My "Poor Girl's Charcuterie"​ Was a Recipe for Burnout: And I Missed It!

In hindsight, the night I had saltines and Kraft singles for dinner, was a warning sign I completely missed.

I will never forget that night. I was in grad school at the time, and although I had the goal of looking “toned,” health and wellness weren’t in my professional portfolio at the time. They had long been personal goals, of course. I had been a bored yet dedicated follower of the 3 sets of 12 lightweight dumbbell workout routines promoted by women's magazines for over 10 years. (Child of the 90's.) And I thought I was on the right track, even though my results left me wanting.

Anyway, so grad school. Specifically my media law paper. It was due soon. It was massive. I felt extremely time-crunched. It wasn’t easy to get to the grocery store from my studio apartment. There didn’t seem to be any healthy takeout options or delivery options. (This was before Uber and all things on-demand via apps). I didn’t have anything to cook and I didn’t feel I had time to even think about solving any of these problems. I just knew suddenly I was hungry, no HANGRY, and I felt I only had time to shove things down my mouth so I could stop feeling hangry and get back to it.

But of course I wanted to be “healthy”. Which led me to having saltine crackers and fat-free, Kraft singles for dinner. Because as a child of the 90s, it took a long time for me to let go of the carbs=good, fat=bad messaging.

Shortly after consuming my poor, busy gal's charcuterie board the guy that I was seeing called. Now before you jump to “and then he took you out to a fabulous dinner, and they lived happily ever after on real food,” you should know that we were dating long-distance and it didn’t work out.

I told him what I ate for dinner, and he said “Aw you need someone to take care of you.”

And I thought that was the sweetest thing and I was like, “haha yes I do,” while adding in my head, "would you like the job…please?"

So here’s where the warning sign comes into play. Actually, there are a few. We could talk about how this was one of many signs that I was looking to be rescued by him and others for a long time because I didn’t have the confidence to rescue my damn self. But that’s another wellness post. The warning sign I’m thinking of for this teachable moment is burnout. In hindsight, I was choosing to embrace burnout.

I could have prioritized nourishing myself. I could have given myself permission to step away from the work and go somewhere or make something that gave me more nutritional value and frankly tasted better than salty cardboard. But I didn’t. I allowed the emotions of the moment (the stress of the assignment and the sense of hangry) to take over. Today, I know better. Not only because I’m a board-certified health and wellness coach but because I’ve been mastering a holistic well-being lifestyle for decades.

Today I know through personal and professional experience what happens when we allow our workloads to take over and do not prioritize self-care. In this case, self-care means nourishing our minds and bodies with healthy, satisfying food.

Honestly, you can get away with not doing this a few times here and there. I got an A on that paper. I graduated. I lived to tell the tale (obviously). Except that a year later, nights like these caught up with me and I was on the couch for several days completely exhausted and barely able to binge on Netflix DVDs (yes DVDs, guess my age.)

But here’s the thing, you get away with it once or twice, and you start to think there are no repercussions for those choices. So you think you can always get away with it. And the choices become routine, and the next thing you know, you are mentally and physically exhausted, stressed all the time, eating crap on the regular, sleep is foreign, and your most intimate relationship is with your work email.

If we aren’t careful, if we don’t set up systems to safeguard our self-care, our work will always find a way to take over. What’s a good system and how do you create one? That’s very personal depending on your goals, your non-negotiables, other people in your life, what you have access to, personal preferences…all the variables.

A quick example to get you thinking, though, is keeping a pair of walking shoes by your desk so it’s easier to take a movement break after you eat lunch. Or scheduling a lunch break so you actually stop to eat lunch. Meal prepping on Sundays to make healthy eating during the week easier.

Devising detailed, personal success systems is something I help my clients create for themselves so they gain focus, energy, confidence, better boundaries, improved relationships, and better overall health.

 If you’d like to explore what that looks like, book a free discovery call here.