Aw, I love a good eating disorder recovery story.
So, this teenager on Instagram started snapping still shots of her food, art, and a combo of the two when she was trying to recover from anorexia or bulimia (or something, I didn’t read the whole thing – I was too distracted by the pretty pictures).
But I really like this (as a concept I’m not willing to actually do but totes like the idea of)
Basically, she’s fifteen, draws like a pro, reads actual books, has her whole life ahead of her, and also’s got food issues. After realizing something wasn’t right about her relache with nutrition, she proceeded to get help. Now in recovery, she’s taking advantage of social media by combining it with her talent for capturing beauty. And she does stuff like this now instead of obsessing:
(I’d totally obsess over getting the art perfect #LesserEvilIguess)
This one other chick, Gabrielle Bernstein, and many other now-motivational-speakers (who used to be all chronically sad inside and who would eat their feelings), tend to champion doing similar stuff with food. Unlike drugs, food is hard to cut off like gangrene (unless you come from a literal gang of green plants who make food from sunlight). So, what’s a chick or dude to do if noms make ’em nervous? Love it to death, apparently.
For example, Bernstein talks a lot about being mindful. For her, it’s setting an intention, prayer, or visualization… Ya know, all the stuff most folk hear for a good half-millisecond before their eyes glaze over in derision and their brains say “NEXT!” Does it work? Yeah, if you actually do it. But it’s hard. And takes practice.
And anything that doesn’t cater to my laziness, ends up on the back burner (so I can binge on it later with a serving spoon and cry).
For other people, it’s about brain and health hacks – from switching up the colors of the plates you eat on to guzzling some tummy filling water before chomping on so much as a baby carrot or celery stick. I’m not sure how the color thing works with our brains, but some people SO swear by it that they paint their whole kitchens to compensate for an intrinsic lack of willpower they have no intention of changing. For a lot, it works. But I wonder how much of that is cognitive dissonance (“I ruined my jeans and slaved over that roller for far too long to still be craving cheesecake. So I must not be hungry. So, I won’t be.”)
Ahh… cognitive dissonance might be my favorite flavor of the brain hack rainbow.
It’s gotten me through some rillll shit. But it’s kinda like a mantra. If anyone talks about the delusion out loud, it loses its power. The magic’s in its status as a phantom fabrication that exists like sunshine; you know it’s there, you benefit from it, but if you really look at it your whole worldview gets a great big D in the A.
This Insta-girl, though, takes the “mindfulness” to that same level a lotta foodies do.
Instead of hating morsels ‘cause of their compulsion, they love the act of creating edible presentations. Through morphing cute cartoons from pancakes, the anxiety about eating abates. And that’s a pretty good approach for seeing vittles aren’t the villain.
As for me? Too lazy. Just like I was too lazy to make that a full sentence just now, I’m too lazy to make stuff I can’t show off to someone right away. Pictures take far too long to get thumbs ups and heart-likes. I need a more instant reminder that what I’ve done matters. Put me in a swanky soirée surrounded by people I can impress, and I’ll fashion a sculpture of Lady Liberty riding on the Colbert eagle using naught but strawberries, cool whip, and wine crackers.
Put me alone, though, and I’ll wait to build my artistic masterpiece on porcelain, after my tummy organ’s had its way with the medium. Nah… It’s way easier if I don’t buy binge-able crap at all. And, ya know, this is a brain hack too. Even though I know I’ll want it later tonight, I also know I’ll be too lazy to make a second trip to get it.
Moral of the story? Whether you’re in feeling denial or denying eating your feelings, you’re still not as cool as this 15 year old kitchen Picasso.