Maintaining Recovery During Short Lunch Times

Guest post by 2024-2025 doctoral extern, Natalie Cynamon. 

School lunchtime is ideal for catching up with friends, decompressing, or watching a show on your phone. However, it’s not long until the bell rings again, telling you it is time to return to class. With so little time to do what you want, it can be hard to prioritize eating. According to the CDC, students should have at least 20 minutes to eat lunch. However, schools rarely consider the time it takes to get out of class, stand in line to get food, and find a place to sit. Even when schools give more than 30 minutes for students to eat lunch, 61% of students report feeling rushed to eat. 

The problem with school lunch times goes beyond individuals with an eating disorder. Most students throw away the more nutritious parts of their lunch because they prioritize the foods they can eat the fastest, leading to unbalanced meals. Additionally, 10-13% of school lunches are thrown away due to insufficient time to eat. This leads to a massive concern that students are going to class hungry, with no energy to focus.

How to Ensure You Can Maintain Recovery

Regular eating is a mainstay of eating disorder recovery. When you are living with an eating disorder, you have the added pressure to meet your meal plan and finish your plate. Maybe you work full-time and your lunch break is only thirty minutes. What are you supposed to do? It seems like there is no “right” answer, and it ends up making lunch a time to dread. So, let’s talk about some strategies to decrease your stress and ensure you can meet your meal plan to stay on track for recovery. 

Have Nutrient-Dense Meals

Items like yogurt and nut butters are great for short lunches because they provide protein, fat, and carbs in an easy-to-eat form. If needed, you can make these meals smaller and add more to another meal or add an extra snack to your meal plan.

Ask for Extra Time or Accommodations

If you have an IEP or a 504 plan, you can likely get extra time for lunch if you ask for the accommodation. However, sometimes, informing schools of your treatment can also allow you to get accommodations, even if that means being late to your next class. If the school cannot provide accommodations, ask your teacher if you can finish your lunch in class.

Liquid Calories

While liquid calories are not a substitute for solid food, this could be helpful when you have minimal time. Things like protein shakes or smoothies would be an excellent option for those school/work days when you don’t have enough time. You could also consider using a nutritional supplement shake. 

Use/Limit Distractions

Distractions can be useful if you are anxious and struggle to eat your meal. If that’s the case for you, then maybe you can try watching a show, listening to a podcast, or talking to those around you. On the other hand, if you are easily overwhelmed by sensory inputs in the environment (e.g., a loud cafeteria) and need to eat without distractions, try eating in a quiet place with fewer distractions, such as the nurse’s office or a teacher’s classroom. 

Eat foods you enjoy

While your treatment team may want you to explore new foods, school lunches may not be the ideal time to do this. Instead, focus on eating foods you enjoy. If you can make a lunch full of foods you know you will eat, then your chances of finishing your meal increase. Plus, you end up leaving lunch feeling satisfied and happy!

Talk to Your Treatment Team and School or Workplace

While these strategies may be helpful for some people, they are not guaranteed to work for everyone. Before considering these strategies, consult with your treatment team to ensure that you follow the plan they have set for you! Additionally, some school districts have different policies regarding what they can and can’t do, so consult with your school to see how they can best support you.

Get Help for An Eating Disorder in California

Looking for help with an eating disorder? EDTLA has caringeating disorder therapists who can help. Contact EDTLA.

See our suggestions for getting your teen with an eating disorder ready to return to school.