Food struggles during an injury

Being out of commission kinda sucks, to put it bluntly and not at all eloquently. Not only am I frustrated because of the pain (which is getting better, but still oscillating between nagging/sore and medium/bad), but on top of that, I can't work out or rough-house with the puppies, or clean or do any of those things that help make graduate school more manageable mentally.

On top of this, I of course have concerns about weight gain. I have been quite active for the past year, almost year and a half. I really rely on being able to run and lift and then eat to support my activity. Part of what has helped me so much while dealing with the eating disorder is to begin to see food as fuel for my body. The better/more I eat (within limits) the better I perform both mentally and physically. Seeing the lifting numbers go up, running numbers go down seems to make up for the weight on the scale staying roughly the same. It's taken a while to get to that point, but I'm glad I got to it.

Fast forward to now. I haven't worked out "for real" in about two weeks, nor will I probably for at least another. When I get to the point that walking feels ok, I may start incorporating light jogging in, but it's going to be slow.

So, given that I'm not working out, what am I doing about food? I knew I would have this issue if I were to ever get very injured. It naturally begs a few questions:

Q-1). How do I start seeing food as fuel in general for normal body functioning and not just for training?

Q-2). If I cut back because I'm not training, how much do I cut back?

Q-3). How scared should I be that cutting back may send me back into a downwards loop of trying to see how low I can go -- at least for the time being?

Q-4). How do I deal with any possible weight gain I see on the scale?


So, I don't have concrete answers to any of this of course but here are my tentative answers the way I see them now:

A-1). I try to realize that recovery requires more work than just existing, that repair of damaged nerves and muscles needs rest -- but also fuel, and that the faster I heal the faster I get back to training.

A-2). I've honestly been trying to listen more to my body and just go with less than what I have been while training, but more than 1200. I usually hit 1300-1500 now...although some days this has been a struggle. I've also cut out more "junk" as in no ice cream on weekends after hard workouts and fewer less healthy snacks.

A-3). I think this depends on how long I have to do this for. However, trying to see it positively, this is good practice for any other future injuries or times when I need to take some time off.

A-4). Trying to do this now. It's harder than I thought **

** I have been taking Prednisone for inflammation. This is a steriod with one possible side effect of water retention. Now, while the "tiny" increase on the scale is most likely from that, I still get paranoid.