What’s Your Eating Person-ality? Part One

By Dietitian Jill Place

I do believe that many people reside within us.  This idea isn’t crazy … it’s actually one of the core beliefs of some kinds of psychotherapy.  Myself, I have two major person-alities … my self-manufactured “acting self” that’s funny, charming, larger-than-life, and energetic.  Then there’s my “private self” …   the one sitting here in a cozy robe that’s actually shy … and loves being introspective and alone.

We also seem to have many different person-alities when it comes to the way we eat.  Many of my clients, who have successful, rewarding lives as professionals and highly creative artists, also have co-existing person-alities that use food for many other reasons than hunger,

We create these parts throughout our lives as coping mechanisms; many are often “shadow selves” that we don’t acknowledge and sometimes aren’t even aware of.  To heal these parts of ourselves, we need to bring our shadows into the light and accept them.

What Kind of Eater are You?

This little quiz is a part of that journey.  It identifies seven common different eating person-alities.  Complete each sentence below by noting the response that you think BEST describes you in each situation.  Most of us are entirely too complex to have just one eating person-ality; you may have several but most likely will have one particular dominant one.

These results will come in handy when unraveling your food behaviors, especially if you’re working with me.  This is a great way to find out more about yourself if your New Year’s resolution is to lose weight (and who’s isn’t!).  Unfortunately, this quiz isn’t long, but the explanation of each eating person-ality is. So that will have to wait until you read Part Two.

When I order food in a restaurant, I …

1. Quiz the waitress about food preparation and nutritional content
2. Share a meal I may not really want with dinner comispanions/eat alone so I can eat what I want
3. Think everyone is watching what I eat
4. Can’t believe how much I eat when I’ve had a particularly stressful day
5. Order anything that looks good
6. Comb the menu to find something that’s OK on my new diet
7. Enjoy myself, eat until I’m satisfied, and take the rest home (or just leave it)

When I go shopping, I …

1. Carefully read all the labels to make the healthiest food choices
2. Ask everyone I live with what they would like to eat so I can buy it for them
3. Tuck “forbidden” foods under healthier ones in my cart so people can’t see what I’m buying/feel embarrassed going through the checkout line
4. Buy something special (and sometimes sinful) that’ll make me feel better
5. Just throw things in my cart without a lot of thought
6. Base my choices on foods that’ll help me lose weight
7. Buy food because it’s heathy but also because I like eating it

When I’m eating at a buffet, I …

1. Am very aware to choose foods that’ll be good for me
2. Look at what other people are eating before I make my choices
3. Am mentally very critical … and even scared … of my food choices
4. Pile it on if I’m mad (sad, anxious, or even happy) about something that happened that day
5. Don’t realize how much I’ve eaten and often overeat at these things
6. Choose foods that’ll make me lose weight/I’m careful to follow my diet’s buffet rules
7. Eat what I want as much as I want happily

At home, I …

1. Am very careful about what I put into my body
2. Make sure that others are fed before me
3. Closet-overeat, and sometimes even eat in the closet
4. Buy foods on the way home depending upon my current mood and often overeat on them to soothe myself
5. Am on the see-food diet
6. Am constantly on a diet
7. Enjoy eating … I eat what I want when I want with few negative food-feelings

People may say (or think) about my eating that I …

1. Am pretty much a “perfect” eater and they wish they could be like me
2. Seem unsure about what I want to eat
3. Don’t really know how or what I eat
4. Overeat when I’m sad, angry, anxious, uncomfortable, etc.
5. Eat whenever food is in front of me
6. Am very picky about food
7. Have no problems with food

If I could describe my own eating, I would say I’m …

1. Pretty perfect
2. More about pleasing others than myself
3. Really critical about what and how I eat
4. One of those who self-soothes by eating
5. Very unaware about what or how I eat
6. Always on some kind of diet
7. Not into any kind of dieting

Now see what kind of Eating Person-ality you are …

If your answers are mostly “1’s”, you are a … Perfect-Eater

If your answers are mostly “2’s”, you are a … People-Pleaser-Eater

If your answers are mostly “3’s”, you are a … Shame-ful-Eater

If your answers are mostly “4’s”, you are a … Feeling-Soother Eater

If your answers are mostly “5’s”, you are an … Unconscious-Eater

If your answers are mostly “6’s”, you are a … Dieter-Eater

If your answers are mostly “7’s”, you are a … Good-Eater

What do you think your Eating Person-ality means?  Do you believe that we have many people inside us? Find out more in Part Two.