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Perhaps your body is telling you that the foods you previously decided to eat aren't working. Dont listen to the sibling poster to eat a burger and fries, that

Perhaps your body is telling you that the foods you previously decided to eat aren't working. Dont listen to the sibling poster to eat a burger and fries, thats non-sense (at least by my standards) Us Americans (or if you arent American, the same applies to other first world countries) eat too much and they freak out when they hear someone else fasting. Now, your apparent depression does sound worrying to me, but you should be free to fast for a few days without the judgment of others. But on actually eating something: Are you a fruit person? Try buying a container of raspberries, blueberries or strawberries (or whatever fruit you like) Ideally, also pick up something green (I like steamed broccoli sprinkled with garlic powder) Or have some oatmeal and throw any of those berries and a banana in (perhaps with some seeds/nuts - I quite enjoy hemp seeds in my oatmeal lately) These foods are delicious to me and provide actual nutrition. Sometimes I fast for an extended period of time (skip a few meals to a couple of days,) but if these foods are lying around I tend to enjoy them greatly. Also try peaking at the sun during sunrise. Great way to start the day in my anecdotal opinion. (And there is a lot of scientific evidence that sun helps with "blue" moods)

pgeorgi 10y ago
When not having eaten anything due to stress since sunday when it's wednesday, "burgers and fries" seems to be better advice than a flow chart starting with an ambiguous question like "are you a fruit person? then ..., otherwise ..." because the former is trivially actionable (at least in the US): step out of the door, drive to the next burger place, eat. "trivially actionable" is worth a lot when stress is crushing you. There's also a difference between a conscious decision to fast for a few days and just not managing to eat for days at a time. Your advice is great (although I'm personally not so fond of "your body is telling you" interpretations) when basic needs are met and there's room for a bit of cognitive effort.
- chris_wot 10y ago
  I have to agree. This guy isn't fasting, he seems to be experiencing a life crisis and hasn't been eating because of it. At this point eating something, even as unhealthy as a burger and fries, is preferable to eating nothing. Nobody is suggesting this be part of a normal diet, but with what appears to be done pretty dark thoughts and not having eaten for several days it's probably more important that he eats something ASAP.
- VLM 10y ago
  "trivially actionable" You'll be a lot healthier, therefore feel a lot better, if you go to the nice grocery store (not the discount store or walmart) and buy the pre-made fancy salads, the ones with meat protein and dressing and all the stuff ready to eat in the plastic box. They're cheap, taste great, incredibly fast, reasonably filling, and keep in the fridge a couple days until they're questionable. If you're not leaving the house a minimum of every other day you're probably doing something wrong right there. If your commute doesn't go past a nice grocery store, again, a sign you're doin life wrong. They'll have names like "Asian style cashew chicken salad" or "cobb salad" or whatever. Just open the box, dump the sauce glop on top, shovel down, and you're done. I must have eaten thousands of those things, no exaggeration, when I was going to school and working two jobs at the same time. I bet they were 75% of my calories around exam week. The only thing worse than being stressed all the time would be being stressed and fat, or stressed and sick, or all three.
  - pgeorgi 10y ago
    The issue in instances like this is that there are options (your list ends with "or whatever". that's terrible in this situation). You don't want options when you don't have the cognitive capacity to make a decision. Otherwise things will happen like described up-thread: standing in the kitchen, looking at the cupboard, but not able to decide whether to pick the left or the right coffee mug. "Get a burger and fries" is about as unambiguous as possible without knowing the context. Sure "go to the artisan organic salad bar across the street and get their salad of the day menu" is the preferable option, but that requires contextual awareness, and less specific tasks are a problem in such situations. It's a case of "don't make me think" to get a bunch of processes started (in this case: energy intake and getting back the sensation of hunger), not an optimized diet plan.

pgeorgi 10y ago

When not having eaten anything due to stress since sunday when it's wednesday, "burgers and fries" seems to be better advice than a flow chart starting with an ambiguous question like "are you a fruit person? then ..., otherwise ..." because the former is trivially actionable (at least in the US): step out of the door, drive to the next burger place, eat. "trivially actionable" is worth a lot when stress is crushing you. There's also a difference between a conscious decision to fast for a few days and just not managing to eat for days at a time. Your advice is great (although I'm personally not so fond of "your body is telling you" interpretations) when basic needs are met and there's room for a bit of cognitive effort.

chris_wot 10y ago
I have to agree. This guy isn't fasting, he seems to be experiencing a life crisis and hasn't been eating because of it. At this point eating something, even as unhealthy as a burger and fries, is preferable to eating nothing. Nobody is suggesting this be part of a normal diet, but with what appears to be done pretty dark thoughts and not having eaten for several days it's probably more important that he eats something ASAP.
VLM 10y ago
"trivially actionable" You'll be a lot healthier, therefore feel a lot better, if you go to the nice grocery store (not the discount store or walmart) and buy the pre-made fancy salads, the ones with meat protein and dressing and all the stuff ready to eat in the plastic box. They're cheap, taste great, incredibly fast, reasonably filling, and keep in the fridge a couple days until they're questionable. If you're not leaving the house a minimum of every other day you're probably doing something wrong right there. If your commute doesn't go past a nice grocery store, again, a sign you're doin life wrong. They'll have names like "Asian style cashew chicken salad" or "cobb salad" or whatever. Just open the box, dump the sauce glop on top, shovel down, and you're done. I must have eaten thousands of those things, no exaggeration, when I was going to school and working two jobs at the same time. I bet they were 75% of my calories around exam week. The only thing worse than being stressed all the time would be being stressed and fat, or stressed and sick, or all three.
- pgeorgi 10y ago
  The issue in instances like this is that there are options (your list ends with "or whatever". that's terrible in this situation). You don't want options when you don't have the cognitive capacity to make a decision. Otherwise things will happen like described up-thread: standing in the kitchen, looking at the cupboard, but not able to decide whether to pick the left or the right coffee mug. "Get a burger and fries" is about as unambiguous as possible without knowing the context. Sure "go to the artisan organic salad bar across the street and get their salad of the day menu" is the preferable option, but that requires contextual awareness, and less specific tasks are a problem in such situations. It's a case of "don't make me think" to get a bunch of processes started (in this case: energy intake and getting back the sensation of hunger), not an optimized diet plan.