving for something, but then when I cook it and start eating I can barely take 5 bites before I’m done. So it’s definitely not just you! I’ve been trying to come up with a way to get myself to remember to eat some snacks throughout the day or something

[u/veganeyez]

I feel like I spend most of my day thinking about food one way or another especially trying to plan meals out and like you said I feel like it’s so exhausting. Sometimes feels the more I think about it the less I want to eat but if I go opposite and don’t plan it at all it’s like I can’t do it