lesson learned

A very pedestrian bento today, but considering it was thrown together in a little over 5 minutes (not counting egg cooking time), it's more impressive than it looks. Leftovers, leftovers everywhere....

• homemade beef stew (the last of the leftovers from the coast)
• brown rice packed around a hard-boiled egg (a large instead of a jumbo so I didn't bother molding it)
• orange sections and green grapes in one half, baby carrots and honey peanut butter for dipping
• small containers of soy sauce (for the rice) and salt (for the egg and stew)
• organic chocolate bar from Moonstruck (this will mark the fourth time I've packed this particular bar in my lunch, so we'll see if I actually get around to eating some of it)

Since I was off last week to write, I didn't do any bentos at all, even though I thought about at least doing them for lunches since I have a tendency to let time get away from me when I'm writing. Sure enough, that's exactly what happened all week, and I didn't end up eating as well or wholesomely as I could have or should have. I mean, I didn't eat a bunch of junk food (key words: "a bunch" :), but I also didn't fix a nice meal for myself and went for long stretches without eating (i.e., I'd forget to eat breakfast & lunch, and then suddenly be ravenous at around 9 PM).

It was actually a good thing, because it made me realize that if -- no, WHEN -- I'm writing full-time, keeping a regular routine of bentos will help me maintain consistency and healthy eating. It's such work to get into and maintain that writing groove that my tendency is to not want to break from it for any reason. When things are flowing, you want it to last as long as you can...like catching that perfect wave and riding it all the way to the end (she says, as if she knows diddly about surfing...).

So I know I'm not going to stop and make myself something, and will in fact just heat whatever's in the fridge or (as happened last week, when the fridge became increasingly bare) scrounge whatever I can find and call it good -- crackers and some grapes, or a leftover sausage and a carrot and piece of chocolate, or juice and toast (examples of "meals" I ate last week). Random combinations that are just whatever's easily at hand and doesn't require any real effort. If it's occasional, that's fine, but not day after day.

So I figure if i have a lunch all ready to go, put together the night before just like I do now for work, then I don't have to break if I'm on a roll, but I'm still getting all the benefits of eating something filling and well-balanced.