Thanks for therapy.

I generally dread going to therapy (or I forget my appointments) but I ALWAYS learn something, and I am incredibly grateful for my regular practice of going to therapy. Here's an example of something that sounds so obvious, but probably would not have occurred to me without my therapist: I am not great about eating lunch. Don't get me wrong, I eat enough every day, but usually I forget to eat until I'm hungry, and then I eat a bunch of junk because it's fast. It's a symptom (of many) of me not taking care of me, if it's work and not fun. I dislike vegetables. I dislike cooking. I even dislike assembling sandwiches. 

I honestly am fine eating cold leftover spaghetti from the back of the fridge if it fills me up and lets me get on with my day. Or--the classic that I remember from the sleep-deprived days of nursing a newborn--the rolled up piece of ham eaten like a taquito, chased by whatever liquid was in the fridge. Maybe milk, maybe orange juice; maybe a long squirt straight to my mouth from a can of whipped cream. Look, I was surviving. I feel like the rolled-up piece of lunch meat followed by a Reddi-Whip chaser is actually a really good metaphor for my parenting life in general.

So anyway: one of the markers of a good therapist is that she or he can give you good ideas tailored to you and make you think they're your ideas, because they talked you through an issue you didn't know you had and helped you find a solution. Somehow I left one session a month or two ago with the plan to keep a basket in the fridge that's just for me and is full of nutritious, quick foods for me to eat during the day. I have been doing this ever since then--I actually remember when I'm at the grocery store! (I buy a lot of premade salads, also did you know you can buy pre-cooked, pre-shelled hard-boiled eggs by the bag?!)--and it has been life-changing. 

Like I said, it might sound silly, particularly if you are not someone who has trouble feeding herself properly. But the fact is that I look forward to lunch time now because I know there will be something good in there for me, because Past Eliza thought ahead and took care of Future Eliza so that she could get on with her day. Totally worth an hour of my life and $80 from my HSA.