Re: CRON & professional life

[Guest guest]

Good question. But it's hard to believe they wouldn't provide for people on

special diets. There are so many people these days who are: vegetarians,

vegans, kosher, diabetic, allergic etc. that there must be some way for a

conference to accomodate them. Just as they do on airlines.

But in any case if there were no alternative, I would bring my own tossed

salad/canned salmon in a container or else a pure nut butter, allfruit jelly

sandwich on whole wheat with some fruit (which wouldn't need to be

refrigerated). I'd also eat any decent food offered (fruit, salad, juice

etc).

on 4/5/2003 10:03 PM, Jo Hastings at johastings@... wrote:

> How do people deal with the fact that leading a busy professional life is

> totally non-conducive to CRON? I typically work from home, so I don't usually

> have to deal with this, but this last week I was attending a conference, even

> in my hometown, where I was busy from 8am until midnight every day. I ate what

> the conference provided me, which was fairly horrible, and had more snacks and

> drinks than I should have during the mandatory social parts of the evening.

> There was no refrigerator access at the conference if I had wanted to bring my

> own lunch, and in general, there is social pressure to conform to what

> everybody else is doing in that type of environment anyway.

>

> Then there's the all day meetings where lunch is brought in from someplace so

> you can work through lunch. How do you deal with this?

>

>

> --Jo

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

--- " Jo Hastings " <johastings@s...> wrote:

> How do people deal with the fact that leading a busy professional

> life is totally non-conducive to CRON? I typically work from

> home, so I don't usually have to deal with this, but this

> last week I was attending a conference, even in my hometown,

> where I was busy from 8am until midnight every day. I ate what

> the conference provided me, which was fairly horrible, and

> had more snacks and drinks than I should have during the

> mandatory social parts of the evening.

> There was no refrigerator access at the conference if I had

> wanted to bring my own lunch, and in general, there is

> social pressure to conform to what everybody else is doing

> in that type of environment anyway.

Controlling your own food supply can sometimes present some

practical problems.

Packed lunches solve some of them. Opting out solves some other

ones.

Like you I tend to work from home most of the time - so

I guess that is my solution to such problems.

A week of 12-hour conference days with no fridge /does/ sound

difficult to cope with. Perhaps hope it doesn't happen too often.

Busy business life can also interfere with exercise programs.

If you don't make space, health is likely to suffer.

[Guest guest]

You make elaborate concoctions to take with you and bring them with

you in an picnic basket icebox with ice in it to keep things cool.

If anyone asks what you are doing you give them lectures on the

virtues on CRON and suggest that they too could benefit from it.

Ok, ok - that wasn't quite serious. Although I suppose it is one

option. I replied more to give sympathy than to give any ready

answers because I understand well some of the pressures of

professional life and the pressures of social food related conformity

that accompany it. And of course all the other things that accompany

professional life like sometimes coming home feeling too tired to

cook and too tired to exercise. Although something healthy can

usually be prepared with minimal effort in such cases. I don't

currently have the luxery of working at home.

An easier answer would probably be to pick out the healthiest food

from what has been supplied and eat it in moderation. It may not be

a diet strict enough to live to 120 but you'll still be healthier

than the norm.

> How do people deal with the fact that leading a busy professional

life is

> totally non-conducive to CRON? I typically work from home, so I

don't usually

> have to deal with this, but this last week I was attending a

conference, even

> in my hometown, where I was busy from 8am until midnight every day.

I ate what

> the conference provided me, which was fairly horrible, and had more

snacks and

> drinks than I should have during the mandatory social parts of the

evening.

> There was no refrigerator access at the conference if I had wanted

to bring my

> own lunch, and in general, there is social pressure to conform to

what

> everybody else is doing in that type of environment anyway.

>

> Then there's the all day meetings where lunch is brought in from

someplace so

> you can work through lunch. How do you deal with this?

>

>

> --Jo

[Guest guest]

There's lots of great nutrient-dense food that could go a whole day

without refrigeration (anything that existed before the 20th century I

imagine.) As far as the social pressure to conform, I've

found that people tend to simply wish they too had packed food. They

would typically admire you more than resent your lack of conformity.

Of course, depending on the people/context, one can always edit one's

selections to preclude any " A:what the heck is that? B:raw baby octopus--

what, you don't eat it too?? " type exchanges.

You can also pack in a lot of tiny meals during brief breaks.

Mike

On Sat, 5 Apr 2003, Jo Hastings wrote:

> How do people deal with the fact that leading a busy professional life is

> totally non-conducive to CRON? I typically work from home, so I don't usually

> have to deal with this, but this last week I was attending a conference, even

> in my hometown, where I was busy from 8am until midnight every day. I ate what

> the conference provided me, which was fairly horrible, and had more snacks and

> drinks than I should have during the mandatory social parts of the evening.

> There was no refrigerator access at the conference if I had wanted to bring my

> own lunch, and in general, there is social pressure to conform to what

> everybody else is doing in that type of environment anyway.

>

> Then there's the all day meetings where lunch is brought in from someplace so

> you can work through lunch. How do you deal with this?

>

>

> --Jo

>

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

If you normally work from home, the situation likely won't happen often enough in a year to have a significant impact on your long-term CR program. And we're all in this for the long term.

When I eat out I just eat what I feel like eating -- on the assumption that a few day's of non-CR per year will disappear into the "noise." If the situation will persist for a week, pick the least-bad foods and just eat less in general. People really *aren't* watching what you eat that closely.

Or, if the situation permits, you can walk around with a bit of food on a plate for a long time without eating much of it.

Or try the trick from when you were a kid, pushing the food you didn't like around on your plate during dinner but never really eating it. You DID do that, didn't you?

I have to admit I've never understood this "social pressure to eat like everyone else" concern, at least in a business environment. Other people aren't going to be watching how much you eat. And if they do, so what? If you were a guest in someone's home and they'd cooked the meal, they might be offended if you didn't at least sample everything. But in a business environment? Not a problem.

I read a humor posting recently titled "Rules for Depression," and the first item on the list was: "Try to be PERFECT."

Better to "try to do pretty well, on average" -- and leave it at that. Otherwise CR becomes yet another source of stress in our lives, and that's not good.

-- Mike O'Gara

> How do people deal with the fact that leading a busy professional life is> totally non-conducive to CRON? I typically work from home, so I don't usually> have to deal with this, but this last week I was attending a conference, even> in my hometown, where I was busy from 8am until midnight every day. I ate what> the conference provided me, which was fairly horrible, and had more snacks and> drinks than I should have during the mandatory social parts of the evening.> There was no refrigerator access at the conference if I had wanted to bring my> own lunch, and in general, there is social pressure to conform to what> everybody else is doing in that type of environment anyway.> > Then there's the all day meetings where lunch is brought in from someplace so> you can work through lunch. How do you deal with this?