Do I think about food too much?
"Anything that takes a lot of time and is anxiety-provoking is not good for you." Vivienne Lewis - Clinical Psychologist
This is going to be a quickie, because I don't really have a lot to say about this. It arises from a sort of need to write something every day on this blog and a lack of ideas that sometimes occurs. Or maybe even it's a lack of interest. Whatever it is I worry that this discipline I have imposed on myself - to write a post every day - is unhealthy.
I do think about food a lot - everyone does. We sort of have to at some point or other, whether it's planning a meal, making sure we eat the right things or when we are shopping.
"We all think about food every single day, and for a bunch of different reasons -- out of necessity, for fun, out of boredom, for comfort and for enjoyment."
Juliette Steen - Huff Post
And no, it wasn't that quote that made me think this, I was already aware of the fact that a lot of my thinking about food was ordinary, but also some of my thinking about food is not the ordinary kind of thinking about food. This was brought home to me when I started looking for an illustrative picture. If you feed in 'thinking about food' as your search term, you get pictures of a lot of people thinking about junk food. In other words people with eating problems. Well I don't think I have either an eating or a drinking problem. Yes I could probably cut back a little on the wine - never more than two glasses would be a good start - and I suppose I do worry a bit about my weight. Enough to continue with a sort of 5/2 diet anyway and monitor my weight fairly regularly. But that's a different problem. And I certainly don't spend any time lusting over fish and chips or Mars bars.
What I am talking about here is twofold I guess. First do I only look at the world through foodie glasses as it were and ignore everything else, and second is writing this blog bad for me?
Looking at the world through foodie glasses? Well yes, a bit, but not obsessively. Certainly once I have done my blog post for the day I return to 'normal' and just think about food when I sort of have to. But on the other hand I confess that I am always on the lookout for something to write about - when I read a book, a magazine, a newspaper I am alert to blog idea possibilities. When I am driving around I am on the alert for interesting white vans, ads and food shops. When I'm shopping - well need I say more? On the whole though I don't think this is a bad thing. It's just what I notice, as opposed to a metro head, for example, who might be looking at cars in a totally different way to myself, or a fashion obsessive or a gardener. It adds a level of interest to what I am viewing, and if something does catch my eye, then I generally learn something new when I 'research' it. It's a focus that adds something to everyday experience but which doesn't ignore the wider world.
So is writing this blog bad for me? Am I inducing anxiety in myself? A tiny bit maybe but not enough to be worrying. For there are days when I don't actually write anything, either because of lack of time, or because I simply cannot think of anything at all, and can't be bothered to resort to my writer's block strategies. And I sort of despise myself just a tiny bit when I resort to them anyway. And if I don't write anything, then it's not a big deal. A minor disappointment perhaps.
Is having a particular task, like writing a blog post every day, an obsessive thing? No I don't think so, or is that wishful thinking? There are probably lots of things we have set ourselves to do every day - a set of exercises, answering email/messages, etc., reading a book. And of course the things we absolutely have to do every day are plentiful. So where's the harm in adding one more task to the list? As long as we have the time that is. And I do. I have that luxury at this stage of my life. I don't have to get the household and its occupants going in the morning, I don't have to go to work, I don't even have to do all of the household tasks because I have a very helpful husband who does some even most of them.
I suppose it does a take a lot of time - well an hour or so of my day. But I don't think it causes me anxiety. I don't wake up each morning worrying about it. I only worry about it when it's time to sit down and do it. And even then it's not worrying in a wringing of hands kind of way. But it does make me a bit disappointed and a bit annoyed with myself sometimes - the times when I'm not original or creative enough to think of anything or when I see that everyone and their dog have said the same things before ...
When I become really anxious about it - then that's when I should stop. In the meantime it's got to be good for the brain surely?
