Day 3 - Nausea & Low/No Appetite

[alchemiholic]

Hello! I'm partway through Day 3 and am trying to manage an appetite situation. There are multiple components.

1. I have to pay very close attention to know when my body is asking for food, and/or simply time my meals so that I'm eating three meals with several hours in between. The traditional signs of hunger are not there, even when I know my body needs food. I still like flavors and textures, and find them interesting, it's just as though my body is averse to them.
2. At times, I experience nausea. Sometimes this is between meals, especially if I had trouble pushing through the previous meal. Other times, this is midway through a meal - even one that I can tell objectively tastes good. My taste buds love the food but my brain/stomach want to gag.
3. Weirdly, there are some meals I love and devour! My body seems to realize it's hungry as soon as I start eating these. Maybe these provide clues to how I can resolve?

I'll use yesterday (Day 2) as an example day:

• First meal: Three eggs mashed with half an avocado and served on a large sliced English cucumber
  • I loved the flavor but did not want to eat this meal for more than a few bites. The cucumber was easy but the eggs and avocado made me nauseous if I ate more than three bites in close proximity. 
• Second meal: Big bed of romaine with rosemary roasted beets, compliant lamb sausage, half an orange cut into chunks, olive oil, balsamic
  • I had to slow myself down! As soon as I started into this I was suddenly ravenous - though still did not experience the "tummy rumbling" physical discomfort I usually associate with hunger. I finished this easily within a normal frame for a mealtime.
• Third meal: Compliant frozen dinner - Beetnik Peruvian Stew - and carrot sticks
  • The carrots were easy to get down but the stew was impossible. I loved the flavors, again, but started feeling nauseous almost immediately. 2/3rds of the way through I was gagging and miserable. I gave up.

Between meals, I ended up setting a timer for the next meal because my body was not giving me the usual signals about being hungry.

Suggestions/solutions? I know "power through" is the general advice.

[ShannonM816]

Definitely focus on foods you're enjoying eating whenever you can. Can you pinpoint why it is you didn't want the eggs or the stew? I'm not sure where you are, but I know where I am, it's super hot, and even though I'm inside in air conditioning, stew does not even sound like a thing I'd want to try to eat right now. Could it be something like that? Or is it a texture thing? You liked the salad, and you're liking the vegetables, so those are crisp and cool, but stew and mashed eggs (hard boiled? like egg salad made with avo instead of mayo? or scrambled eggs?) are both kind of soft and mushy, maybe you're just not into those textures right now?

Maybe things like these would work well for you:  https://meljoulwan.com/2014/12/26/paleo-gado-gado-recipe/, https://nomnompaleo.com/20170725paleo-hiyashi-chuka-cold-ramen-salad, https://meljoulwan.com/2014/06/25/great-ingredients-recipe-required/? 

[alchemiholic]

With the stew, I remember thinking that if it were soup I'd have it down in no time. And while the lamb sausage in the salad was heavy, it wasn't texturally dense and had some flavor-brightening ingredients as part of the protein (rather than around the protein, like in the stew). I usually revel in different textures, and as a rule I love heavy dishes. So it may be that this dietary style has me more texture-sensitive (at least temporarily) and I just don't have the toolkit yet to recognize the signs.

I'll try focusing on dishes with bright clean crispy elements and see if that helps. Planning another salad for lunch with arugula, spinach, salmon, broccoli, strawberries, roasted mushrooms, and pumpkin seeds. I was going to have pork-fried cauliflower rice for dinner, but I'll change it up to a lemon rosemary roasted pork tenderloin and a salad with romaine, lightly steamed broccoli, and a citrus dressing.

ETA that ramen dish looks so wonderful to me right now! I think you're definitely onto something.

[alchemiholic]

Oh, and the eggs were hard-boiled - like egg salad with avo instead of mayo, yes. I've had it and loved it many times in the past so I was very surprised!