Excuses I make for not eating well

I`m too tired

I am just sitting there, in bed, bindgewatching some series for hours and somehow I still feel incredibly tired. And then , when I sense that little tingle of hunger, and I think to myself that I should get up. I feel my legs getting heavy, my head sinks in the pillow and the neverending stream of tvshows invites me stay. I feel too tired to go to the fridge, too tired to go shopping, too tired to breathe sometimes.

The funny thing is that when I was working 12 hours every day I didn`t feel too tired to stop and make something to eat. And when I did I just ordered something or had some in-case- of-emergency already prepared lasagna from the freezer, which I loved.

Why too tired to eat should not be a thing? Well, first of all, becasue it is the very activity which gives me energy. Eating well will make me feel better imediately. That is just a fact. There are countless books about why that is. When fries from McDonalds are engeneered to melt as soon as you put them in your mouth and give you a pleasurable, yummy boost, many other foods do as well. Eating will give me an almost instand energy boost and, in the right combinatio, it will make me happy for a little while. Let`s be honest, food is amazing and I am grateful I live in a time when I can sort of afford it and get it easily.

It takes too long

Look at it this way. How long does it actually take to make something to eat and how much energy would I spend doing that? And most importantly, is there something better that I can do with my time?

Cooking for 30 minutes will make me burn something like 150 calories, the equivalent of two bananas or a bag of crisps. So I get it, some energy is spent, but walking to the kitchen and grabbing that banana and eating in in two minutes with a biscuit before I start cooking will cost me almost no energy. There is no reason for starving myself. None whatsoever. As for the time, eating takes somewhere from 2 minutes to 2 hours. Right now, if I get up I could make myself a juice and a peanut butter sandwhich. Time spent? maybe 5 minutes. But instead I will probably sit here being hungry and spend the next two hours writing this article about excuses I make for not eating.

No. There is nothing more important. Food, water, shelter and love are the things that as a human being I can`t go without. And it can take very little and be very easy if I am just a little smart and plan it just a little bit in advance. I am always going to have to eat. The sooner I will learn to do it well, the better.

I dont know what to eat

I would sit there in front of the fridge and look around like a clooles puppy while my life passes me by, not knowing what to eat. I usually move around a lot and Im usually not in the same house for a long time. And even if I am, I do the shopping when I am hungry, I buy whatever I crave in that moment, stack it somewhere and forget about it. Then weeks later I wonder why on earth I have in my kitchen only random things that don`t go together. As for recepies, between youtube, pintrest, blogs and expecially, my mother and grandmother, I have collected hundreds of ideas of what I could cook that I just forget about when I am hungry, when my bainpower is literaly cut in half and I will eat the first sweet thing I can put my hands on.

And then again. I have hundreds of recepeis. There is so much out there. I can also make myself a little emergency list with things that I know I like and make sure I have them around. With so much information around there is definetly something out there for me. Is there too much information? Too much of everything? I do get a little overwhelmed by the amount of choice there is, jundreds and hundreds of product and repepied. This is all the more reason for me to have some basic things sorted. I need to eat a certain amount per day to feel happy and healthy. Always. Of more or less the same things in different combinations. It`s not rocket science. My grandparents wished for me to live in a time when there is food and abundance. And here we are.

I forgot

And I do forget sometimes. I get cought up in something, loose track of the things that I have to do, feel like i need to finish one thing or another, and I dont realise that I forgot to eat.

This is yet another effect of not making eating a priority and not planning a little bit ahead. Eating is a priority. Its up there with drinking water, sleeping, fighting for justince and taking a shower. It is more important than stressing another 10 minutes about a deadline, working for another 10 minutes or anything else. Eating well and at the right times is one of the daily, essencial elements of taking car of myself, of making myself a better person by essencially maintaining and changing the chemestry of my body, making sure it is strong and healthy. It sustains a good mental health and fights agains all sorts of microbs and illnesses that I could develop in time. It is the daily investment I make in myself, my health, my beauty and mind. I can`t forget this at any moment during the day.

Forgeting to eat means forgeting about myself. I woudn`t let a child go without food for long. I would let a friend or my mother go without food for a whole day. I can`t forget about myself either.

I dont have enough money

There have always been times when I feel my budget could do without the avocado on tost or the 5th takeout of the day. Realising that I spend more than half of my salary on food and coffee upset me a little. And then when I go to the supermarket and buy something to cook at home, chances are that I`ll end up spending even more. If a take-out is around £x, I would spend double the amount when I go shopping, only if I buy some bread, milk, some chicken, some veggies and fruit. At the end of the day I just feel like I am spending too much.

But then again, feelings are important but they aren`t facts. Have I made a propper budget to track my spending and see where I overspend? not really. I quit after a couple of days. And I am sure that If I did a minimum of planning and not ended up buying impoulsively things that I end up not eating, I would be better of in the long run. Also, is expensive coffee from hipster coffe shops really a necesity? Probably not. Most defenetly not. I don`t even like coffee, it makes my stomach hurt. Here I can see how there`s definetly something to look out for and work with. Things like having a buget, being aware of my spendings and trying to cut unnecesary purchases are first steps to feel like I do have enough money to eat.

And this is about it. Bottom line is I do have energy to make myself at least a snack and I will definetly have more energy right after that. There is no such thing as not having time for the one thing in my life that makes me strong and that I have control over and there is always a tasty way that I can cook an age-old favourite. Eating well is a priority! and it is part of taking care of myself. As for the finances, with a little awareness on how much I spend and on what I should be just fine. This being said I will finally get up, make myself a sandwich and a nice cup of tea and go about my day.

With love,

Irene

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