Habits (And I’m Not Talkin’ Healthy Ones)

Thank you sooo much for the response to my sister-in-love Thais’ interview Monday about her new book on cancer survival. Over 100 comments!  She was thrilled!!! So thrilled she decided to have two winners. Yippeee!!! They are:

Nita Sullivan; time stamp 11:35 am on 2-21

Bobbie G; time stamp 12:15 pm on 2-21

Nita & Bobbie— send your home address to me at [email protected] right away!

And gals….you can still visit Thais’ site for another chance to win her book. Just click here!

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Habits.

There are healthy ones: flossing your teeth daily; looking both ways before crossing the street; taking your vitamins.

And there are not so healthy ones too.

Sorry to say, but my week brought habits of the latter kind.

Bad, bad habits.

Most of you know I have been sick; really sick. The kind of sick where I laid on the couch feverish & achy for days.

Once those symptoms left, I felt better for a few days. Enough so that I went to North Carolina for 48 hours. (Transported safely via the prayers of many of you!)

When I got home, I started having lung trouble. The “feels-like-someone-is-squeezing-the-life-and-breath-outta-me” kind of lung trouble.

I coughed like there’s no tomorrow.

So I was hauled off by the hubster to ER where they diagnosed me with bronchitis, gave me an inhaler and wonderful drugs.

Those who know me well know I am usually anti-drugs, but I was sick y’all!! (Oops—my P31 southern side is showing!)

The weird thing is, through all of this sickness, I have had no appetite.

That was great for the first week-and-a-half. I hardly ate.

Then, doc told me to eat to regain my strength. The trouble was, nothing sounded good.

So, I went from salty to sweet to savory, all the while trying to get something to taste good.

Nothing did.

I kept eating.

Then I noticed I was beginning to eat out of habit alone. Seriously! My taste-buds were gone and I had no cravings for anything, I just ate out of habit.

It was breakfast so I thought….“Hmmmm… I made the boys homemade oatmeal-whole wheat-buttermilk waffles, I’ll have one. With real maple syrup, please. No, make that two!”

It was afternoon. Maybe something sweet will do. Nope. Now I’ll try something salty.

Trouble was–there were no food choices that were both healthy & salty around–only teenage-boy snacks like chips and such.

I ate some, even though I really couldn’t taste them.

For the love of Pete–I even tried sour gummie worms!!

Again…no taste.

Once I began to feel better, I started cooking & baking again: peanut-butter apple crisp for my boys one night; strawberry-cream cheese pretzel dessert for our son’s birthday another.

Usually I can resist these treats. I opt for some berries and Greek yogurt instead or a little dark chocolate and a cup of something hot & calorie-free.

But this last week I just kept tasting & eating— both hoping to get my taste-buds to respond and (mainly) out of habit.

A very unhealthy habit.

How about the rest of you?

Are there any foods you are tempted to eat simply out of habit?

Do they taunt you at work?

Cry out to you at your church’s coffee hour?

Beckon you at breakfast?

Lure you at lunch?

Search you out at suppertime?

Beseech you at bedtime?

What are some food you eat simply because they are there, whether you find yourself at home or on the road?

Let us know.

Also, how was YOUR week! We want to know so we can pray for you.

So comment away.

I am vowing to do better. After this post, I will step on the scale (though I REALLY don’t want to) Next week I will tell you if I gained or lost.

We are in this together!

Habit-busting Blessings,