I hate eating

I can most positively relate to this problem, Zambi. How tall are you and how much do you weigh? I have a problem with food which borders on anorexia. It's not good for me and I do realise this fact but I cannot stop myself under-eating. I don't eat junk or processed food. It must be incredibly difficult for you, since you need help to eat. I struggle to hold a fork and so I use a plastic one, which weighs less and wedges nicely between my fingers. I eat unaided. Yes, I do not have a healthy relationship with food. I look around at people cramming their mouths and wonder how they do it. I am 5'11" by the way, or was. I weigh 55.5 kg

Hello Zambi. No I do not feel hunger the way I used to. I am rarely hungry. I have a small breakfast, very small. I'm almost embarrassed to say how little I eat at breakfast. I have lunch at around midday-ish, usually some sort of wholegrain cereal with soya milk. I add nuts and raisins. It's an embarrassingly small amount. Then I have dinner at around 5 o'clock, which is soon. I have a small dinner by average standards. In the evening I have fruit. All of the food I eat is healthy and nutritious. Occasionally I have fish between meals, a mouthful to boost my protein levels. I have vitamin tablets. I drink cranberry juice. My liquid intake is approximately 2 and a 1/2 litres over a 24-hour period. I really should eat more. I'm never tempted to eat dessert or sweets. What a horrible admission to make publicly

I'm a paraplegic, but, like you, have very slow digestion. It bothers me that I'll have a snack of maybe some roasted peanuts, and after eating only a few, know that I should stop. I position myself in front of the television and eat a few nuts. They taste good. Crunchy. The instinct to eat another handful urges me on. I eat another handful. Now that my desire to "feed" has been awakened, I want to keep going, but due to past experiences, I stop myself. I then eat some pineapple, hoping that the enzymes will help digest the peanuts I've eaten. All the food that I eat has to be "considered" in relation to my ability to actually digest it and eliminate it. Eating is no longer a fun-filled free-for-all celebration of deliciousness.

Monarch, I had an unusually awful bout with a stubborn "lump in my stomach" last week. After I took one TerraZyme (from DoTerra) I turned the corner toward improvement. After a couple of hours, I took one more. By the next day, food interested me again.

I have an additional problem, which does not help.  Hiatus hernia. My posture in the chair isn't exactly brilliant. On occasion my stomach generates terrific amounts air, gas, which comes out in the form of prolonged burping. I too experience a sensation of having a dead weight, lump, in my stomach after eating. Not always, though. Your description of eating nuts, vintage, was very evocative. You have a few nuts and then you want more. I enjoy nuts. I roast peanuts, almonds and hazelnuts. It's a dilemma because you know the more you eat more problems you're going to have. It would appear that "bloating" is a common phenomenon where spinal injury is concerned.

Great discussion! Lately I've been skipping breakfast because my mornings are so rushed and I gotta leave for work and not be late. I don't have a problem with eating, I like eating but I've been eating too much junk lately. I've been really considering cutting down on how much I eat and watching what I eat. I don't even have time to go to physio anymore because by the time I get off work it's too late so I've really gained some weight in the past half year. As long as you guys are healthy and getting enough nutrients from what you do eat, you should be fine. Is it strange to say that I want to join y'all in this eating very little thing?

Yes, DJ, this is a very good thread. It is a revelation to see how other people cope with eating. Vintage, I thought marshmallow root was the key to digestive problems? Am I wrong? Monarch, I note that on another post you have complained of pain in your right hand side. I get exactly the same thing. Sometimes it's unbearable. It's like the stitch, that sharp pain you got in the side when you ran. I used to get it as a child. I did quite a bit of running in my 20s and it never bothered me then. This happened quite suddenly around eight years ago. Sometimes the pain in my right hand side can be excruciating. I've had CT scans, ultrasound scans and other tests but nothing has flagged up as the source of the pain. It used to terrify me. Thankfully, though, I haven't had it for a while. It would come on spontaneously. There was no rhyme or reason to it, nothing I could identify as the cause. It's just part of spinal injury by the sound of it. This morning at 8 o'clock I had half a slice of toast with butter and a sardine from a tin, which was approximately 3 inches in length. It was a little tiddler. Just enough protein, b vitamins and fish oils to keep me going. I finished painting at midday, came down into the house and had some cereal. I had what is known in the UK as mini shredies, which is like wholemeal shredded wheat with no other ingredients. They are tea spoon size. Just a few sprinkled in the bowl, enough to cover the bottom. I then added peanuts and raisins and soya milk. That was it. I'm totally satiated. I won't eat another thing now until 5 o'clock. Not sure what to have for dinner but it won't be a lot, that is guaranteed.