Tuesday, August 03, 2010

Loop

Problem: In pain.
Solution: Take painkillers.

Problem: Cannot take painkillers on empty stomach.
Solution: Eat something.

Problem: Cannot prepare meal, even microwave meal, while in this kind of pain.
Solution: Eat something small that does not require preparation - a couple of biscuits, a bag of crisps, a slice of bread.

Problem: That is not a balanced diet, and if you don't eat the 'proper' food in the fridge, it will go off and you will be wasting money and killing the planet and what about the Starving Children In Africa.
Solution: Eat 'proper' meals as well, including meat/protein, fruit/vegetables, dairy products, and rice/pasta/potatoes.

Problem: Eating more calories than I burn. Cannot afford to buy whole new wardrobe.
Solution: Cut out snacking between meals.

Problem: Cannot take painkillers on empty stomach.

It annoys me that after six years I still get stuck in this loop on such a regular basis.

7 comments:

Mary said...

PS. Before anyone suggests I should have painkillers with every meal... Painkillers are to be taken only when desperately needed as frequent use over an extended period leads to a build-up of tolerance and some rather nasty effects on internal organs, not to mention the unpleasant short-term side effects. Some days I manage to get by with only a single dose. Unfortunately other days I end up Looping.

I know someone is going to suggest fresh fruit as a snack, as well. Which I do, but only for the three days after my bi-weekly supermarket delivery. I really need Milk&More to start delivering fruit.

Carie @ Space for the Butterflies said...

Have you come across Graze boxes? (www.graze.com). It's a box that arrives through the post with four little portions of healthy snacks (dried fruit, nuts, the odd chocolate drop). A group of us at work have been having them delivered as a way to cure us of our choc bic habit and we've found them very good for filling a hole. Some are healthier than others but all are pretty good for controlled energy release food. If you fancy giving it a whirl I've got a voucher so you can have a first box free - just let me know and I'll e-mail you the code.

Anonymous said...

Is it possible to make an extra serving of a meal and freeze it until you need it? It would need to be freezer to microwave-able and if you then find you don't need to eat your next meal, but don't want to waste it, could that then become the spare in the freezer?

Mary said...

Thanks for the offer, Carie, but at the moment £3 per day is a bit outside my price range - pitfalls of working alone at home.

Anon - I don't think I'm quite following.

It doesn't really matter - biscuits are not a tragedy - it's just a recurring frustration that I try not to snack and then end up having to snack anyway.

Anonymous said...

My fault, I didn't see that you couldn't use a microwave either. Whole wheat cereal (weetabix, shredded wheat) is healthy, or museli if you get a low sugar one. and a small helping (enough to line the stomach) isn't going to add too many calories.

Mary said...

Tee hee, yes, crip definitions, a "proper" meal is basically a microwave job with a vegetable somewhere in the ingredients list. And baked beans in tomato sauce counts.
:)

I did find Krave which is a cereal (cereal! healthy! honest! Just ignore the chocolate content!) that's really nice to eat dry.

Penelope said...

What about scheduling eating in more often so you're more likely to already have food in your stomach when you need the painkillers? So rather than 3 big meals a day, 5 smaller ones or something similar. I tend to snack fairly often which is probably why the painkillers I'm on that do need to be taken with food never bother me even if I take them without.

Another idea would be granola bars. I'm not sure how easy they are to find in the UK, though. I stash them around the house and in my car and in my purse so there's generally one within easy reach if I need food immediately. The ones I have are generally fairly healthy and a granola bar a day (even of the expensive ones I buy, rather than the cheap ones that are just as healthy) would work out to under an extra £1 per day (and the cheap ones are at least 1/2 the cost of the ones I buy, if not less).