curious...weird eating habits from ED/OCD?
This may be in the wrong forum, I was just wondering has anyone else developed or had weird eating habits since an eating disorder or obsessive compulsive disorder? I have always had some quirks from my OCD, but since my eating disorder I laugh and question myself when I find myself doing these behaviors. In therapy, I see a lot of others also have the same concern or do similar behaviors. Some of mine include-
- Cutting up my sandwich or whatever I am eating into very, very small pieces and eating them with silverware, even if it was a sloppy joe or turkey sandwich
- Dipping my sandwiches/crackers/fruit/cookies in milk
- Ripping up my sandwiches and dropping them in milk, then eating it like soup
- Cutting up scrambled eggs, salad leaves, spaghetti
- Cutting up my english muffin or bagel upside down
- Taking forever to cut up a piece of fruit because I refuse to bite into it
- Mixing foods like peanut butter with tomato, chicken, turkey etc.
- Eating foods lighter in color first, then darker ones later
- I hardly ever use ketchup/mustard/salt/pepper anymore, maybe its the whole 'fear of calories' thing
- Experimenting with microwaving foods and seeing what tastes good
- Eating either really fast, or really slowly.
Those are just a few of them, but I have seen people overuse condiments to an extreme, have the compulsion to eat every little crumb and finish everything 100% and of course, cutting up food beyond belief.
I'm doing better now at controlling them, but I was just wondering out of curiosity.
I eat everything in layers.
I like foods that are mixed up together
In order to enjoy what I'm eating I have to be able to see it (ex: It can't be dark while I'm eating.)
I constantly have to have a calculator handy so I can calculate how many calories I've eaten that day over and over again
I'm very idecisive. (In everything)
I'm sure there is more but thats all I can think of.
1) I hate eating after 6pm 2) I don't like to eat meals either too close together or too far apart 3) I find myself eating the same thing every day (breakfast- 1 1/2 cup oatmeal, 1 yogurt, 1 banana, and 5 almonds/ lunch-bean burrito, lettuce, apple, orange, skim milk) i eat that pretty much everyday without fail. 4) I eat everything on my plate, hungry or not 5) I love to see other people eat fatty/sugary foods like fries (that's SO terrible i hate it!) 6) I find myself trying to pursuade friends and family to eat more 7) I don't like to eat things that I don't have some idea of how many calories are in it 8) I never eat things I crave, I always stick with "safe foods" 9) I still can't seem to justify having a little ice cream or a peice of chocolate even if it's only like 50 calories.
I've gotten better and finally eat enough to maintain but i still get panickly/obsessive about food. I pray to God it goes away, I don't know how much longer I can put up with this.
OMG thank god im not alone!!!
It's weird that most of our habits are really similar..so maybe we arent so weird bcoz there are so many of us hehe..but yer here are some of myn..
- I won't eat something if I don't know how many calories are in it.
- I measure and re-measure all my food... eg. grapes, cereals, nuts...
- All I think about is food and Im always planning what I am going to eat for the week.
- I calculate and re-calculate calories.
- I ALWAYS have with me:
-A notebook with all my 'safe foods' and how many cals in each.
-A complete calorie and fat counter book.
-My food and calorie diary. - I have a strict eating schedule.
- I find i put together the weirdest combos of foods.
- Eat healthy and safe foods before anything else.
- Always eat everything on my plate.
- Freak out when my boyfriend or someone eats part of my food and try to calculate how many calories he ate from my meal.
The feeling i get from knowin i'm in control and watchin the scales constantly is addictive...
I have so many strange habits.
But I get sooo Pissed at my Boyfriend when he eats my healthy food. Ill buy a bag of apple crisps, which are expensive and want to passively munch on then for a couple of days between my meals and he will just eat them all in one sitting. It also pisses me off when he eats my food because I feel weak already and I see my needed energy calories going into his mouth. Even worse is when we go out to eat and I let my self endulge then he barely eats his. I just hate when ppl mess with my food
*I never eat later then 5pm
*I don't eat anything that requires cooking/ preparing time - because by the time it is done i have convinced myself i don't need it - which means i haven't eaten hot food in almost 2 years . . .
*I like to pick the edges off of things like rolls and buns
*I round up calories for everything
*I sip my coffee with my teaspoon before i start to drink it - this drives my family mad!
*I never let anyone see me eat, i just couldn't cope if someone was to make a comment
*I try and either give away of throw away any foods which I want to but know i shouldn't eat - chocolate raisins for example
*I love to bake cakes - but i never eat what i make
*I love to bring cakes and bread from the bakery where i work for people but i hardly ever bring stuff for myself intentially
*I break pieces of my food off and give it to my dog if he is around because otherwise i feel guilty
*I never tell anyone what i eat and avoid the subject if questioned because i am so ashamed
*I smell everything - like really sniff it!
*When i'm eating i like to break everything into little pieces with my hand
*I won't eat something if it has been touched with something I don't eat, like butter, meat, cheese, cream ect
*I love to make my twin brother big nice looking meals that i would really like to eat
*I like to convince people, or watch people have something like a cake or something fattening
*I only eat once in a day - any more and i start to freak out that i have been a pig and have binged
*People making harmless comments on what i eat can literally send me into tears - i really can't help it even though i know its stupid
*Probably a million more that i can't even think of right now
-I buy my own "safe" little foods and have my own shelf in the refrigerator, and get really pissed when either my mom or my aunt digs in to eat some of my food-I'm food-possesive!
-I get seriously irratible if I have to skip or postpone a "scheduled" meal for any reason.
-I hate going out to restraunts cuz they make you wait forever for your order while a basket of bread or deep-fried chips is staring you down.
-If I go over my calories for any reason, I become seriously discouaged a keep repeating to myself, "you're going to be fat forever.."
-I drive my mom crazy grocery shopping because I must read the labels on everything, even things I'm not planning on buying.
-I hate slow cooks. Hate, hate, hate.
I'm sure there's more, but I can't remember them all. :P
I've been in 5 ED hospitals in the past 6 months and I've seen a LOT of weird stuff. Some of them include:
- Mixing together a bowl of chocolate pudding and a salad.
- Not using utensils, or hands. Just going head first at the plate.
- Cutting toast in half horizontally (making two thin slices), quartering both thin slices, and then ripping them up and dipping them in milk, pudding, ketchup, and salad dressing.
- Pouring up to 3 packages of salt on one of those little, individual 1 tbsp peanut butter, and then eating them with a spoon.
- Shaking all the foods in closed container before eating. (Things that didn't need to be shaken, like milk or ice cream or even individual cereal)
- Blowing out all of the bubbles on top of their drink (especially ensure bubbles)
- Microwaving the same food every 5 minutes, but never actually eating any.
- Eating the WHOLE banana (including peal)
Some of mine (and ones that I've also seen other people do:
- I don't chew. Ever. My dentist is always amazed at how clean my teeth are. I just suck on foods for a really long time until they are soft enough to swallow. If I absolutely have to chew, I only use my front two teeth. Or I mash it against the roof of my mouth with my tonue. This one ot a lot worse while inpatient because since all of the other rituals were too obvious to be allowed by the staff, I resorted to taking this to the extreme.
- Searching for the highest-calorie recipe I can find (cake, cookies, breads, brownies, w/e), baking it, and then giving it away to people.
- Breaking apart all of my food into tiny pieces, then spending 15-20 minutes arranging them on a plain, square paper towel by size and shape.
- Encouraging people to eat. Telling my little sister not to drink things like seltzer and diet soda because they are "really really bad for you". Really, I just wanted her to drink something with calories.
- Never mixing food. Ever. If I have a sandwhich, i eat the inside first, then the crust of the bread, then the rest of the bread. If I have a cookie with chocolate chips in it, I break it apart, put all the chips in one pile, then sort the cookie-part by size before eating it first.
At the some of the hospitals I was at, they had a ton of rules egarding rituals. Some were really stupid though:
- No dunking food (i.e. no dipping graham crackers in PB. The PB must be spread on with a knife)
- Melon can be mixed with cottage cheese, but not banana.
- If you add syrup to oatmeal, you can't add raisins.
- No jelly in cottage cheese
- No cream cheese on apples
- No ketchup on chicken
- Sandwiches must have 2 pieces of bread
- No chicken on sandwhiches
- No adding lunch meat to salad
- No cutting pizza
- Bite rules. Certain cookies could be eaten in 3 bites, some had to be eaten whole, some had to be aten in 2 bites. And you had to remeber all of the numbers.
Hi all,
Just joined CC today (looking for info on period problems) and I came across this thread. I always thought I had some unusual food behaviors but never knew others shared the same behaviors as me, I actually feel a little better to know im not alone in these behaviors.
To the girls (or maybe it was a guy) who posted about just randomly opening the fridge and looking around and then taking a pickle or two or a tsp of jelly, I do exactly the same thing, with those exact foods (that was kind of scary)
Basically some behaviors that have become a part of my routine include:
- The Fridge scanning and taking pickles or SF jelly, sometimes a squirt of FF whip cream.
- Organizing my condiments
- Stopping eating at 7pm and feeling horrible if I dont, as well as planning what I am going to have for breakfast while I lay in bed.
- Only eating when the sun is up.
-Measuring cups, even down to the tsp. Ive actually scooped out a 1/4 tsp. of PB to eat b/c I know its around 10 calories.
- Stressing about social outings in restaurants.
- Lying to people about high calorie snacks ive eaten (ie: telling co-workers about how I ate 3 choc fudge brownies last nite even though its 100% not true)
-I save high calorie splurges when im with people so they can see me eating "junk"
- Checking restaurant websites for nutritional data
- Going to the supermarket and buying foods that add up to less than 1200 calories.
I guess thats about all, I do probably think about food way too often and try not to talk about it too much with others but usually I cant help myself.
Im so glad I found this forum/thread I feel like it will be very helpful to me to try and get some "normal" food behaviors.
Peanut butter is one of my "safe" foods.. not sure why. But I hate how much oil is in it, so I buy the natural kind from Trader Joes, wait until the oil goes to the top, and pour it off. Then I take it out of the jar and roll it in napkins so the napkin soaks up the oil, so I end up with a crumbly, thick peanut butter. It tastes less like oil, and I feel better eating the amount I do (I eat a couple tablespoons almost every day) because I know it has less fat. Drives my parents nuts though.
- Peeling the crusts off my bread
- Eating everything with either a tiny spoon or a massive soup spoon!
wow your life is not easy. i think, though, that some "normal" peple do some thing you guys go, too
i can't eat in front of people and i don't eat if there's somebody else in the kitchen unless i HAVE to.
exercise before each meal.
wait 3 1/2 after my last calorie consumption (even if it's just a few) to go to bed.
pick at small bites of stuff from the pantry and fridge in place of a meal.
i have to drink 1 1/2 glasses of water with each meal.
i can't stand it when my food isn't really hot, so i have to keep microwaving it.
my foods haveee to touch. i think about how i want to combine them when i'm eating them.
licking my plate clean after i've eaten everything.
using smaller utensils.
and then there's measuring stuff, but i don't think that's strange at all. it's normal to want to know how many calories you're getting.
Like most people i like to way things.
I like to eat with teaspoons from wine glasses.
At breakfast i either have cereal with my mickey mouse spoon or toast from my Beatrice Potter plate 
At work i freak out aboutr wether my glass of water is on the right side of the keyboard or not! (i know its a bit of a weird one)
I have to start my meal with a sip of water and finish with between one to four sips depending on what condimemts i have used!
I have to eat my foods in a certain order if not i must add an extra sip of water to the end of the meal.
This isnt to do with food but i'd quite like to get it of my mind if no one minds? I find it less of a problem if someone knows about it!...
Sometimes when i'm driving i have to close my eyes, like i'll say i will close my eyes until im under that bridge or past that lamp post. Its only ever for a few seconds and on straight quiet roads. I dont know why i would be so stupid to do something so dangerous!
Please excuse the rant 
xXx
generally, people who restrict are prone to compulsive behaviours (compulsive exercise, nail-biting, hair pulling, etc) while people who binge and/or purge are prone to impulsive behaviours (alcohol/drug abuse, cutting, etc).
wow...what an interesting thread. but like many of you have said, im glad im not alone in my behaviors..
eat basically the same thing everyday- salad for lunch and dinner and try to avoid carbs as much as possible
want to go to an fancy restaurant or steak house and order salad
eat my salad and what ever is in the salad which is lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, zucinni, cucumber and tomato with tabasco sauce, sriracha, dijon mustard and pico de gallo with jalapenos
cut up each vegetable with a knife and fork and spread the condiments on them
cooking huge meals for family and friends and not eating it..eat my salad of course
eat just the outside of bread. if there are oats on the outside of the bread crust, ill pick them off first, then take the outside of the bread and dip it into the oats and eat it..in very very small pieces.
making my family order things i only wish i could order and pick off of their plate.
take at least 5 different bites to finish one french fry
breaking anything like a chip or a cracker into very small pieces and eating maybe just one or two of the small pieces
counting calories in my head and keeping a mental running total
saving calories so i can enjoy a glass of wine
using chop sticks to eat so i can only eat one piece of whatever im eating at a time.
never take big bites of anything
eating fat free redi whip with a spoon
making everything i eat spicy
gosh..i know i have alot more but this is already getting too long..
-have to have either a fresh fruit or vegetable with everything i eat
-hate it when other people put condiments on my food. (oil, dressing, salt, sugar, butter ect)
-scrape on peanutbutter/jelly, dressings,condiments as thinly as possible if used at all.
-pick at my food and avoid eating unsafe/least favorite parts of any dish. never eat everything on my plate unless i served myself. since i'm vegetarian i get stuck with pasta dishes often when we eat out but i'm afraid of white pasta, so i pick out the vegetables in pasta dishes first and avoid eating more than a few bites of actual pasta.
-eat 1 piece at a time, even if the food are in really small pieces. (exception-cereal, soup, and anything eaten with a spoon) hate eating multiple things in the same bite. ex. will eat the center of a california roll by ingredient, then pick off the strip of seaweed, then eat a bit of rice. i can't watch if people eat candy/popcorn/nuts more than one piece at a time.
-eat the outer part/crust of anything baked and avoid eating the soft , fluffy, center.
-squish/cut/mash up any parts on my plate i don't want to eat to make them unedible.
-taste 1 small bite of other people's food. otherwise i feel like i'm missing out on something and won't ask them about their meal or look at their plate.
-eat every few hours but scold myself if it hasn't been over an hour since i last ate. call myself degrading names when i eat things that weren't "planned". get agitated when people make last minute plans to go out to eat when i didn't "plan" for it.
-never drink more than a few sips of anything that isn't water, black coffee, or tea. drink at least a glass of something everytime i eat anything that isn't a fresh druit or vegetable.
-absolutely hate it when people speak for me what i like to eat or will not eat, even if they are dead right. ex. "oh you don't want to try that" or "you wouldn't like that" or "you'd die for that"
I dislike others touching my food, taking bites of it, messing with it, etcetera. I don't like the smell of food cooking either a lot of the time.
I have to keep my foods in a separate area from other food and I have to wash it compulsively to make sure it's clean of I don't even know what.
I use smaller utensils and plates. I have to make sure these are all washed multiple times.
There are more, for sure.
I eat my meals to a strict timetable, like my mid morning snack after 11:30am and definitely no earlier!
I have to have foods in a certain order on the plate
I take certain amounts of bites to eat certain foods, and eat things in an order
I feel like I have to eat everything on the plate, otherwise people get annoyed with me and don't think I'm trying.
Because I have to put butter on toast wth breakfast (dietitian's orders), I use a very small spoon and then take half of what's on there to spread on the toast
I use specific plates and bowls for meals
I hate anyone else having the same meal as me, or eating 'my' food
I check the info on calories in restaurants on the website
I don't like eating with others, this is getting easier now though
I used to have my own shelf in the fridge and no-one could touch anything on there, I don't do this anymore
I love seeing other people eating 'bad' foods, it makes me feel better which is so awful of me
God I'm so glad its not just me, I hate all of these things I have to do but not doing them would make me panic so much!
That sounds almost exactly what I do. My family makes fun of me because I have to 'colour code' my food and cut them into little peices, then arrange them from biggest to msallest within their colour code. I refuse to eat with my family because they make fun of me for it. I refuse to eat certain types of food, but I also have a LOT other habits thta are probably a sign of ED. But the doc says that I don't have one, so therefore I don't.
I do the whole mizing PB with everything else thing too. I also eat at night because I get anxious eating front of people during the day, so I wait til everyone's asleep.
I get possessive over food; I have MY shelf in the cupboard and no one else can eat from it. If someone does I get put off eating.
If anyone suggests something different to what I'm eating I get all anxious... liek the other day I was eating a lump of mozzarella cheese and my mum goes 'want to put that in a salad?' and I freaked out and stopped eating.
Not sure why.
If I'm goin out with friends for a meal, I will spend days palling and 'researching' what I'm going to eat... the smallest, least calorific dish.... and check their menu online several days beforehand so I don't get tempted at the restaurant, and so I know exactly what to have.
But yes... EDs are weird things. I can wander round a supermarket and look at all the food in AWE because food fascinates me. It's eating I get anxious about.... odd, isn't it?
xx
What is a quick way to burn calories?
To burn more calories faster, perform more vigorous activity. For instance, running at 6 MPH burns twice as many calories in the same... Read more