Does chocolate cure all woes?

I was reading this very befitting post by my friend Liba Lurie all about being a tired mom and how to be a nicer mom even when you’re exhausted. Here’s the link so you can check it out yourself: Are You A Tired Mom?

It happens to be that I read this post on a particularly exhausting day. It’s been pretty hectic around here lately, what with launching 3 programs and an upcoming move…and needless to say my self-care has not been at its ideal lately.

So here I was, reading Liba’s post, and trying to stay awake until bedtime — by eating chocolate. After about 2 rows of chocolate (and starting to feel the jitters), I asked myself why I was even eating the chocolate? It wasn’t helping anyway.

What I really needed was a nap.

Not that I listened to my advice.

I was too tired to focus on listening to my self-care cues.

It’s funny, because I was talking to a different friend that very same day, telling her about my exhaustion woes and how I unsuccessfully tried to cope using chocolate. She jokingly mentioned that she knew this awesome health coach who could really help me get my self-care under control so that I wouldn’t need to turn to food.

Haha.

The truth is, as Liba pointed out, that sometimes things happen and we’re not at our ideal.

I ate too much chocolate.

Okay!

Ideally, I should have just taken a nap.

And I didn’t.

Am I a failure?

Did I lose?

Nope. I had a win.

The win was that I stopped myself from finishing the entire bar of chocolate. I finally checked in with myself and realized that I:

a) didn’t really like the chocolate I was eating (we were out of my favorite)

b) didn’t like the way the chocolate was giving me the jitters

and best of all

c) could focus on what my body really needed

When our self-care isn’t ideal, we miss important body cues and are at risk of doing things without awareness.

How do you deal with your exhaustion? Do you sometimes turn to food to cope? Could there be other things your body is really craving other than food? Comment below.