{"id":381,"date":"2013-02-06T03:21:31","date_gmt":"2013-02-06T08:21:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beyondgorgeous\/?p=381"},"modified":"2012-12-13T09:11:44","modified_gmt":"2012-12-13T14:11:44","slug":"cure-for-boredom-eating","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/2013\/02\/cure-for-boredom-eating.html","title":{"rendered":"Cure for Boredom Eating"},"content":{"rendered":"

The next time you open the pantry door and scout out something to munch on — stop.\u00a0 Ask yourself, \u201cWhy am I here?\u201d<\/p>\n

No, I\u2019m not exactly suggesting you contemplate the meaning of your existence –although that might not be a bad idea.\u00a0 I\u2019m saying you should examine your reason for wanting to eat.\u00a0 It probably isn\u2019t because you are hungry, especially if you already ate a healthy meal.\u00a0 Chances are you are eating out of habit.<\/p>\n

Or maybe you are bored. Boredom eating is a major cause of those extra pounds many of us carry around.\u00a0 So how do we plan to avoid this major trap?\u00a0 Maybe we need to make our lives more interesting and worthwhile.\u00a0 One way to do that is to be busy serving others and making a difference in the world.\u00a0 We\u2019ve talked about that some in a past blog post. \u00a0Click here to read about things that are fulfilling — not just filling.<\/a> Today I have a suggestion for you.<\/p>\n

If you could make the life of a seriously ill child a little brighter, would you consider your day less boring?\u00a0 I stumbled (providentially) across an amazing Web site recently: http:\/\/www.hugsandhope.org<\/a>. \u00a0 Their motto is, \u201cMaking a difference for sick kids, one smile at a time.\u201d\u00a0 They post the names and stories of seriously ill children and their siblings with an address where you can send cards and gifts.<\/p>\n

Perhaps you are one of the multitudes of us who bought tons of paper, stickers, and card stock to scrapbook, but don\u2019t want to drag it all out to actually do it now that the scrapbook popularity wave is ebbing.\u00a0 (And digital scrapbooking is much easier, anyway!) Why not bring out some of it and start making cards?\u00a0 Check out the lists and find the favorite colors of the kids and look online at some of the card making sites for ideas.\u00a0 Then get busy doing something to make a difference.<\/p>\n

This plan has several advantages.\u00a0 You can\u2019t eat while you do it, because it would be too easy to get food on the card.\u00a0 Your mind is engaged as well as your hands, so you won\u2019t be focusing on munchies.\u00a0 You have added something interesting to your life — and you are doing something that will give a smile to a suffering child.<\/p>\n

Win, win, win, win.<\/p>\n

So the next time you find yourself staring into the pantry or refrigerator — think about doing something to make a difference instead.\u00a0 Be a comfort-giver instead of a comfort- eater!<\/p>\n

Eating to live and living for Christ,<\/em>
\nSusan Jordan Brown<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The next time you open the pantry door and scout out something to munch on — stop.\u00a0 Ask yourself, \u201cWhy am I here?\u201d No, I\u2019m not exactly suggesting you contemplate the meaning of your existence –although that might not be a bad idea.\u00a0 I\u2019m saying you should examine your reason for wanting to eat.\u00a0 It…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":423,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[54,53,52,15],"class_list":["post-381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-purpose-in-life","tag-boredom-eating","tag-card-making","tag-charity","tag-weight-loss"],"yoast_head":"\nCure for Boredom Eating - Beyond Gorgeous<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/2013\/02\/cure-for-boredom-eating.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cure for Boredom Eating - Beyond Gorgeous\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The next time you open the pantry door and scout out something to munch on — stop.\u00a0 Ask yourself, \u201cWhy am I here?\u201d No, I\u2019m not exactly suggesting you contemplate the meaning of your existence –although that might not be a bad idea.\u00a0 I\u2019m saying you should examine your reason for wanting to eat.\u00a0 It…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/2013\/02\/cure-for-boredom-eating.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Beyond Gorgeous\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-02-06T08:21:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-12-13T14:11:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"sbrown\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Cure for Boredom Eating - Beyond Gorgeous","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/2013\/02\/cure-for-boredom-eating.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Cure for Boredom Eating - Beyond Gorgeous","og_description":"The next time you open the pantry door and scout out something to munch on — stop.\u00a0 Ask yourself, \u201cWhy am I here?\u201d No, I\u2019m not exactly suggesting you contemplate the meaning of your existence –although that might not be a bad idea.\u00a0 I\u2019m saying you should examine your reason for wanting to eat.\u00a0 It…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/2013\/02\/cure-for-boredom-eating.html","og_site_name":"Beyond Gorgeous","article_published_time":"2013-02-06T08:21:31+00:00","article_modified_time":"2012-12-13T14:11:44+00:00","author":"sbrown","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/2013\/02\/cure-for-boredom-eating.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/2013\/02\/cure-for-boredom-eating.html","name":"Cure for Boredom Eating - Beyond Gorgeous","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-02-06T08:21:31+00:00","dateModified":"2012-12-13T14:11:44+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/#\/schema\/person\/710ec516b61bcd3c78925c0c31c5afe6"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/2013\/02\/cure-for-boredom-eating.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/2013\/02\/cure-for-boredom-eating.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/2013\/02\/cure-for-boredom-eating.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Cure for Boredom Eating"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/","name":"Beyond Gorgeous","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Susan Jordan Brown","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/#\/schema\/person\/710ec516b61bcd3c78925c0c31c5afe6","name":"sbrown","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/author\/sbrown"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/423"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=381"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":386,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381\/revisions\/386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondgorgeous\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}