Eating When You Have No Appetite
For the stretches when food feels like a chore and meals get skipped without you deciding to. It helps you get something in without cooking, make eating less of an event, and notice when it is time to tell a doctor.
Food · Food · Self-Care · 8 items · once a day
The checklist
- Keep something you can eat cold in the house — a meal that needs no cooking gets eaten.
- Aim for something small every few hours — frequent and small beats waiting for hunger.
- Drink it instead of chewing it — a smoothie or a glass of milk asks less of you.
- Put it on a smaller plate — a full small plate is less daunting than a half-empty one.
- Eat with someone, in person or on a call — company carries a meal that willpower will not.
- Set a quiet alarm at the times you usually eat — appetite is a poor reminder right now.
- Keep one food you always like within reach — familiar beats nutritious on the hard days.
- Tell a doctor if this has run on for weeks — a long stretch is worth someone looking at.
Use this checklist Free account: tick items off and keep each day's record.
How to use it
Run through it once a day, honestly and without scoring yourself. A checklist is a way of noticing, not a test: an item you cannot tick is information about the day, not a verdict on you. Over a few weeks the pattern of what gets ticked and what does not says more than any single pass.
With a free Theraglee account the checklist remembers each pass, so you can look back. Without one, you can still read it here and keep your own copy.