440th Friday Blog Roundup
Almost every day, I allow myself one meal of Special K. I picked Special K because it has a lot of protein for a cereal. I picked cereal because it requires no prep. Just pour in a bowl, drench with milk, and eat. One bowl, one spoon, complete meal.
It is also always exactly the same. Sometimes, you buy a cucumber, and when you get home and chop it up, it tastes… off. Not bad, per se. Just off. Even though it looks and smells fine. But every box of Special K is exactly the same. There are no surprises. Every bowl tastes the same. It doesn’t matter that it tastes like wet cardboard; sometimes sameness trumps taste for me.
On particularly stressful days, I allow myself two meals of Special K. This week had a lot of two-meal Special K days. Days when I phoned in making a real meal for myself, and instead poured it from a box and thought, “this is good enough.” One bowl, one spoon, complete meal, lather, rinse, repeat. There was something comforting in the sameness, in having a lack of surprises.
What do you stress eat? And if it’s cereal, suggest another one to me so I can at least mix it up a bit.
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And now the blogs…
But first, second helpings of the posts that appeared in the open comment thread last week. In order to read the description before clicking over, please return to the open thread:
- “Antilamentation” (Edenland)
- “My Obituary” (Fertility Alphabet Soup)
- “The I Ching of Jerry Maguire” (Too Many Fish to Fry)
Okay, now my choices this week.
Riding the Roller Coaster has a post about why she hates Tuesdays. The ticker that had been counting down her pregnancy always changed on a Tuesday. She writes about this time period following her D&C, “In some ways it feels like forever. In some ways it feels like yesterday. My jeans and bras fit again. I don’t have the big appetite or the scary moods. It seems like now all evidence that I was even ever excited about Tuesdays is gone.” It’s the layers of loss, and the hidden meanings we hold for certain days on the calendar.
Adventures for Four also has a post about a recent loss, and how it has unmoored her, leaving her drifting. It’s a lovely, brief post about having to let go of that alternate universe that contained that wanted future.
Lastly, From IF to When has a gorgeous post processing the events of this week. She compares the feelings to those that bubbled up after 9/11: “9/11 was so large and distant for many of us. At least for me, it was unbelievable. Watching it felt like watching a movie or listening to a story. It didn’t feel real until I stood at Ground Zero a year later and saw the destruction where the towers once stood.” It was a perfect piece to sit with and contemplate the week.
The roundup to the Roundup: A two-bowl of cereal per day week. What do you stress eat? And lots of great posts to read. So what did you find this week? Please use a permalink to the blog post (written between April 12th and April 19th) and not the blog’s main url. Not understanding why I’m asking you what you found this week? Read the original open thread post here.
20 comments
My personal favorite stress food is chocolate chip cookies. I don’t eat cereal, so I can’t give you any tips…
This was excellent:
http://nokiddinginnz.blogspot.com/2013/04/life-and-its-prices.html
I stress eat chocolate. And drink wine. When I’m at my maximum stress point, I bake AND eat chocolate goodies. My college roommates used to love when I had a big test or paper coming up because they would come home to cakes and cookies.
And thank you for the shout out, Mel. I’m very ready for this stressful week to be over.
Cadbury eggs, chocolate & chili bars and chocolate chip cookies…
Popcorn. Easy to pop in the microwave and not as healthy as cereal. I have it almost every day lately as a snack, but sometimes mix it up and make it my ‘lunch’ also. Somehow it’s not as satisfying as lunch. And chocolate (specifically brownies and Snickers bars) but that depends on availability, which I try to limit.
Licorice, at least right now. Usually something crunchy or sugary does the trick.
Cheerios and Crispix are two of my back-up cereal options. Though I find that regular oatmeal (the ostensibly slow-cook stuff, rolled, not steel cut) popped in a microwave for a minute and then stirred and allowed to sit for a few more is also a darn good go-to food.
I wish I could say that I had a particular food that I like to eat when stressed, but I don’t- I’ll eat pretty much anything (and a lot of it!) when I’m stressed. I just like good food. I’m pretty good at controlling myself when life is good, but I lose all self control when things aren’t going so well. Cereal-wise, I enjoy Nature’s Path Pumpkin Raisin Crunch. Lots of fibre and a reasonable amount of protein.
Open faced peanut butter sandwich – one knife and a few crumbs.
Hot buttered toast. Or granola. Or pita and hummus. Are teh go to its too late / I’m too tired/stressed to cook meals.
I stress eat lots of things. Mostly, it’s whatever is rich, fattening, and convenient. However, my guilty cereal is PB Cap’n Crunch. Little protein or fiber, but hey, it’s fortified.
Salt & vinegar potato chips 🙂
I had cereal for part of my dinner last night. It was odd because I hardly ever do that these days. For your info – Cascadian Farms Multi-Grain Squares. 🙂
I stress-eat whatever carb I can get my hands on. And red wine. Some days, I can’t wait to get home so that we can order homemade linguine from the restaurant behind our house and split a nice bottle. (It’s usually on a Thursday).
My favorite stress-eating choice is a particular flavor of a particular brand of gelato, which I won’t name here because it is EVIL. (Or maybe I’m just feeling especially stressed and tempted this week.)
Also, this post is too good not to share: http://nokiddinginnz.blogspot.com/2013/04/delayed-gratification-is-over-rated.html
I am the opposite of a stress-eater. I am a stress non-eater. 🙁 My challenge, especially for breakfast and lunch, is finding foods that are appetizing to me when my stomach is churning. To eat under stress, I need the opposite of sameness and routine. I need novelty. Different foods every week, maybe every day. Not too much of any thing. I’ll sometimes take about 5 different things to work for lunch – about bites of each thing.
cereal here too. Cornflakes, weetabix or rice crispies, usually the 8pm ‘just home from the gym’ food.
Peanut butter and jam on toast, also damn good filler
Not sure what I eat for stress food, but boredom food is something sweet I’ve baked. I love to bake when bored (or had school work to do). As for cereal, I like Special K, just re-found Cherios (the yellow/orange box as it is less sugary) and from the US Grape Nuts and Craklin’ Oat Bran (wish I could get them both here!!!)
This post stuck with me this week: http://ahalfbakedlife.blogspot.fi/2013/04/she-likes-to-let-them-go.html
Ah, Special K. Me, too. But I live in a place where you can’t really get it, or if you can get it, the milk just doesn’t taste the way that I remember milk tasting. We’ll be in the US for six weeks this summer. I intend to eat a bowl of Special K with ice cold milk every single day.
Thanks for the mention, Mel. The blog will be one of the very few memorials for our loss so it means a lot to me that more people stopped by.
Comfort eating Galaxy chocolate and twister ice lollies this week – maybe I should switch to Special K for a healthier option!
I like chocolates.
This one was good:
http://theluckylife.wordpress.com/2013/04/16/some-things-still-make-me-sad-about-infertility/
Typically I will eat anything when stress eating although sugar/sweets usually are at the top of my list. Lately it’s Madeline cookies and cupcakes that are my favorite.