Eating when you do not care about eating

After a big change, food is often the first thing to go. Not deliberately. You just stop being hungry at the usual times, or you stop being bothered, or the kitchen was always someone else's room.

This is not about eating well. It is about eating at all, with as little effort and decision as possible.

Lower the bar on purpose

A meal does not need to be cooked. It does not need to be hot. It does not need to be eaten at a table. Toast counts. A tin of soup counts. Cheese and crackers standing at the counter counts.

Something is better than the right thing you never get around to making.

Keep five things in the house

Pick five foods you will eat without thinking about it, that keep for a while, and that need almost no preparation. Bread, eggs, peanut butter, fruit, tins, frozen meals, whatever works for you. Buy them every time you shop. When you do not know what to eat, eat one of the five.

Eat on a clock, not on hunger

If hunger has gone quiet, do not wait for it. Pick three times a day and eat something at each one, even something small. Set an alarm if you need to. It feels mechanical because it is.

Let people bring food

When people offer to help, food is one of the most useful things they can do, and one of the easiest for them to say yes to. If someone asks what they can do, "a couple of meals I can put in the freezer" is a real answer.

Drink water first

A lot of what feels like not wanting food is partly not drinking enough. A glass of water when you wake and with every meal is a small thing that helps.

When it is more than this

If you have stopped eating for several days, are losing weight quickly without trying, or are using alcohol in place of meals, that is worth raising with a doctor. Not because something is wrong with you. Because those are the kinds of things doctors are for.