How To Eat More To Get Your Missing Period Back
Today I am answering a question about HOW to eat enough that was submitted to me via Instagram. If you want to submit questions or podcast topic requests, follow me at @thehasociety and shoot me a message!
Before I dive in, FYI this article is based on a podcast episode I did on The Hypothalamic Amenorrhea Podcast. If you'd like to listen to the episode OR learn more about myself and my services, as well as The HA Society, a membership that I run for women with HA, click here.
Don asks:
“How to convince myself to eat? I understand that I MUST eat way more, but I fall into restrictions from time to time.”
We all fall into restrictive patterns from time to time so that’s why I chose this question.
There you are: you’ve had a massive dinner and dessert. You’re so full and feeling a little proud because, well, HA. But also a little anxious because, well, fear of weight gain or bloating or whatever.
The next day you wake up and the first thing you do is assess your food-performance from the day before, and therefore how you rate yourself today on a scale of fit and fab to fat and flab.
Depending on the answer, you weigh up how you should approach your restriction. “Do I skip breakfast or just have two smaller meals? Maybe I should take an extra walk today. I know I’m meant to be reducing exercise but I ate so much yesterday that I probably have the calories in my system to handle a HIIT workout or a long run.”
I’m going out on a limb with that and assuming I’m not alone with that thought process. If I am, that’s fucking hilarious.
Ok so there you are – in the shame spiral and on operation rectify the situation.
For me, This. Was. An. Opportunity.
I started to frame this as an opportunity immediately. When this exact line of thinking happens, I worked to train myself to take action against it.
Let’s get back into analogies. When you train a dog, an infant human, a new skill or just a new habit, you train using association.
When you want to train a puppy to sit, you reward them with a treat each time they successfully sit on command. Now, in adulthood, the dog just associates sitting with being a good thing regardless of whether or not they get a treat.
When you want a human to learn to use the toilet...umm...actually I don’t have a kid and so I have no idea how you do this but I’m willing to bet that at some stage they are associating going to the toilet with great success. I’m sure there is cheering and excitement for all parties involved.
When you learn a new skill, for example the backflip and your body is starting to turn in the air, you learn to associate the moment you actually see the ground as the time when you snap your legs around and land right where you’re looking. Eventually, you don’t even think about it. Flip, find the floor, react.
It’s all association. So, can you find it inside of yourself to try and associate the moment you’re negotiating with yourself to restrict food, with also the moment when you flip that thought off and take a bite.
I also take plenty of time for reflection on this and personally have a therapist. I mostly answer my own questions with her – there is a lot of “and how does that make you feel?” happening.
I journal my thoughts on it. “Dear diary, today I really want to restrict”. But then I follow it with the sane logic that I know is true. “I know that I shouldn’t though, because I’m trying to recover”.
The reality is that our brains are psycho ex girlfriends that will stalk their ex and their new wife and see’s literally no issue with it whatsoever. Our brains will go full Alanis Morissette and then some (I love Alanis).
But when you write stuff down, it’s a lot harder to be a weirdo. You are faced to look at your own words and see them for what they are. I mean, really, how mortified would you be if someone could actually read your mind? No one should ever see what’s in there because it makes no sense.
Tips to Eat More For Hypothalamic Amenorrhea
Add fats to your meal
Fats have the highest calorie per gram and they’re pretty small volume-wise. So, a tablespoon of olive oil, an avocado, some peanut butter or butter will go a long way without feeling like you’re eating a mountain of food. So don’t be shy, put plenty of oil on your veggies!
Ensure you’re balancing your meals
Eating a good spread of protein, carbs and fat for most people, is ideal. This ensures you’re having a well rounded, robust meal and it’s ideal for ensuring you don’t spike your insulin. So if you tend to avoid a certain macronutrient it’s time to start bringing it in because a mix of the three is going to get your calories to where they need to be.
Don’t eat too much too early
I see this in my clients allll the time. If you’ve experienced waking up feeling super motivated, having a HUGE breakfast, then maybe a huge lunch and being essentially burned out on food by dinner time, this one’s for you. If you go really hard and eat all your calories early on in the day because you’ve just listened to an episode of The HA Podcast and your motivation is through to the roof, you’ll struggle to actually eat all the calories you need to because you’re no longer hungry. In fact, the thought of food might repulse you! So slow down, follow the above mentioned tip about balancing your meals and do that for 3 straight meals minimum.
Enlist help from someone you trust
The women we see do the best with recovery have a support network. Whoever it is – your mother, sister, partner, best friend – it has to be someone who you trust to call you out when they see you avoiding foods. Someone who will ask “have you had enough to eat?” or “are you sure you don’t want dessert?”. Explain to them what you need from them and be ready for it to be challenging when they do call you out.
Don’t have someone right now you can trust? Consider a 1:1 coach or join The HA Society for the most supportive community out there for HA.
Journal about it
It’s really important to keep a pulse on where your head is at day to day. When I went through recovery, I journaled every day about what I ate, how I moved my body, how I was feeling about it all and gave myself grace, mantras and motivation to keep going. You should definitely do this too, so that you can reflect on your days in an unbiased way and make sure that you’re not ignoring what’s really going on.
I created journal pages for my own recovery, and now I share them with you guys. These are the EXACT pages I used in my recovery and I want you to have them.
Use these beautiful journal templates and the 7 journal prompts it comes with to work through your recovery. Perfect for anyone with hypothalamic amenorrhea or disordered eating to reset and realign with their recovery goals.
Not all journals are 100% equipped for the HA recovery season of life. There are so many fitness journals, organizational and mindset journals out there that honestly…are not a PERFECT fit for going through HA recovery.
They can be really focused on over-achievement, drive our perfectionistic tendencies and keep us focused on productivity VS peacefulness and rest – which we need during this time.
What’s Inside The HA Recovery Journal Pages:
Go through daily and monthly reflections that keep you focused on the positive, on the small wins and the things that make you feel motivated to stick with recovery.
Work from the inside out: Smaller to-do lists and bigger to-experience lists.
Gratitude and affirmations
Food and movement reflection
Prompts for self care
Prompts for noticing progress
Today’s to-do list
Space to let your mind run free
Lessons and reflection from the past month
Looking ahead to the next month
Space for your mantras and quotes
7 journal prompts to help you start writing and reflecting
How To Use Them:
Print the pages off to bind them and get writing
Type directly into the PDF on your computer or tablet
Learn how to recover within 4-10 weeks, like our clients do! Take our Masterclass: Restore Ovulation & Get Pregnant Naturally
