Life, Emotions and Food

***  I'm going to go a little offtopic here today - if you don't want to listen to me rant and rave about stress and life, you're welcome to move on to the next article in your blog reader.  ;-)  ***

I know - it's been quiet around here, hasn't it?  Ever since my mom left a week ago Monday, I've been going through a bit of ennui.  (You can thank Gilmore Girls for adding that word to my vocabulary.)  It wasn't really depression - believe me, I know the signs - but more of an uninspired moment of boredom with my life. 

I've had these moments before - I think all writers do.  Your muse isn't talking, the wolves are the door, the kids are screaming and fighting, and all you want to do it crawl under your desk, plug your ears, and hum loudly.  (Actually, I've done that - it doesn't work but it does make the kids leave you alone for a while.)

Now, I'll be the first to tell you that I'm an emotional eater - most of the women in my family are.  Food has always been our best buddy when it came to dealing with crisis and stress.  (Explains why we're all overweight, doesn't it?)  Whenever these moments of ennui hit me in the past, I'd run straight into the arms of something sweet and not stopped eating until the mean people went away.

But not this time....

When the storm clouds of self-doubt and chaos began to form around my head, I "circled the wagons", turning all of my attention and energies towards my family and myself.  I did a lot of writing and meditation.  I read funny stuff and watched comedies on Netflix to keep my spirits up.  I got away from the computer and spent as much time as I could outside in the spring sunlight, getting a good dose of VitD in me. I did stuff and spent time around other people. 

Most importantly, I kept an eye on my eating.  I'll tell you from experience that yes, you can binge on Paleo-friendly foods and that yes, you will gain weight from it, and that yes, you will feel like shit the next day.  I wasn't going to let that happen - not this time.  So, I made a concerted effort to plan my meals and log everything into fatsecret.com.  Keeping myself accountable really help reel in those "bury my feelings by eating everything in the house" moments.

Thankfully, the darkness began to lift this week - it's nice to see the light again.  You can always tell when I'm recovering from an illness (mental or physical) because I want to clean clean clean.  I don't think my kitchen floor has ever been this clean before.  I'm also starting to reorganize my life, make a list of things that need to be done, and slowly ramp back up into the chaos that is my life.  And most importantly, I'm writing again.  Yeah!!!

So, all I can say now is....Hello, life!  I'm ready to rumble!  ;-)