I remember growing up stashing my Halloween or Easter candy away because I was one of those weird kids that didn’t like to eat sugar until they got sick. I was like a squirrel: I’d hide stuff away and I’d remember where I put the first 3 batches, the others forgotten to be serendipitously stumbled upon and enjoyed at some later date. But the day I’d remember a particular treat and then be looking forward all day to retrieving it, I’d come home to search my stashes and find it missing, only later to find out my mom had not only found but took from one (or more) of my stashes.

Sometimes I’d save left overs in the fridge, hoping to eat it for a meal the next day or so, and then I’d be thinking about it and looking forward to it… Only to get home and find out Mom or Gram had cleaned out the fridge and thrown away what I had saved.

Once, I left a bag of oreos in my room on my desk. I was going to be gone for the weekend, so I had shut my bedroom door. When I came home looking forward to my oreos, my whole bag had disappeared, and my mom later admitted that she wound up eating them while I was gone.

As a result, I felt that I couldn’t save anything, and so because I’m also terrified of being wasteful, I felt if I wanted something, I would have to eat it then and there, because I never knew if it was going to be available or accessible to me later. My relationship with food became much more stressful. So my first realization about food? I am VERY territorial.

I’ve learned that it’s very important to me to have established territories. I now live with my SO (Significant Other), Jack, so living in a “shared food” situation (living with another person), I needed to be sure that any space I designated would be respected. To test this, I baked some brownies. Usually Jack inhales my incredible brownies at any chance he gets. But I didn’t want to feel my imaginary pressure of having to eat my share of the brownies in a short amount of time, so I cut a line in the brownie pan and told Jack that he could eat up to that line. The rest were for me whenever I wanted to have them. And you know what? I love that man: he respected my line in the brownies. And I got to enjoy my portion at my own leisure…!

I now have my own “area” in the kitchen cabinets above the sink, my own shelf in the freezer, and a drawer at my desk where I know I can “squirrel” things away and I know my territory will be respected.

Some people might think it’s dumb, silly, or whatever… but it works for me. It also reduces a lot of stress and anxiety for me because the act of purchasing or accumulating whatever food item (for whatever reason) actually helps to subside whatever craving I’m experiencing. I love having my little stow-away places in the drawer or the cupboard and knowing that there’s something enjoyable that I can have any time I like.