I feel like most of my thoughts about this whole quarantine situation have been centered around food.

First, it was stocking up on food. Then, it was worrying that maybe the food we had stocked wouldn’t be enough. Then, stocking up on more food. Then, it’s been thinking about how to use the ingredients we bought to make satisfying food.

Food, food, food, food, food.

Realizing that I’ve been thinking about food so much and not feeling completely neurotic has reminded me, once again, how grateful I am for recovery. If this quarantine had happened when I was in college, I think I’d be coping a lot differently. I’d still be thinking about food a lot, but it wouldn’t just be a lot — it would’ve been constant. Because I was already constantly thinking about food and trying to avoid it as much as possible, only to end up binge eating in the evening. I’m so thankful to God that he carried me through that.

That realization is what also inspired me to create the Foundations guidebook that I posted about yesterday. It occurred to me that these weeks at home could look differently for all the women struggling with the “stay at home” order because of changes to their eating and exercise routines. It doesn’t have to feel like their world is ending, or like they’re losing control. But putting intuitive eating into practice isn’t as simple as it sounds. With so much information circulating around the web, it can be really hard to know where to begin.

Another reason that this season of quarantine seemed like the appropriate time to release Foundations was because starting up a new initiative like intuitive eating takes time. It takes concentration. It requires that we be intentional. That’s hard to do when we’re also trying to juggle adult life, with all the demands from work, relationships, and everything else. For some people, taking a step back, staying home, and really focusing on recovery is what it takes for that recovery to really happen. At least, that’s what it took for me.

What I’ve been eating this week:

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The frozen bananas also made the most magnificent appearance in this Oreo Banana Protein Shake. I seriously have never enjoyed a protein shake so much in my entire life. I will be making this again….and again…and again…

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Random lunches and dinners made with poached chicken and cheese (left), poached chicken with ranch and cheese (middle) and poached chicken in the form of chicken salad (right).

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Snacks have been equally delicious, such as peanut butter truffles I found in the freezer (+ iced coffee) and fruity pebbles with milk. Yum.

Lastly, I wanted to share the hilarious story of this impromptu apple pie. I found a ball of dough in the freezer and had a hunch that it was pie crust. I pressed it into a baking dish, tossed some sliced apples with flour, cinnamon, and sugar, and then baked it until it seemed done.

Halfway through baking, it occurred to me that the dough could have instead been pizza dough leftover from the night my husband and I tried to make our own deep dish.

It was delicious, but even to this day, I’m still not 100% sure what kind of dough that was.

More about life under quarantine…

As I’m sure is the case for many of you, life has felt so weird over the past two weeks. It’s been two weeks since everything got flipped upside down, and I’ve been wrestling with trying to figure out what is going on with my emotions.

My husband and I are self-isolating. Neither of us is too concerned about catching the virus ourselves, but we are worried about our older and elderly family members who aren’t as resilient as we are. My husband, praise God, still has a job and has been working from home. I’m also fortunate to be able to be paid as usual, but the future looks a little more unsure for me. My area of healthcare is really niche-y, and many of the services aren’t covered by many insurance companies. As I’m looking to finish up my training over the next few months, the company I was hoping to start working for has had to make a number of cuts. They laid off quite a few of the doctors they hired and furloughed quite a few more. I’m heartbroken for my friends who work there, but also nervous for my own future. They were my #1 choice of employer, and hopefully that door isn’t closed.

Oh, and something that’s been helping my mental health as far as not freaking out about the quarantine, the extreme changes in life, and everything going on with the economy is to shut off the news. I was listening to the minimalists podcast and one of the things they recommended was to create boundaries around the news: set aside a time each day to check one national news outlet and one state news outlet. Doing that has been a game changer.

COVID-19 has been a huge lesson for me in terms of trusting God. As much as I’d hope otherwise, I’m not the one in control of my life, how I spend my time, where I work, or what my 9-5 looks like…now, or a year from now. I’m blessed that my husband and I are in a good place financially, and I’m doing my best to practice gratitude in God’s provision now rather than get lost in fear about tomorrow.

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Today has enough trouble of its own.

Matthew 6:34