OCD Action

Unregistered

It's been driving me mad recently, I can't work out whether it is because of the OCD or not, but I'm obsessed with what I eat and how much of my guideline daily amount it's worth. Everyday I draw up tables of everything I eat and work out the nutritional content and what percentage of my recommended amount of calories, fat, saturated fat, sugar and salt each item is. I get really anxious if I eat something that doesn't have nutritional info on it so I can't work out exactly how much fat etc. is in it and I have to try and estimate. And from what I work out I often seem to go over the amount of stuff I'm supposed to consume each day and I get anxious about my heart and fat building up in my arteries. I'm not worried about getting fat, just about what is going on inside that I can't see. Everything is about healthy eating now and what's bad for and what isn't and how much of everything you should eat and it's so confusing! I want to be able to eat and enjoy it, be healthy but not obsessively so, but I just can't not do all this calculating and ruminating over every mouthful.

Does anyone one else have this problem, or has anyone had it in the past? It's really time consuming and it's making me stressed. Other than germs, food seems to be all I think about sometimes. I'm scared of developing an eating disorder.

Thu Mar 11 2010 20:40:08 #
Wombat140
Member

Sounds like OCD to me. If you can't stop doing it when you try, and you get anxious when you can't do it. Afraid I don't off-hand know of anyone else with this kind, though. I suppose you should just try and handle it the same way you do any other form of standard OCD.
Good luck
Wombat

Thu Mar 11 2010 20:58:29 #
Unregistered

Thanks for the reply. I'll bring it up when I start my therapy.

Thu Mar 11 2010 21:20:11 #
Truddles
Member

I hope you mean the subject and not..........

Thu Mar 11 2010 22:10:08 #
Unregistered

No! Not my food, haha, I do mean the subject!

Thu Mar 11 2010 23:17:31 #
Truddles
Member

Mind you it would have been interesting to see the therapist's face had you brought the food rather than the subject up wouldn't it? Apologies for lowering the tone

Thu Mar 11 2010 23:22:38 #
Unregistered

Don't worry about it, lol.

Thu Mar 11 2010 23:23:15 #
Unregistered

This morning I measured out the recommended serving of cereal and milk using scales and a measuring jug. I feel really stupid having done it, but it did have a kind of positive outcome as I realised that the recommended servings were more than I'd thought, so I'd not been eating more than I was meant to, in fact I've been eating less. So I can afford to eat a bit more cereal and add more milk rather than just the dribbled I've been eating.

Fri Mar 12 2010 16:22:41 #
Truddles
Member

Providng you're not eating cereal out of a pudding basin or serving dish then the average cereal bowl (the clue is in the name ) means that you can't go too far wrong with your portion control. Ditch the scales and measuring jug, just learn what an average portion looks like in the cereal bowl. Skimmed milk is good for you, and dairy products further reduce the Glycaemic Index of the cereal, making it healthier

Fri Mar 12 2010 17:06:51 #
Unregistered

Ok, thanks.

Fri Mar 12 2010 17:43:12 #