Many of us have disordered eating habits of some kind. Even if you eat normally most of the time and don’t have a full-blown medical disorder, you might still engage in certain unhealthy practices:
Skipping meals
Eating the same foods a majority the time
Cutting out certain food groups
Bingeing
Counting every calorie that goes into your mouth
Vomiting/using diet pills/taking laxatives
There’s a quiz on the Self Magazine website that lists these things, as well as quite a few others (it’s called Are You At Risk for Disordered Eating?).
I’m wondering: if you recognize that you have disordered eating habits, and want to do something about them, what kinds of things would be helpful for you?
Ideas:
** Hold yourself accountable to healthy eating by listing all the foods you’ve eaten on a daily/weekly basis. (A possible drawback: some people say that looking at lists of what other people eat can be triggering for them in a negative way — like if someone is eating less calories than they are, they feel like they should do the same.)
** Resolve to eat a wider variety of healthy foods by listing general descriptions of what you’re eating, and how that’s different from what you normally eat. (Like in my case, I tend to eat mostly the same things all the time for breakfast/lunch/snacks during the week when I’m at work. To combat that, I’d list what my normal meals tend to be and what effort I made to change them.)
I think something like this would be good for me because I usually do better when I’m holding myself accountable in some way. I haven’t thought of many ideas yet, but I thought if we put our heads together we might be able to come up with something (or maybe some people have tips on what worked for them to stop obsessing about food so much).
Thoughts?
17 Comments
I find that when I start logging everything, my disordered eating patterns can get even worse because then I’m focused even MORE so on what I put in my mouth. But, its different for everyone.
I think its really sad at the results for the majority of the people who’ve taken that quiz… so many people seem to have issues with eating.
One thing that actually triggers me a lot is watching TV specials or reading articles on eating disorders. I always ask myself why they can do it and I can’t. For some reason I feel that eating disorders are almost glamorized in programs. Isn’t that crazy? And I took that quiz. Oi! Bad, bad, bad. I’m looking forward to reading some good ideas from your readers.
Where did this thought process come from??
Tripp: This thought process is the result of another post I read recently where the blogger was talking about a disordered-eating episode she had. But the subject is never too far from my mind.
Sometimes I think the people who eat three meals a day with appropriate snacks and moderation are the ones with a disorder, only because it seems so foreign to me. Even though I TRY to maintain a normal schedule. I swear!
I overthink about food. That’s because I had so many digestion issues in the past, and I always think about what might hurt me. And I know I exxagerate, sometimes, just not to take any risk. There are things I don’t ever ever eat anymore. Or sometimes I will stop eating when I am still a bit hungry just because I am scared I will eat too much and get sick. I pay a lot of attention to quantities, so when I am eating out for example, it is very difficult for me to know exactly how much I eat and that is stressing.
On the other hand, I am not overweight anymore, I am not underweight and don’t have health problems, and my stomach works pretty well most of the time now. So I don’t want to change anything.
I tend to agree with Sagan that a detailed food log is triggering for me. What helps me is writing about my “slips”–putting it out there and owning it. I’ve gotten great support from this, and I think it makes people feel more comfortable talking about their own eating issues. I’m always interested in understanding WHY other people (and I) slip. What causes it? What can you do to get back on track?
Something I find interesting about food logging:
I now do it on SparkPeople.com (highly, HIGHLY recommended, and free!), and sometimes I can get out of a food rut by turning on the Meal Plans and browsing through what they recommend…it’s always HIGHER in calories than what I’d have chosen for myself, and has an interesting variety that often inspires me to eat something new.
I also like to look back a few years and see what I was eating then…sometimes it’s something I forgot I liked, and I’ll reincorporate it. Mostly, though, I try to mix it up as much as possible.
Hmmm, I think for the most part I’m pretty good with eating habits. However, I tend to buy the same items over and over and don’t “branch out” much. I guess what would help me with that is finding interesting recipes that incorporate different vegetables, for example.
What I find useful is cooking with someone else. When I have a friend or date for dinner, I tend to eat more veggies and throw more variety into my life. When I know someone else is there to see what I’m putting in my mouth, I tend to be much more conscious of what I’m eating.
I’m pretty decent at getting variety, but I do sometimes backslide into eating freezer pizza or too much candy when I get really busy.
oh, and visiting the farmer’s market and shopping at sales helps! I often see something that looks really yummy (last summer, that was swiss chard) or is really cheap, and then I have to figure out some way to cook with it. It’s a good challenge
For me, it’s staying off the scale. I don’t want a stupid meaningless number to have power over me. I just finished up five months of no scale and am now on another kick
It’s amazing how much better you can feel about yourself when you don’t start the day off facing a metal heap of junk.
I think that being around other people that have healthy/normal attitudes about food and their bodies is a huge help. A lot of times we get so wrapped up in our own habits, routines, and rules, and sometimes being around friends who are comfortable with themselves and have relaxed attitudes about eating can provide some much-needed perspective.
I actually read that article in Self. I eat the same things all the time, but that’s because I want to finish the box of cereal/finish the gallon of milk/finish the package of cheese/strawberries/celery before they go bad. I don’t think that’s a bad thing.
Huh, well, I skip lunch pretty much everyday. But that’s really just because I’ve never been a lunch eater and would fall asleep under my desk if I decided to start.
Eating the same things most of the time is disordered? Hmm, I wouldn’t have thought that. Usually I eat pretty similar things because I know they’re healthier than other foods, I can find them easily, I know how to prepare them and I know they’re filling/tasty. Angela makes a good point about eating the same thing until it’s gone, so it won’t spoil. Such is the curse of the single-person fridge, as Leah wrote a few days ago.
Oh, and Leah mentioned swiss chard—yum! I went through quite a swiss chard phase a few months ago. I love it sauteed with sliced onion, olive oil, ground ginger, white pepper and a dash of vinegar.
I think it’s great to branch out, but it can be difficult when you’re trying not to spend tons of money on food and often cooking for one.
I think that I sometimes develop disordered eating due to the need for structure when I’m dieting. If I try to diet with no “plan” I always fall off the wagon immediately, so when I get serious about losing weight/getting in shape I try to plan every little bit of what my diet is going to consist over. It never last longer than 2 or 3 months though.