I think we all have some quirky eating habits (at least I do) but sometimes I wonder when quirky eating is actually disordered eating.
Yesterday I mentioned that I had a major chocolate craving for m&m’s last week.
I was on the phone with my dad while getting gas when it happened. He suggested that I pop into the gas station mini mart for a bag of m&m’s to satisfy my craving.
HA. I laughed at that suggestion. As if it’s that simple.
A dinky little pre-portioned package of m&m’s is not how I like my m&m’s.
If I am going to eat m&m’s, it’s never going to be from a single serving bag because I do not like my candy to be measured out unless I am the one doing the measuring (which is not something I do. I would never measure out m&m’s).
While I ended up at Party City so that I could make my own mixed amount bag which included a variety of m&m’s, I am actually happiest when you put a one pound bag of m&m’s in front me.
I don’t like to feel limited and I also don’t like to know how many servings I am eating.
I am no stranger to quirky eating habits.
In the past I have told you that I like to pull raisins out of cereal boxes, marshmallows from the Lucky Charm’s, and cookie dough from containers of ice cream.
If there’s a trail mix, I will focus on one item in the mix and eat only that item.
Chocolate fudge cake often involves seeking out all of the fudge frosting in favor of the actual cake part.
I am a food picker outer.
Lately, my thing has been to pick the raisins out of the Ezekiel bread.
Why can’t I just open a bag of raisins? Don’t be ridiculous.
Have we ever discussed the chocolate dipped chocolate chip cookies from 2004? Do you like how I can time stamp food memories?
I picked up chocolate dipped chocolate chip cookies from the grocery store to serve as dessert for my son’s toddler play group.
Each chocolate chip cookie was half-dipped in chocolate.
The play group didn’t finish the cookies so for the next few days, I took the leftovers and bit off only the chocolate dipped parts, putting the other half back in the bin.
I never ate one full cookie.
In my head, I really have no idea how many cookies I ate which sounded better than saying I ate three cookies.
Have I always been this way with my quirky eating habits?
That’s a good question which I gave some thought when I sat down to write this post.
The truth is, I don’t think so. I can’t recall caring about how I ate my m&m’s or biting off only certain pieces of cookies until my early 20’s.
My early 20’s is also when I didn’t eat enough and didn’t get my period for almost two years.
My guess is that I somehow came up with these quirky eating habits through developing a pattern of disordered eating. I was in a cycle of watching my portions and not eating enough which lead to cravings and moments of NOT wanting to watch my portions.
I don’t see my quirky eating habits to be a problem right now though. They have just become the way I like to eat certain foods.
If anything, my quirky eating habits now are just strange to some and annoying to those who are looking for the other halves of cookies or the raisins in the bread.
At what point though are quirky eating habits disordered eating? And when is disordered eating a problem?
Without getting too technical, my guess is that if the habit interferes with your social life, has your body at an unhealthy weight (either too low or even too high), affects your health in a negative way or leaves you obsessing too much about food, the disordered eating patterns may be a problem.
I have a lot of questions today to continue this conversation!
Do you have any quirky eating habits?
How do you feel about single serve packages of m&m’s?
Would you say that your quirky eating habits may be disordered eating, meaning that maybe they are a problem?
Do your quirky eating habits bother you enough that you wish to change them?
Posts of Interest:
How Disordered Eating Can Start
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