Eating Out of Boredom

“The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.” - Dorothy Parker

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about this whole “mindful eating” thing and it’s made me realize how many times I’ve eaten out of sheer boredom. In fact, eating out of boredom is very common. I don’t know about you, but I’ve noticed that whenever I’m not consumed in something worthwhile, all I think about is food. This happened to me last week when I was in class; about mid-day I found myself bored and all I could think about was food. At one point I polished off a bag of gummy bears, some mixed nuts, and something else that I can’t quite remember—for no particular reason other than I was bored. Oh, and then I went to the library where they had a bowl of candy out front and, yes, I had a handful of that as well (and, no, I wasn’t hungry!) This caught my attention because it made absolutely no sense; why was I still eating when I wasn’t even hungry? So, here’s the deal, disciplined eating habits require more than head knowledge. There must be motivation and interest—in other words—a “will” to do something. So now what? Well, first, when you feel bored it's important to realize that your body is trying to tell you something. Often the message it's trying to convey is that life has become dull and it’s time to find something to get motivated about. When you feel bored your body is trying to tell you something. Food is very comforting, so it’s often much easier to eat out of boredom than to actually fix the real problem. The only cure for boredom is to find something to become interested in. Get curious; use your imagination to come up with interesting ideas. Expose yourself to new experiences and interests. Why not start today?

Well anyway, those are my thoughts…I would love to hear yours.