Weight Loss Support - comfort food when you are sick

I admit it...all bets are off when I am sick. I've got the raging sore throat that demands cream of rice with honey and butter for breakfast (normally I am very high protein breakfast) and honey in my herbal tea.

You poor sweetie. I recommend some yummy chicken broth with garlic seasoning. The salt and garlic will combat the sore throat. As well as the honey in your herbal.

I hope you get to feeling better. Also gargle warm salt water--that helps too.

careful with creamy foods, because extra mucus might irritate you some more!

Hang in there, I hope you feel better soon!

Get well soon! I, too, like chicken broth when I'm sick. Hope you feel better soon!

careful with creamy foods, because extra mucus might irritate you some more!

This is actually an urban legend...if creamy foods make you feel better, don't worry even a little about eating them! Feel better soon, hon!

:hug: hope you are feeling better soon! Take care of yourself.

must be just me then, because I feel like i'm choking on snot when I drink milk with a cold. I never touch it when I'm sick.

I definitely agree with the chicken soup! Are you better yet? I hope so. Have a good night!

This is actually an urban legend...if creamy foods make you feel better, don't worry even a little about eating them! Feel better soon, hon!

Well, besides the fact of course that cream of rice has no actual dairy product in it. Except the butter, which even if dairy produces mucus, I would guess it is a sensitivity to milk protein, not butterfat. Regardless, mucus has never been a problem for me and sorethroats, only sugar.

I ate crap today. It was actually kind of worth it. There is a chinese restaurant that I have been wanting to try for a long time because it is in a crap location so the fact that it has been around for 15 + years must mean it is good, right? Wrong. So I ate crap on a day I was really sick which I never beat myself up about. It's not like I could chew veggies anyway. And I rid myself of any desire to ever eat at that restaurant again. win-win.

What is cream of rice?

Cream of rice, cream of wheat - its hot rice or wheat cereal. Very finely ground so that it cooks quickly into a smooth porridge. Like baby cereal but not that instant, a bit coarser, but much smoother than oatmeal. Cream of rice is good sick food because it is very very easy to digest. Which makes it not great for a diet because it is quickly absorbed and has no fat (except for the butter I add), little fiber and not much protein

So are you guys saying it's okay to fall off the wagon every time you get sick? Hooray. I feel a cold coming on...and my back aches a little, and seasonal allergies are irritating my eyes and nose. Bring on the Chinese buffet....I'M SICK! Yippee.

PS: To all you chicks who are prone to binge and struggle every day with a reason not to, being sick is not a licence to pig out...just like being sad, depressed, tired, etc. is not a reason to pig out. Okay?

being sick is not a licence to pig out...just like being sad, depressed, tired, etc. is not a reason to pig out. Okay?


Lori Bell is absolutely right! That said, it makes sense to take care of yourself when you are sick. So, you increase the GOOD foods your body needs... lowfat chicken soup is a good idea! At the same time, you don't push your exercise.

I've read too many posts from members who are really ill but insist on doing an hour on the treadmill and restricting themselves to 1200 calories. Then they wonder why they aren't getting better. Duh!

Jay

So are you guys saying it's okay to fall off the wagon every time you get sick? Hooray. I feel a cold coming on...and my back aches a little, and seasonal allergies are irritating my eyes and nose. Bring on the Chinese buffet....I'M SICK! Yippee.

PS: To all you chicks who are prone to binge and struggle every day with a reason not to, being sick is not a licence to pig out...just like being sad, depressed, tired, etc. is not a reason to pig out. Okay?

Let me see total calories yesterday was slightly higher than loss level probably right at maintenance range. Thanks for the lecture.

MTA: and for what it is worth LOWFAT chicken soup (and since I was too sick to cook yesterday it would have had to be canned crap so no better than anything else I ate) is a major binge trigger for me.

Well then, go for the full-fat chicken soup! :dunno:

Jay

Or maybe I could skip chicken soup entirely.

Miso soup!! I bought a tub of miso from my local Asian grocery and some dried seaweed. Boil up some water, let it cool for 30 seconds, stir in miso and make sure it dissolves, add the seaweed and let it reconstitute, drink up! It's so good for you--lots of good stuff in that.

Or maybe I could skip chicken soup entirely.
Sure, why not? Didn't mean it literally...

Jay

I think my point is...most of us have enough issues with guilt eating. I quite clearly stated that on this particular day I did NOT feel any guilt. Quite the opposite actually.

So why the need to criticize? I ate very small portions of highly calorically dense, sodium and fat saturated food yesterday because yesterday that is what I needed. I've been ME long enough to know that on that kind of day...the kind where I would just as soon take sleeping pills so I could wake up in 2 or 3 days when the pain level comes back down to tolerable... the attempt to eat "healthy" leads to huge binges by evening - and the guilt from that can lead to days of binging.

Chicken soup (or whatever) might work if it was laced with high doses of narcotics, but since despite feeling like being hit by a truck would be a pleasant change I still have to take care of my children, the self-drugging with carbohydrates & fat is a safer strategy. (Food as drug...not a new concept, just a new application)

We used to have a thread around here about "what weight loss "rules" do you break". Most of the most successful people on here break some rules consistently.

Just to be ornery. I also reward weight loss with food. It works for me. There are some foods that I cant "fit in" to my plan and I save them for rewards. Works for me. Causes the diet guru's to freak out.

Well, obviously you can do whatever you like, but I still think that having a cold isn't an excuse for binge eating. It doesn't sound like you were binge eating anyway, ennay--perhaps that's where the confusion came in. It sounds like you know how much you ate--you weren't just off the rails stuffing down loaves of bread etc. without tracking...

And how is it working for you, ennay? Getting the results you want? Then that's great! :)

Jay

I think we're seeing some ruffled feathers, chickies!

ennay, I hope you feel better soon! Do know there was some confusion -- your first couple of messages did make it sound a bit like you binged. Your first post noted that 'all bets are off' and your second you said you ate like crap and commented on the Chinese food. So, I think there was some concern about what you really meant. I think there is a difference between comfort food when sick and using sickness as an excuse to eat as much of anything you like. Only later you said you really didn't overeat or binge.

Let's all remember that it's hard to always convey our meaning adequately online!

I think my main point remains. If a chickie feels no guilt then other chickies should not try to induce guilt. I actually regret clarifying that it wasnt a binge.

I would have been ok with a binge too. I've been sick for 7 days with a very high pain level the past 2 days , and I havent yet killed my children. Quite frankly anything that keeps me sane is ok by me.

ennay -- I take your point. :lol: But you've been around long enough to know that sometimes when we post, we get all sorts of comments! And sometimes they aren't supportive of what we're feeling...

I do hope you're feeling better soon!

and I have also been around long enough to see newer chickies go running when comments like that are made and never come back....

Am I personally offended? no. Grouchy as **** and ready to beat up anybody who might cross my path? yes.

ennay! I hope you are feeling much better. Chinese food is yummy. I like to get the egg drop soup and put lots of green onions in it. I hope you enjoyed your night being pampered.

don't like chicken soup eh? lol..

That cream of rice sounds like Farina. (sp?) I used to eat it alot.

Well, obviously you can do whatever you like, but I still think that having a cold isn't an excuse for binge eating. It doesn't sound like you were binge eating anyway, ennay--perhaps that's where the confusion came in.

Yup. I was also confused when somehow binging became part of the topic, as the OP never said or even implied anything about binging. :)

ennay--you sound really sick! Maybe medical intervention? That much pain could be strep throat, bronchitis... Anyway, hope you feel better soon!

Jay

I had the flu a couple of months ago - (real sick, temperature of 101.7, chills, body aches, sore throat). I ate pretty much nothing but Pinkberry frozen yogurt and hot tea with honey, big mugs of lemon thera flu with honey (LOTS OF HONEY becuase my throat hurt like fire) for 2 days.

I do understand how it's easy to rationalize and make excuses for offplan eating, but when I am really and truly sick (which has now happened twice since I changed my life in 2004), I will spoil myself and eat the foods that feel nice on my throat.

2-3 days of offplan eating is a tiny blip in my lifetime journey of health - as long as I don't let it be a slippery slope to extended off plan eating.

jendiet - farina is I think cream of wheat. Same thing only rice is smooooooother.

And I love REAL chicken soup, but that means roasting a chicken, boiling the bones........

yup, yesterday was the eat salty easy to chew foods to try to numb the throat day. Today is the fasting with tea without honey (sugar hurts) and choking enough food down that I dont quack up my antibiotic (for my ears) day. Mostly the buttered toast variety. I'd pick wonderbread if I had any in the house cause it dissolves on contact.

Maybe its just me, but when I'm truely sick I can only eat steamed broccoli with lemon, oranges, and plain veg broth. Its like my body screams for huge doses of vitamins. Can't eat bread or anything else. I also lose weight if I get a cold. I guess I am 'treating' myself to whatever I want. I only wish I wanted to eat that everyday-what a treat! :)

I'm pretty sure it's just you!:D

I'm pretty sure it's just you!:D

:lol: and http://img84.echo.cx/img84/4866/agreed8mv.gif