It's ALL Comfort Food

Work has been stressing me out lately. Mainly it's because I'm getting more and more responsibility, which is absolutely fine with me since it helps me do my job better and be more of an asset to the company. But with that responsibility comes these crazy grey areas where there is not a simple or even concrete solution to the problem/question. Now my boss, Dr. J., has been working in our position for several years so he's got plenty of background info on just about anything that pops up. That is, he's likely dealt with it before. I, on the other hand, have been concentrating mainly on honing my technical skills over the last year or so, and have not dealt with these types of issues. Dr. J.'s happy to help whenever I ask, but I prefer to deal with as much of it on my own as possible, looking to him when I'm stuck.

I don't want to go on any longer about my work situation, though, because I don't want to dwell and I'm not really complaining, either. Mainly I'm using it as an intro to the real topic at hand:

Food.

I like it. I like it a lot. By no means does it rule my life, I don't sit around thinking about grub. But when it's time to eat, I'm glad. I like the act, the ritual, of eating and I like the way it makes me feel psychologically and physically. Since I began my more-or-less healthy lifestyle in September, this hasn't changed a bit. In fact, I feel even better during meal times when I both enjoy the food and know I'm putting healthy stuff into my gut.

Today I was a bit stressed out by this and that. Maybe I'm alone here, but some days I wake up and have kind of a temporary predisposition for stress. It's like my brain says, "I will allow us to be easily stressed out today. It's not up to you, Josh, don't fight it. You'll only get more stressed." So as soon as anything even remotely stressful came up, I was Stressed. Then lunch rolled around. I went down to the cafeteria, got a nice chicken sammich with some quality potato salad and came back to my cube. Within the first bite I felt better. I didn't do any work, I just ate my tastie sammich and relaxed. By the time I finished my meal, I felt completely stress free. That's when I realized that just about all food is comfort food. I wasn't eating mac 'n' chee or clam chowder or freshly baked bread. Just a chicken sammich.

Don't get me wrong, I am by no means a foodaholic. I can leave foodahol alone whenever I want, but there's something that goes beyond just feeding the machine for me. It's conciously taking time out to take care of myself that is psychologically appealling. You don't get too many chances to do that at work.

So the next time you find yourself hunkered down in front of a tastie chili-dog or ceasar salad, you thank that tastie treat, maybe have it analyze your dreams or just tell it about your day. You'll feel better.