Now that I’m over my lower set point inching ever closer to my higher one, I thought it was finally time to show what I actually do in ED recovery – not as a “what you should eat,” but as a real-life example of how someone with my body, my metabolism, my conditions, and my history eats day to day. A “What I Eat in a Day,” but with explanations instead of just photos of food on plates, because the why is always more useful than the aesthetic.

I also thought it might be helpful (or at least interesting) because I eat 150g of protein a day without using Greek yoghurt, protein powder, or cottage cheese – all of which are, frankly, vile and I refuse to eat them even in the name of recovery. I do this with the metabolism of a 42-year-old woman, not the metabolism of a 19-year-old with hypermetabolism and who is more active than my aching joints would allow. This is how I get that much protein without making every food decision revolve around protein.

This is not a recommendation or a prescription.
It’s simply what keeps me stable, nourished, and sane.
Take what you need, ignore what you don’t.

And because I’m 42 and in recovery, no – I’ve never needed 2,500 calories a day, and I’ve still gained almost 30lbs. My current maintenance makes sense for my body, and if you want to understand why, read this post first where I explain how I found it.

Breakfast – UFit 50g Protein Shake

I’m never that hungry in the daytime, so getting a big chunk of my protein in early just makes my entire day easier. Eating protein first thing in the morning (and last thing at night) has helped SO MUCH with perimenopause symptoms, cortisol spikes, and my reactive blood sugar. I’ve learned the hard way that anything under 45g of protein per meal does absolutely nothing for me.

20–35g? Cute idea.
45–50g? Actually fixes things.

45g+ gives me:
– noticeably steadier blood sugar
– fewer cortisol surges
– better perimenopause symptoms
– better recovery
– and massively improved lean mass gains

There’s research showing people over 40 often need more protein per meal to get the same anabolic effect, and for me that’s been very accurate. Also, when I used to do 30–35g per meal, I’d spend the rest of the day doing macro gymnastics trying to fit enough total protein into a small maintenance calorie budget.

50g three times a day is SO MUCH easier than 30g five times a day.
My maintenance is low, so higher-protein meals give me more freedom to eat actual food later without my hunger going feral.

There’s not much to say about the shake itself. It tastes like a protein shake – fine, nothing exciting – but for 50g of protein at low calories, and cheap if you buy them in bulk, it frees up so much room for joy (hello macchiato, Biscoff army, and pistachio creme). For that reason alone, it’s totally worth it.

Lunch – The Burrito Bowl Anchor Meal

I eat my burrito every single day. Every. Day. And honestly it’s perfect for me. It gives me my second hit of almost 50g protein, a ton of micronutrients, actual flavour, and enough fibre to keep both my stomach and my blood sugar sane. It’s my anchor meal – the one thing in the day that reliably grounds me.

It also satisfies the absolutely feral kale, red onion and nooch cravings I’ve had for months. If I deny my body its daily kale with a dusting of nutritional yeast, I swear it turns into a tiny goblin and demands it nonstop. The same goes for red onions – I eat a whole one in this bowl, and my body would happily eat them like apples if I let it.

Variety is a privilege these days. Eating the exact same lunch every day is more affordable, less wasteful (especially when I’m the only one eating the veg), and honestly easier on my energy. Lidl salad veg stays fresher than Asda’s, which helps massively on the budget too. So why break something that’s perfect?

To switch things up a bit, I rotate the chicken flavour. My favourite is tandoori, but I’ve also had tikka, mango & coconut, piri piri, fajita, and plain Mexican seasoning. I use the pre-cooked sandwich chicken from Lidl’s fresh section – it’s cheap, the flavour options rotate, and it only needs two minutes in the microwave before I toast it in the wrap. Excellent for fatigue days and executive dysfunction.

I use a protein wrap and protein cheese. They only add 4–6g of extra protein each, but those little additions add up fast and help me hit 50g without effort.

Yes, it’s a high-volume bowl of food. But I only reach the recommended daily fibre – nothing extreme.

The same Instagram dietitians who yell,
“All volume eating is disordered!”
are also the ones shouting,
“It’s not protein you should worry about – it’s fibre!”

Well… you can’t get 25g+ of fibre without eating actual volume. That’s just biology, not disorder.

I also need a big bowl of food once a day. My stomach is stretchy, and if I don’t stretch it well at least once daily, my hunger becomes chaotic and asks for far more than my body actually needs. This meal keeps everything calm, predictable, and stable.

My burrito also helps because If I finish a meal and there’s still food on the plate, I’ll eat it – not because I’m bingeing, but because my stomach takes over an hour to realise food even happened. I never get fullness cues while I’m eating so mindful eating is not something that exists for me – I could eat for over an hour without feeling any type of full.

So I experimented for months with different bowl sizes until I found the exact one that hits delayed fullness without overshooting into “oh no I am dying” territory one hour later. Now I adjust kale/lettuce quantities depending on how goblin-y I feel, and it works beautifully. It’s not disordered eating – it’s living with a stomach that responds like Windows 98 loading a webpage.

I now think I’ve officially reached the age where micronutrients actually matter. When I was younger, I could get through the day on pure sugar and spite “I’ll just eat a Galaxy caramel for lunch”. Now? Vitamins and minerals hit like performance-enhancing drugs. A proper dose of greens, fibre, and actual nutrients gives me more stable energy than any snack ever could. It’s wild how much difference it makes now – so this bowl isn’t just protein, it’s micronutrient life support.

It’s also genuinely fun to eat a big bowl of food in front of the TV. It lasts longer than the previews and the title screen – it usually takes me half an episode to get through it – and there’s something incredibly comforting about that. I love big bowls because they feel joyful, grounding, and playful. After I’ve eaten the burrito itself, I make tiny lettuce wraps out of whatever’s left on the plate. It turns out that playing with food is just as good for adults as it is for kids when it comes to repairing your relationship with eating. It’s soothing, familiar, and makes the whole experience feel safe and enjoyable.

If You’d Like to Make My Daily Burrito Bowl

Here’s the exact line-up of ingredients I use every day. It looks like a lot written down, but it’s genuinely simple, affordable, and everything lasts the whole week:
– 1 Lidl Protein Wrap
– 20g Cathedral City Protein Cheese
– 15g Heinz Turkish Garlic Sauce
– ½ a cucumber (diced)
– 1 whole head of Romaine lettuce (chopped)
– 60g raw kale (my beloved)
– 7g nutritional yeast (nooch)
– Lime juice for dressing
– 1 medium red onion (yes, a whole one)
– 80g flavoured cooked chicken (Lidl sandwich chicken – flavour of the week)
– 1 heaped tablespoon sliced jalapeños
– A good crack of Himalayan pink salt

Macros: ~534 calories • 48g protein • 14g fat • 60g carbs
I weigh the Turkish garlic sauce because my brain has two modes: ‘a sensible 15g’ or ‘whoops I just used half the bottle.’ I prefer the former, especially when half the bottle is more calorie dense than this entire meal.

Give Us This Day Our Daily Biscoff

I still eat two Biscoff biscuits every single day. They mean so much to me now because they got me through the early part of recovery. If you’ve followed my blog for a while, you know I even named my Jellycat bear Biscoff because of it. The same goes for coffee with milk – I hadn’t had it for decades before this recovery, and now it’s something I genuinely look forward to.

Since buying my new coffee machine, I’ve been having a Starbucks caramel macchiato pod in the evening, and dipping a Biscoff in it is elite. Biscoff macchiato is the perfect pairing – 10/10 emotional support snack.

This is the start of my carb freedom, which I look forward to every day. Because of my blood sugar issues, I can’t eat carbs on their own before my burrito. I’ve tried having a macchiato before lunch and my blood sugar went into the stratosphere, but the burrito gives me a huge “carb buffer.” After it, I can finally eat carbs on their own – within reason – without feeling like I’m about to keel over.

And high blood sugar feels worse than low blood sugar. It hits like dread, confusion, rage, sweating, thirst, and the overwhelming feeling that you’re about to perish. Then comes the crash afterwards, where I feel half-alive for an hour. A double curse.

To actually repair my relationship with food, I couldn’t be riding those blood sugar rollercoasters all day. I had genuine reason to fear certain foods – not in an ED way, but because some of them genuinely made me feel violently ill. Stabilising that was the only way to make food feel safe again.

In this snack, and the mini meal next, I don’t have to think about protein because I’ve already got that covered, so it can be whatever I want.

Pistachio O’Clock

I used to have sourdough here, but it no longer fits into my current meal plan. To keep my beloved pistachio crème on toast, I switched to a much lighter bread. One slice of sourdough was basically the equivalent of five slices of this lighter bread, so now I can have two slices and still use the same glorious amount of pistachio crème I used before. I also added another generous crack of himalayan salt on top of the pistachio creme. It’s delicious, highly recommend putting salt on top of nut spreads on bread, delicious.

Honestly, I do hope I get back to where I was eventually, because sourdough is amazing. But for now, this bread still lets me dive head-first into my current pistachio hyperfixation, which is the main priority of this time slot.

And because pistachio is my Roman Empire right now, I also have a pistachio Lindt chocolate. I had a bag of them for my birthday and have been enjoying one every night since. When they run out, I have backup pistachio chocolates in the fridge – of course I do. I wrote about them in another post; it’s become its own little saga.

I sometimes swap the second slice for a fresh milk cake slice, my favourite is milkybar at the moment. I get milk based cravings a lot. But I ran out so today was two slices.

This mini-meal is just the pleasant little bridge between carbs and my evening quark bowl – a small “hold me over” moment until I take my meds and eat the 50g protein dessert situation in bed. Also, given I’ve got protein, micronutrients, and fibre covered the rest of the day, this is my eat whatever I want slot. Whatever I’m craving or hyperfixated fits here.

The Raspberry Pavlova Quark Dessert Bowl

Eating a cold bowl of naturally high-protein quark in bed was an accidental discovery that ended up changing my entire routine. I needed to take food with my medication – Quetiapine often irritates my stomach and makes me feel sick – so one night I grabbed a small pot of quark from the fridge to see if it helped. It didn’t just help; it changed everything.

It stopped the nausea, soothed my stomach, cooled me down, and helped me sleep. Perimenopause makes bedtime feel like I’m trying to sleep in a volcano, so the cold quark was unbelievably calming. It was like I’d accidentally discovered the night-time equivalent of air conditioning in dessert form.

And let’s be honest: a giant dessert bowl in bed while watching YouTube is one of life’s great comforts. Sure, the raspberry stains and meringue crumbs are not ideal — my mattress protector can vouch for that – but it’s still absolutely worth it.

I’m very loyal to the Lidl quark (it’s the only one I like), and thankfully it tastes nothing like Greek yoghurt or cottage cheese or protein powder – all of which I find hideous. Quark actually reminds me of Petit Filous, which is probably why I crave it so much.

The raspberry pavlova version came from a sudden craving. I bought meringue nests, raspberry quark, and frozen raspberries… and honestly? It tastes exactly like pavlova. Except my version contains 400g of quark, has over 50g of protein, and feels like pavlova designed by a bodybuilder. A very hench pavlova.

I’ve also made lemon cheesecake quark bowls using the lemon cheesecake flavour, topped with Biscoff biscuits for that buttery biscuit base vibe – and again, tastes exactly like cheesecake but in a massive bowl and far more satisfying.

Quark is naturally very thick, but if you pop it in the freezer for ten minutes, it firms up even more. My spoon literally stands up in it. At that point it has the texture of Mr Whippy ice cream, which makes it even more refreshing and even more sleep-friendly.

It’s incredibly easy to put together – or it would be, if Lidl hadn’t randomly decided to change quark from pots to pouches. I still don’t understand this decision. Quark needs a good stir before you eat it, and quark is thick. Getting it out of a pouch feels like trying to squeeze almost set concrete out of a toothpaste tube. I assume Lidl imagines people eating their quark in the gym like some kind of protein goblin, instead of in bed at 2am like me.

For this bowl, I use two pouches of Lidl quark, a whole cup of frozen raspberries, and one crushed meringue nest. That’s it. Three ingredients, maximum comfort, and over 50g of protein disguised as dessert. It’s as if ED recovery, perimenopause, sleep hygiene and “treat yourself” culture all agreed on one meal for once.

Cold quark, thick texture, huge bowl, 50g protein, bedtime cooling… honestly? It is the perfect end-of-day ritual.

Other Stuff I Happen to Consume

I take a small stack of supplements – just the important ones, nothing wild.
2g of fish oil as I don’t like fish, creatine, electrolytes (desperately needed when you wake up in a wet bed from drenching night sweats, hence why I’m basically a salt lick lately), 50% RDA magnesium (the rest comes from my electrolyte drink), and vitamin D. I take them with whatever food I’ve just eaten so they don’t make me feel sick.

And of course, the lifeblood: Starbucks Americano pods and decaf pods throughout the day. You already know my personality is 70% coffee at this point. Oh and there is non coffee fluids, 3 litres of water with Capri Sun squash in it.

Most of my days look almost exactly like this one. The only regular swap is when I go to Greggs. On those days, the protein shake at the start gets replaced with a festive bake a bit later – and absolutely nothing else changes. Yes, it’s more calories than the shake. No, it doesn’t matter. One day changes nothing, and if anything, I probably need the extra fuel because food shopping eats me alive.

Sometimes I also swap the shake for a 35g protein shake so I can have a Barebells protein bar, because my GOSH I love them. But they’re too expensive to eat everyday, and the 50g shakes are cheaper and get me the same protein for fewer calories, so the bars end up being an occasional treat instead of the daily fulfilment of my dreams.

Daily macros:
148g protein, 50g fat, 174g carbs, 27.5g fibre (1750 calories – which is a surplus currently I’m gaining about 0.25kg a week).

What I Ate Today.

So that’s my daily food routine – protein-heavy, high-volume, perimenopause-friendly, mould-infested-flat approved. Not aesthetic, not curated, not “what I eat when the camera’s on,” but literally just what keeps me from falling apart like a wet Tesco bag.

It works for my 42-year-old metabolism, my stretchy goblin stomach, my reactive hypoglycaemia blood sugar nonsense, and my recovery brain.
Since I turned 35 and started having perimenopause symptoms I have felt absolutely atrocious from eating too many ultra processed foods, so I try to keep them in balance or I’ll deal with hangovers and generally feeling like I’ve been hit by a bus. There’s still plenty of processed food though, I don’t ban them.

If this helps anyone else figure out even one tiny piece of their food puzzle, then I’m glad I overshared on the internet again.

Anyway, tomorrow I’ll be eating the exact same thing and trying not to get raspberry stains on my mattress protector… Again. However I am fancying a festive bake again, so maybe tomorrow will be a Greggs day.

This food rebuilt me, and this song does too. It’s my fight song:-
We toast drinks while we right where we wronged
In with the good air, bad air be gone
But unfiltered we are not stilted
Double entendres will be not jilted
Cuz’ we love the love that we live for
Concrete set but yet we still build more