[CW: Unintentional bad eating habits. Accidentally skipping meals.] Looking for advice on ways to do meal prep with DID.

Extended Content Warning

I do not have an eating disorder, but extensive talk of eating too little and missing meals can be upsetting and triggering either way. If those topics are sensitive for you even when not caused by eating disorders, please skip over this post!!

Quick Notes

This post is long so headings are used to separate sections for legibility. I have to yap so much here because more general advice hasn’t worked for me in the past. I’m out of corners to cut I fear. DID is rare and severe, so I’m not exactly swimming in opportunities to hear from another person who has the disorder… much less multiple people who have it…

Right now, I’m struggling with eating consistently due to executive disfunction. It feels a bit strange going to such a public place for advice on something so vulnerable, but even advice for pwPTSD has left me struggling. Some symptoms of DID are horrible in a very distinct way unfortunately and I just wanna eat more food, man.

As an aside: alters are pretty much the dominant topic in this subreddit. No comment on that, not what this post is about. But I would not benefit much from advice that revolves very heavily around the symptom of alters. Most likely.

Identity alteration is one of my most debilitating symptoms, don’t get me wrong here. That’s exactly why alter-centric advice wouldn’t be as helpful actually LOL. I’m limited in how much I can do to handle having alters. Currently, I can’t work with parts, I have to work around them, you know? Anything that hinges on proper collaboration or “communication” between alters is a long-term goal for me at best and a pipe dream at worst… I’m not there yet at all. I have a therapist, I’m working on it in therapy, it’s gonna be a long while.

The Actual Post (LMFAO)

Some questions I have are:

1. Does anybody here use meal prep to make sure you eat enough? If so, how do you approach it?

2. When making sure you eat consistently, how do you work around DID symptoms, especially in moments where you have unexpected flare-ups?

3. Is there a way to break meal prep down to make it feel less intimidating/draining?

4. Do you know approaches to meal prep that didn’t click for you personally, but have helped other pwDID?

I struggle with eating properly everyday and miss meals constantly. I’m VERY new to seeing a therapist for DID (only started in late 2024) so I struggle a lot with managing the illness. It bleeds into my eating habits. My goal is to find a way to ensure I can eat three meals per day with snacks prepared. Microwave meals are too expensive to rely on… and eating out/having food delivered is even more expensive... 💔 Homemade meals are the way.

Meal prep is the option I want to try most, but it is still difficult to muster the energy to actually do it. I also struggle to adapt the approach to accommodate my disabilities. I imagine as I build the habit, it’ll get a lot easier. It’s probably just a matter of starting and finding my rhythm. Easier said than done.

Part of the appeal of preparing food in advance is that it’s a lot easier for me to eat if all I have to do is grab the food. Not all parts have the energy to cook, the desire to cook, or the ability to cook. One of my most debilitating symptoms is the fact that skills aren’t guaranteed to transfer from one part to another. Prepping food in advance would mean I can eat regardless of what state I’m in. 🙂‍↕️ If anybody has some advice, it would be greatly appreciated.