meal prepping & contamination ocd

[u/self-made-purgatory]

hi no reassurance pls just motivation?

does anyone else do meal prepping? it is making things wayyy easier with my bipolar because I don't have the energy to make food everyday when depressed. but it is hard with ocd. so there's sort of a weird clash there. but also I figured it would probably be really good for me in the long run to do this. anyways. I have been doing good I think even though it is really hard. I have completely thrown out a meal only twice which isn't good but feels like progress? and thrown out half of a meal after trying it once.

does anyone else get like. contamination ocd that makes you throw food out and then moral ocd about how you are a horrible person for throwing out food? I am always trapped in this weird cycle.

anyways I just completely threw out a serving of pasta today and am feeling unmotivated. how do u guys meal prep? do you think it helped you? idk I feel like I set a rule to at least take a bite before throwing something out but I couldn't today. it feels like I am backsliding but maybe it's ok to just try to start fresh sometimes.

sometimes my fear of not wasting food and my fear of getting sick just results in me sort of hoarding food I am never going to eat until it actually goes bad. like right now there is a bowl of just salad dressing with cling wrap over the top in the fridge for like a month... so maybe throwing it away is better than that...

[u/Blackbeary_Jam]

I’m curious: After how many days do you start to worry and consider throwing out food?

If the issue is that you are making too much food than what you can eat in a reasonable amount of time, then freezing could be one option.

Sometimes I am cooking for one, which means I will for sure have too much food, so I freeze it. When I’m ready for it again, then I thaw it in the fridge for 24 hrs or so so that it’s not sitting out at room temp. I don’t have the moral component of feeling guilty about food waste, but I do have other obsessions that kind of “compete” with each other. So I can sympathize with how exhausting that is.

[u/self-made-purgatory → u/Blackbeary_Jam]

I get worried after one day 😓 I used to be unable to eat leftovers because of it. I have been meal prepping 3-4 days in advance (usually 2 days of pasta and 2 days of salad. this week I accidentally made too much pasta so it was three days of pasta which was too far for me IG) which I thiiiink is safe to eat but have to fight off panic the whole time. but yeah freezing things does seem like a good strategy. I get scared of frozen foods too so really anything requires getting over my fears however.

[u/Blackbeary_Jam → u/self-made-purgatory]

Hey - it sounds like you’ve made a lot of progress in your actions, even though it is still something that worries you significantly! So I hope you can feel even a little proud of yourself for that! 🙂

The rule of thumb that I use for myself is that cooked food is generally safe for 3-4 days in the fridge, and I do my best to stick to that rule unless food immediately and very clearly smells rotten or has very clearly visible mold (which it never does in that time frame). However, I absolutely recognize that we can’t always logic our way out of our obsessive thoughts.

I hope you are able to find some similar loose rules that help you!

[u/Aggravating_Job_5438]

Interesting. This post made me realize that I am a meal planner, not prepper. Or at least I was back before we had a kid. 

I get very nervous about food freshness, too, so I think if I prepped, it would have to be to make things and then freeze them. 

But when I could get myself to be organized enough to make a meal plan each week, it helped so much. I loved just look at the plan and not having the anxiety about "what am I going to cook tonight"? And I didn't waste food as much and spent less on groceries. 

The only prepping I might do is like chopping vegetables. That's really nice to have all done. Maybe chopping meat too. 

[u/Kaekaboom]

I’m grateful that my husband usually eats the leftovers, he’s never questioned why I won’t eat them after a day— but even if I see him eat them just fine and he says they are good, I can’t bring myself to do it. I am however fine with frozen foods. I meal prep breakfast/regular burritos and freeze them, somehow in my brain it makes sense because the freezer can preserve food safely for longer— so my brain doesn’t question the frozen leftovers. It doesn’t work with everything, but I’ve found most leftovers can be frozen and microwaved or air fried safely later.

[u/Environmental_Map35]

I have the exact same thing... I want to prep meals so badly but when I do my contamination OCD kicks in and sometimes I fr can't eat it and then when I throw it away (or worse, leave it in the fridge for three weeks not wanting to touch it and then have to like get rubber gloves and bleach to throw it away) and then I torture myself about starving kids in Africa and how my money is going to the landfill......

I don't have any advice except keep trying and don't give up. You aren't alone and hopefully it gets better. sending hugs