Diet is what worries me as I am strange with food. I have always been fussy but am extra careful with what I eat because I was a bulimic teenager.
My weight has steadily crept up since then recovery and I am now eating a maintainence diet which consists of Complan (
Complan offers nutritional food supplements) plus random other stuff I like (yoghurt, fruit, bread).
I can eat 'normally' but my anxiety creeps up and so I wanted to stick with complan (the flavour I have is on the above link), made with milk 3 times per day minimum and add on foods for fibre and nutrients.
Will this work for me if I stick to approx 1600 calories?
I was forced to go one a medically-required diet in 2001, when a medication I was taking for HIV sent my cholesterol from 150 to 525 in less than a month. I was given two options: either switch a medication with proven results in improving my immune system or go on the diet (plus two additional medications to control lipids and triglycerides).
I chose the diet, under the supervision of a nutritionist, and in the end lost almost 40 pounds of what I used to call "insurance fat" (an HIV thing), going from ~180 to ~145 lbs over about a year. It was a ruthless no-fat, no-cholesterol, never-no-kidding-never diet. It involved reading the label of virtually everything I put in my grocery cart. I was only allowed feta (not my beloved French chevre cheese) or an occasional slice of Lorraine, otherwise no cheese at all. I wasn't allowed anything but skim milk, but since most breakfast cereals are high in fat, it was no big loss, and worked well enough on oatmeal.
I could eat reduced portions of fish and/or chicken (and occasionally turkey), but no pork (or ham), no eggs and no beef of any kind, ever.
I learned to enjoy lemon juice on my vegetables, because both butter and margarine were banned. I also couldn't eat avocados, which was a huge loss. Lemons also work well on salads, because none of the standard dressings were permitted.
The only bread I was allowed was 100% whole wheat, and the only condiment was certain mustards, but since deli meat was banned, it really didn't make much difference except with tuna, which I'd mix with pasta rather than eating in a sandwich. Crunchy peanut butter became one of my staples, and certain preserves were acceptable (though not many).
Beware of anything labeled "lowfat", because the term is meaningless and completely relative. Only 0 fat is no-fat, and that's what the diet required.
This diet was one of the most difficult things I ever accomplished, and if my life hadn't been at risk I doubt I could have stuck with it, but I did; it was only five years later, when my cholesterol was coming back in double digits that my doc told me I could reintegrate fats into my life.
The good news: since 2006 I have retained the weight loss while eating whatever I want (look at my gallery: I have the body I had in my early 20s at 50). Also, by sticking with the diet, I eliminated that all-too common problem of humps, lumps and bellies that are so common with people with HIV. I credit that diet for keeping me alive. And I'll re-iterate: I was under continuous medical care and following the advice of a nutritionist.
The bad news: my lust for food never really came back: 90% of eating for me right now is more chore than joy. The other bummer is that that medication caused some pretty severe (and permanent) arterial damage, but that had nothing to do with the diet at all and everything to do with the medication's preventing me from properly absorbing/digesting fat.
