I hope this is the right sub to post. I have been researching ARFID for the past year or so, and although I haven’t officially been diagnosed, I think I meet a lot of the criteria. My apologies if this post belongs in a different sub. Here it is

For the past year or so my food consumption choices have gone down hill fast. It’s been a very stressful year and when I’m in periods of high stress, my appetite nearly shuts off completely. I also seemed to develop food aversions and extreme pickiness overall. I rarely eat meat and also have many other foods on my “no” list. Throughout all this, I have unintentionally lost about 15 pounds (and I could stand to lose 10 more and still be in the healthy range)

It’s gotten to the point where I’m having a 150 calorie protein shake for breakfast, lunch is either nothing at all or something very small like a boiled egg and raw veggies. I generally skip dinner all together. Then around 9-10 pm I give into boredom and snack on things like processed chips, sugary cereal, candy, etc. Today, on an American holiday known for cooking out and pigging out, all I had was a protein shake for breakfast, followed by lunch which was 3 bites of a hamburger patty and 1 ear of corn on the cob. I didn’t even want to eat either of those things, but I did my best to have a few bites so my family wouldn’t be worried. That was 10 hours ago and I haven’t eaten anything else all day. I want to be clear that I am not intentionally starving myself, nor do I have body image issues, and I don’t want to condone or promote my bad eating habits in any way. I want to fix this.

I probably have about 300 calories per day of actual nutritious food and another 500 calories combined of alcohol, soda, and late night junk snacks. Obviously this is a horrendous pattern that I need to change.

Between my extensive food aversions and strong dislike for cooking, I feel so confused and discouraged in trying to improve my healthy eating habits. I truly want to change and fuel my body to give it what it needs, but whenever I try to come up with something, I can’t hardly ever think of anything that sounds good.

Can anybody recommend suggestions for some extremely simple low-cook/no-cook plates that I could try to work into my routine so I am eating more nutritionally balanced while either maintaining my weight loss or losing another 10 pounds? The easier the better and mostly vegetarian based if possible. Thanks