This is probably my third respawn at this point.

[Jezzebelles]

Hi everyone!  Figured I could share my respawn story...

 

So my first respawn was after my second season of drum corps I was running 3+ miles every day, and super healthy.  But once winter hit, I found it so difficult to get outside and running in the cold and stopped.  Two retail jobs didn't help.  But then I joined a gym and it was great!  But then I moved to the Albany area, and got a new full-time job that took up most of my life.  But a few weeks after, I started counting calories and working out at home  Respawn #2!  I was sure that one would stick.

 

Until I got very ill.  It was combined anxiety and depression, and I found that I could no longer eat without feeling like I was about to lose whatever I had just eaten.  I ate a net 600 calories a day, simply because it was all I could keep down comfortably.  I counted every little thing I ate, not because I was trying to eat under an amount, but because I was trying to eat over 1,000.  I lost 10 pounds in less than two weeks and lost even more sleep.  I stopped working out because I didn't want to lose any of the small amount of calories I was eating.  I slowly started to work my way back into eating by stopping the calorie counts.  I am mostly back to normal, but I still can't eat like I normally did.  And I ate like a tank.  Which in hindsight, isn't a bad thing.

 

I started running and dancing again.  I teach a colorguard in the area, so I need to be fit so the younger students won't be wondering why I'm so out of shape.  I'm trying to get back into my healthy lifestyle.  I hope this third respawn will stick this time.

[Guzzi]

Hey @Jezzebelles

 

It's tough when life throws things like this at us, especially illness. I'm so sorry to hear about your illness and the problems that came with it. Just don't feel bad about it because that's a waste of your energy. 

 

Just a thought, why introduce something into your routine that you can do at home (yoga or a bodyweight workout maybe) so that in the winter when it starts getting miserable outside you still have something to keep you on track? 

 

Anyway, welcome back.  

[Evicious]

If you are having trouble eating enough volume to fulfill your base caloric needs, I would suggest trying to get more calories from denser foods. So instead of trying to eat more veggies, try eating ones that have more calories (potatoes, beets, beans, corn). Alternatively, you could swap out steaming/boiling veggies and fry them instead; the oil will increase the calorie count for the same serving size you can already comfortably eat. The same idea works for meat in your diet. Instead of eating tilapia, go for salmon or trout. Fry your fish, or make fish cakes, instead of baking it. Buy the fattier ground beef instead of the lean, or get the most well-marbled steak you can find. Keep the skin on your chicken...

 

You get the idea.

 

You'll also notice that I didn't suggest eating crap to increase your daily calories. Sure, it's an easy way to up the numbers... but that doesn't make it truly helpful. It's a fairly solid fact that nutrition isn't just about calories. It's about all the things your body needs to function at optimum levels. A calorie does = 4,840 joules - but if that were all we needed to live, we'd all be hooked up to battery packs and have done with all that "nutrition nonsense".

 

So if calories are a struggle, and you decide to try increasing your daily intake of them by consuming more calorically-dense food stuffs, I recommend you do so with healthy options rather than candy and fast food.