It's now been a month of fish oil, prenatal vitamins, and struggling to reach 70g of protein from dairy/egg/fish/protein powder daily. I feel mental benefits from the fish oil (concentration better), but my hair and nails look the same. I am guessing that may take longer. The protein is still tough. If have to make myself eat it. If I eat intuitively, it is very low protein, and reminiscent of the way I was eating before that got me into trouble in the first place. But I don't LIKE to make myself finish things if I don't feel like it, just so that I get the protein. I understand that I may have gotten used to undereating (even though I am not underweight) and the fact that a 5.3 oz. yogurt feels like a lot probably seems dumb to people who are used to eating eggs and dairy daily.
I feel like I am forcing myself to eat a lot of the time, but in a month, my weight has only gone up by about a pound, which is weird. It feels like more. I have to say high protein snacks have been very helpful, as far as my energy level and not being completely ravenous at meals. But going for a long time between meals and being super hungry is what I'm used to, so I guess maybe being well-fed feels "wrong"? I know logically it's not, but it does seem like adding a single-serving container of Greek yogurt (or a homemade protein bar) and a frozen fruit/protein powder smoothie to my day is not much, but it feels like a lot. If you asked me if I actually wanted a snack, I would probably say no, I'm not hungry enough, but then if I skip it, it's a long time between meals and my protein for the day comes up short (maybe 40ish grams for the day without the snacks), which is a problem.
I have ventured into fish! Only canned tuna mixed with light mayo and sriacha so far. I can't bring myself to buy an actual fish and cook it. Are pouches of tuna better? What about salmon?
I guess what I'm asking is whether this will feel normal? How long should I expect it to take for my body to adjust? Thanks in advance!
It took me probably a year to fully recover from the two years of veering too far into low-fat vegan. I felt better pretty quickly, but growing new hair and fingernails takes a minute.
I can relate to the snack situation. It will be time to eat something with protein, I'm not hungry for it in the moment, but if I skip it, I find myself ravenous and low on energy later. I'm totally used to eating enough food and enough protein now. I look forward to those snacks when it was weird as hell at first. Eating adequately feels different from undereating, for sure, but it absolutely will feel normal and second nature in time.
I like tuna and salmon pouches much better than the cans. There is no oil or water to drain. If you want to go in a weird but delicious direction, try tuna, mayo, half a diced apple, and dried fruit (cherries, blueberries, or raisins) stirred together. I put peanut butter on the other half of the apple and eat it on the side. Anyone who has seen me eat the tuna/apple/mayo combo usually looks like they're going to throw up, but it's great! It's like chicken salad. Sliced grapes would be good in it too, maybe walnuts.