What I learned about EATING for BOREDOM on a SNOW DAY

What I learned about EATING for BOREDOM on a SNOW DAY

Picture it…

We just turned the clocks ahead… the thrill of spring is in the air.

The crocus are poking their stems through the mulch.  Kind of like CrossFit for the plant world.

And then it happens, AGAIN.

Another Nor’Easter is upon us.  JUST as we had visions of daffodils dancing in our heads…

Fast forward to today.  The storm is here.

Given the predicted snow accumulation, all clients have rescheduled, but Franny (my hubby) still heads out for work at 6am.  Leaving me with this…

A totally and completely open day that SHOULD be filled with the MANY things that I should be working on (such as my new service Get Lively OnDemand – coming soon!)  yet, has me thinking about this….

FOOD.

I’m alone.  Snowed in.  No client obligations.  Nobody else in the house (well, except Romy & Michele).  And the kitchen is full of FOOD.

Wow.  This is going to put all of my skills as a Health Coach to the test…

So…

I sip my coffee for a good hour and a half (thanks to my Ember for keeping it warm!) as I watch the news and think about all the things that I should be doing today.

I hear my neighbor outside starting to push the snow around a bit and think… well, at least I’ll be shoveling all day and that will be good exercise.

But all I really want to do is EAT.

  • I want to eat because I’m tired of being snowed in.
  • I want to eat because I’m home alone and I’m bored.
  • I want to eat because I don’t want to face all the stuff that I need to be doing for my new membership site.
  • I want to eat because there’s some pretty challenging stuff going on in my family right now.

I want to eat because I want to FILL THE VOID.

So…

It’s 9am.  I decide that I will make myself a really good breakfast.

Two corn tortillas, two eggs, two scoops of pesto.

DELICIOUS.  

And now it’s 9:18am.

And the cross roads are laid out in front of me…

Choice #1

Say to myself: SHREK IT and start assembling “healthy” chocolate cookies to bake (and likely eat the whole batch)

Choice #2

Go outside and start shoveling to “stay ahead” of it knowing that another foot is on its way

Choice #3

Get the HELL out of the kitchen and EASE my way into work by picking some low hanging fruit that needs to be done, but that doesn’t feel TOO challenging.

BINGO.  

I chose #3.  And that has put my in my office, writing this blog post.

As I am typing this very post, I’m thinking this:

So Jan, if you do decide to just start eating to FILL THE VOID what are you ACTUALLY going to accomplish?

Let’s break down the pros and cons:

PROS:

  • temporarily (and I mean TEMPORARILY) find relief from the “I don’t know what to do with myself” feeling
  • potentially find a fabulous new, no bake, made from nothing but beans cookie recipe (like I need another one of those…)
  • listen to a podcast while riffling through the kitchen that will provide the “dawn breaks on marblehead” moment that frees me from my insanity

CONS: 

  • stuff myself with a batch of cookies made with a whole can of chick peas that will be sure to cause some interesting digestive moments as I demonstrate Pilates moves to clients tomorrow
  • eat myself in to such a food coma that LESS than nothing gets done on my ‘to do’ list and nap with the cats all day
  • realize that I’ve got about seven hours ahead of me to fill and even if I do dive into the food, how much time am I ACTUALLY filling?  Maybe a total of 45 minutes?  I mean, how much – and how slow – can one person actually eat?

Hmmm… two compelling arguments.

Let’s boil it down even more:

Proentertain myself for a total of about 45 minutes during the next 7 hours

Conmake myself feel like crap for the remaining 6 hours and 15 minutes

FINE.  I’ll do something other than eat.

Even though I always say that my sister is the “numbers person,” maybe that’s what’s saving me today.

Maybe sometimes we just need to STOP and think it THROUGH.

Maybe we just need to write out the pros and cons of our choices.

Maybe we need to give ourselves a moment to be okay with the empty space.

Maybe I’ll get to work now….

Comments

  1. Chris

    This was great! Made me laugh and think! I will listen to the podcast when I finish enjoying the FABULOUS silence that is in my home now. (You know why… hahaha)

    1. Jan Taylor

      A little fun on (yet another) snow day… 🙂 xo

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