In The Parent’s Guide to Eating Disorders, Marcia and I devote a whole chapter to “disordered eating,” behavior that isn’t severe enough to be called a full-blown eating disorder, but nevertheless can ruin a person’s life. We tell the story of one patient, Rosalind, who is in her mid-twenties and has been seriously dieting since the age of 13. Her weight loss has never been great enough for her to be classified as an anorexic, yet Rosalind suffers from lack of periods, one of the class symptoms of anorexia. Rosalind’s life has revolved around her eating disorder for the past 10 years. She’s thin, yet she has such a negative view of her own body that she refuses to date. She’s got a great new job at an ad agency, but it’s hard for Rosalind to make friends because she turns down any invitation that involves food. She looks totally put-together, her hair stylishly cut, dressed head-to-toe in the latest looks. Yet Rosalind feels anything but at ease. Her kitchen is a mess, and at any given moment, she is either dieting or living on junk food. Although her “binges” are small, she feels miserable when she eats four croissants for dinner. Occasionally she makes herself throw up or uses laxatives to purge.
What Rosalind is engaged in is “disordered eating,” a chaotic and haphazard pattern of food consumption that makes her feel out-of-control and anxious all the time. She worries about her weight. She worries that she’s eaten too much, or that she hasn’t eaten the right foods. Despite her outward polish, Rosalind’s life is in shambles.
What Marcia has found with her patients is that when a child or adult learns to eat regular meals and snacks in a patterned yet carefree way, these anxieties fade. (See Part Four: Healthy Eating Guide of our book for more information on learning and sticking to the Food Plan.) Adopting a pattern of regular meals and snacks not only lessens anxieties about food, eating and weight, it lessens all anxieties, allowing you to live a more organized life.
Just recently, Marcia received a call from her patient Christie’s mom, who reported that her daughter’s grades have never been better. Mom is sure that Christie, a junior at a small Vermont high school, feels better and is more energetic because of the regular eating patterns she has recently adopted with the help of the Food Plan. Both mom and Christie are amazed at how, miraculously, when Christie’s eating became more organized, the rest of her life became less chaotic and more manageable as well.
This close connection is especially visible with children, for whom disorganized eating can affect the quality of their lives, their health, and, as Christie’s example shows, even their school work. I was reminded of the link between chaotic eating and chaotic living recently when I spoke to my friend Deborah Kawashima (www.creativeOrganizer.com), a Los Angeles-based personal organizer. Deborah told me, “Eating healthy requires organization, and being organized is a skill that anyone can learn. For parents, or whoever is shopping for food, being organized with your food means making a healthy shopping list (for ideas, see Part Four, Chapter 14 of our book), so that when you shop, you are shopping for those specific items, not impulsively buying whatever looks yummy at the moment. This way, you have healthy foods available at home or on the go.”
Deborah explained that when hunger strikes, kids – and adults – tend to grab whatever is at hand. All too often, what happens to be at hand is junk food. “As part of your kids’ homework routine,” she suggested, “schedule snack time right before they do their homework. This will give them energy and is a nice transition from school to homework time. I create a ‘Snack Area’ for my clients in the kitchen (on a kid-level shelf or in a basket) where kids can easily choose a healthy snack when they are hungry. I include a place for plastic cups and plates for even the youngest child to reach. It’s just as easy for them to get into the routine of eating an apple or cheese stick as it is to grab a bag of chips.”
For her own family, Deborah said, “Healthy eating can still be fun. I made up a menu, like in a restaurant, for my kids to choose their snacks. They use their decision-making skills (most disorganization is the avoidance of making a decision) and they see that eating healthy can include a wide variety of foods. When their friends come over, they love to ‘choose’ what to eat from the menu, then go to the snack area and help themselves. Eating becomes a conscious choice instead of impulsive ‘grab and eat’ behavior. Deborah pointed out that making conscious, healthy eating choices instead of giving in to impulsive eating works to help teens and adults eat better, as well. Since she is a professional organizer and these things come naturally to her, Deborah also pointed out that organizing your pantry will make changing your eating patterns easier. “It makes you really see what choices you are making and what you can change,” she explained. Another tip: “Being organized with your food means having a place for everything, so you can find what you need when you want it.”
What Deborah and I realized was that our areas of interest overlap. “Organizing your food and eating routines are part of being an organized family,” Deborah said. “There is definitely a connection between organized eating and being organized with homework routines!”
Be well, Nancy
