A lot of people eat when they are stressed out, and I have been known to do some "stress eating" myself. But a lot of times when I'm stressed out I clean house, or when I'm really crazed, I start a home improvement project.
When my daughter moved to California I cleaned every window in the house, inside and out. I think cleaning house makes me feel like I'm in control of something in my life.
Holidays seem to bring out the home improvement strategy of stress control. Although, since home improvement is stressful in and of itself, the strategy has some flaws in it. One 4th of July I got the notion to remove the wallpaper from one of my bathrooms. Removing wallpaper is one of the nastiest jobs in the world, but I was getting along pretty well until I pulled on the sink cabinet to try to get the wallpaper out from behind it and broke the hot water pipe. My screeching woke my husband up from a nap to turn the water off at the basement shutoff valve. (Forget trying to shut it off under the sink when scalding water is spraying out.) We couldn't get a plumber on the holiday. The guy who showed up the next morning just rolled his eyes when I told him what had happened.
So this morning I woke up feeling antsy and decided to paint the room I use for my treadmill. A quick trip to Home Depot and I was ready to go. I patched the nail holes and removed the switch plates. I moved out the few pieces of furniture, and decided no drop cloth was needed since I plan to replace the carpet with bamboo flooring. Things actually went pretty smoothly, but by the time I got the primer up I was exhausted.
I'll get t he paint color up another day. Or, if I have any sense, I'll call my favorite painter and pay him to finish the job. My treadmill room will be a beautiful space, full of everything nice to encourage me to exercise.
Outside a moderate breakfast and lunch, I did no eating at all today. I ignored the gluten free brownies and mint meltaways. I stayed away from the Pumpkin Spice Latte at the Starbucks next to the Home Depot.
I didn't walk on the treadmill today, but I think painting definitely counts as exercise. I can plug in the treadmill and walk on it again tomorrow, even if I don't finish the painting.
The following poem is by Beatrix Potter. My daughter loved it when she was a child.
Appley Dapply, a little
brown mouse,
Goes to the cupboard in
some-body’s house.
In somebody’s cupboard
There’s everything nice,
Cake, cheese, jam, biscuits,
-- All charming for mice!
Appley Dapply has little
sharp eyes,
And Appley Dapply is so fond
of pies.
Beatrix Potter
