Habits?

I was wondering if any of you guys have particular habits of eating that you carry out everyday? nothing ED related, just food/drink habits that you do everyday. And if so, are you willing to challenge them and see what happens?

For example; I HAVE to have three cups of tea a day, one morning, afternoon and night. I just love my tea!(Maybe its an Irish thing!). This week though, every second day, I am going to replace the tea i the afternoon with either a smoothie/ensure/milkshake.

Anyone else?

well, for me it's green tea, i get a lot of time, about 8 cups a day(2 litres). and then its probably something like chocolate/cookies or something sweet, it's usually shogetten trilogia chocolate, i eat one bar(100g) of it each day.

and to get omega 3 every day i mix milled flaxseed in various foods, sometimes in milk while eating cereal, or in yoghurt.

thats probably it:>

HAVING to use certain eating utensils. Along with my ed, I also have obsessive compulsive disorder(main cause for ED actually). Anyway, I refuse to use some forks/spoons, and only have one of each that I like. Tonight for dinner I am going to try and use something different :)

eating off the same plate i am going to eat off a different one tonight. i also chew to much gum i think its just habit.cutting my crusts off , and ketchup i eat far to much perhaps if i made my food more tasty by adding oils ans spices i wouldnt need it. its hard though to sometimes see if it is just you or your ed h xx

Hey tessa, I used to put ketchup on everything too and you're killing your tastebuds by doing it. Maybe its your ED or not, to see if you can go without it, try having it once a day, with one meal. It takes a while not to get used to not having it, but once you do, your taste buds become alive!and you can taste food for what it actually tastes like.

I also drink outof the same cups all the time and use same bowls and utensils too! never thought about that. I will use a different breakfast bowl tomorrow as well as having a different drink mid afternoon.

xx

Me and my lovely cups of milk with chicore/carob... before breakfast and before bad...almost a rule:)

Yes.

A lot of it is situational. It's not really ED. Not eating enough actually arose out of the situation.

I wake up, and its the kids kids kids. I don't sit down until... well now. Therefore I didn't eat breakfast and didn't get to lunch until after 1 when I got up at 5:30 and exercised.

I challenge it on the weekends, but I'm willing to challenge it more - and now that our schedule has changed due to preschool, I'm open to anything!

The thing is, I'm not thinking about food then. I FORGET about food for the most part because my job is more important. But I realize that if I don't eat, I don't do my job effectively.

Something I added to my routine was going to this little cafe. I love their coffees, lattes, and bagels, and its something my kids enjoy, too, as a special thing we can do.

thanks drivenlass i shall try that, we can all work on these habits guys h xx

I use the same tea/coffee mug all the time.

I prefer to use certain utensils. The others just don't feel right in my hands.

I have at least one apple everyday. Usually with breakfast.

I could challenge the mug and utensil thing. But I love my apples too much to change that habit.

oh my goodness! Talking about the utensils... I always bring a 1/8 cup measure to put skim milk in coffee if I'm getting coffee. I had it IN MY PURSE. I'm breaking that NOW. I'm just going to clunk in the milk because its high in protein and calcium!

Hmm. That's what I hate about eds.. it's sometimes exceedingly difficult to determine what is a true habit, and what is an action motivated by your disorder. Like bsh- do you really not have time to have something to eat in the morning, or do you use that as an excuse so you can avoid eating for a bit longer? I used to rush off to work without packing a lunch, because I didn't have time. But truthfully, if I had made it a priority, then I certainly could have thrown something together.

I'm still working on my need to wait a certain amount of time between meals. I have gotten MUCH MUCH better about this, but it's still hard for me to eat something soon after I've finished a meal.

evolution - that was a previous habit; i make time now:-) but the schedule the way it was, I didn't, given my preoccupation with having to be able to "enjoy" my food, and usually that means not being interrupted by poopy diaper! i'm getting over that, too.

I ALWAYS have a glass of water before I eat breakfast in the morning. I feel wrong if I don't! :S

I only usually use a glass for water once, then I have to get a new one. Even if the glass I just finished is still ok... I dunno.. feels dirty. (I'm not even a germ freak, it's just with drinking glasses I swear)

I only use 2 specific plates and one bowl for my food. That *might* be ED related though... I should break away from that. Is the sky gunna fall down if I use a different bowl? Me no think so! :)  *goal for today*

One of my obsessions is that all of my food had to be down on the table before I could even take a bite , and then I wasn't allowed to get up again. This one stemmed from me being a constant grazer when I was overweight, so I created a rule to eliminate that. Plus, seeing all of the food you eat before and having to evaluate it allowed me to further restrict my calories.

I have the same problem with utensils! I have to eat with the smallest utensils that we have in the house so that I'm forced to take my time and savor the food I'm eating. I also had to use the same bowl so that I could control my portions without my parents realizing what I was doing.

I have since graduated to a bigger bowl, but because my nutritionist's recommended portion sizes, I now have an awful dependence on measuring cups. It bothers my parents, but its better that I measure and eat the correct portion sizes than under-estimate, so they're pleased.

I would try and challenge these habits, but to me, its more important that I challenge myself by eating more rather than using a different spoon. It makes me feel better when I am already uneasy because of the amount of food that I'm eating and not doing cardio.

I've always had my little obsessions (my dad called them "quirks" lol) even before ED...but after ED they were most definately amplified...

If I wasn't cooking, my food had to be served to me seperate (so I could weigh/measure it). This made stirfries difficult :P I remember creating a note on my iPod with the calories, sodium, fat and carbs of foods from fast food places I frequented, as I'm forced to eat out a lot. I had my little portable scale in my purse, always, incase I was at a small restaurant w/ no info. And I always had to drink ice cold water before eating and hot green or black tea after eating.

Ugh. I'm still working on breaking some of em :P

I eat at specific times on the quarter of the hour.  If I "miss" eating at that specific time then I'll wait until the next quarter of the hour (for example if it's 10:17 then I'll wait for 13 minutes and eat at 10:30).

I eat foods in an exact order and only one at a time, even if I'm eating something that's cooked together like soup or stir fry.

I also have a lot of other "habits" that aren't food related.

I have a few habits... eating a lot of apples, drinking a lot of tea/coffee/water. I don't think they're unhealthy though. I also have food habits - I usually eat the same breakfast and have a repertoire of other meals I make often. That said, there is also a lot of variety to my diet. I just can't be imaginative with food for every meal of the day!

I used to measure out portions and use tiny eating utensils and bowls, but I'm over that now. I also used to overuse sauces, condiments, salt and pepper; but I was taught in IP that it's a very common ED behaviour we should try and avoid. If you need to satisfy your tastebuds, do it by eating large enough portions of satisfying food - it was good advice!

The hardest habit to break is calorie counting, but I am learning to break this one and learning intuitive eating instead.

Using the same utensils, plates and bowls

Drinking water first thing in the morning (probably a good habit!)

Having meals at the same time everyday!! (getting slightly anxious if i have it a bit earlier)

Already working on the food timing habit, i have pushed my meals back 0.5-1 hour in the past week because i knew i was just eating way too late. And who cares if lunch happens to be an hour earlier than i'd usually have it, right? If you feel like eating then, then just go forr it:)

i have a set of bowls and plates that i use everyday.

i find that i wont drink any liquids with meals, i usually drink in the morning or at night never in between.

i measure things and count calories. i find that i underestimate though so i often think i end up eating less then i actually do.

I don't have too many habits, luckily, although the ones I do have are ED related.

I always eat bread in a certain way. I have to have salad before I start each meal (except breakfast, heh!). I still count calories :(

my only OCD tendencies relating to eating are that I don't like to use certain spoons (there's 2 and they're different from the rest and I just don't like them, this started when I was pretty young), and that I eat ice cream with a fork.

I only do the ice cream thing at home though, if I'm out then I can eat it with a spoon no problem. and only if it's the type of ice cream with "chunks" in it (like cookie dough, brownies, etc). oh, and I still use the smaller-sized forks. I always thought there would be an age where I'd start using the "big people forks", as I called them, but I still haven't made the switch, haha. the only real difference is that the handle is longer. oh, and I still measure my cereal & milk but that's it, everything else pretty much gets estimated.

these aren't ED-related at all though