True Confession Time...I am a Food Hoarder

“Hi, my name is Kimberly and I am a food hoarder.”*

Oh my god, I can’t believe I just wrote that out loud.

It’s true, I have this huge fear of running out of food…so my fridge is filled to the max, my pantry is overflowing, and I am at the grocery store at least 3 times per week to “stock up”.

[In the picture above, all of the food pictured is mine except for a couple of the beers, and the bottom left bin which is only half mine. Yes, Andy & I have “his and her” food…don’t judge.]

I was a “latchkey kid” (ha! When was the last time you heard that term?). I was pretty much on my own with figuring out breakfast, lunch, and snacks after the age of 8 or 9. At around age 10, when I hit puberty, my appetite spiked big time *and* I started emotional eating as a way of dealing with, well, my emotions.

There were times when my family lived paycheck to paycheck and grocery shopping had to fit a certain budget. My APPETITE became a problem and sometimes I got in trouble for eating too much.

I developed a fear about there not being enough food…that I would have to go without and feel deprived.

To this day I have mild anxiety about running out of food, or there not being enough food in the house. It’s totally irrational, and I know it. I can run out of kale or eggs or cashews and survive for a couple of days I’m pretty sure. I am within easy walking distance of a grocery store. But still it feels good to me to have A LOT of food in the house.

And oddly, hoarding the food in the fridge, in the pantry, in my luggage when I travel actually keeps me from feeling like I might not get enough food so I had better eat whatever is available. It allows me to be more relaxed about food which is important to me.

How about you? Any quirky food habits that you want to confess?

*I am not using the word ‘hoarder’ in the clinical sense, just in the colloquial sense…not making light of those who have a serious problem with hoarding.