The Lentils and the Pot Part 1
The other day I was cooking lentils when I got distracted by my computer. I was replying to emails when I started smelling smoke. I got up from my computer ready to call the fire department. I ran to the kitchen looking for flames but found none. Why was my house filled with smoke? The lentils!!!
If you’ve been following my blog you know that I love finding analogies in life. Good, bad and in-between I’m constantly making up analogies. So I was thinking about what I could learn from the pot of lentils, other than turn down the heat and set timers. I started thinking about why the lentils burned in the first place. I was too busy and distracted to keep an eye on them. It started out as “I’ll check my email really quick”. I answered one email and then thought the lentils are fine I have time to answer one more. Then one more. Oh I better look at that link my friend sent. Lentils? What lentils?? What’s burning??? Crap the lentils!!!!
If we are not careful our health and lives can end up like the lentils. Overcooked and in extreme cases, ruined. If we are constantly saying I’ll start tomorrow. Tomorrow becomes next week. Next week becomes next year and before we know it we have all but forgotten our good intentions. It’s happened to me. Before I decided to get healthy again I kept putting things off and having Taco Bell “just one more time”. I’m not saying you can never have Taco Bell again. It’s not about what you can’t have. It’s about what you can have. You can have health. You can have energy. You can have a strong healthy body. You can wear that swimsuit to the beach. And you can have Taco Bell….once in a while. I don’t want you to put your health off another minute. I know most of you haven’t forgotten about your lentils. Most of you are making health a priority and many of you inspire me to keep checking on my lentils. But if you are one who has forgotten about the lentils, go take care of them so they don’t burn. Stop getting distracted and waiting for tomorrow. Your health shouldn’t have to wait because once it’s gone it’s hard to get back.
I care about you. I know it sounds sort of cheesy and I haven’t met most of you in person but I really do care about you. That is one of the reasons I keep blogging and why once in a while I’ll risk losing your readership to tell you to get off your butt and throw away that milk shake. Unless it’s your free day then enjoy that milkshake. I wish I could (says the sugar addict). : )
Stayed tuned for The Lentils and the Pot Part II.
xoxo
j
This is my (almost) sane quest for insane health. Let's 
Thanks so much! i love your analogies, looking at your website while at work and home make me resist the donut box & candy dishes! your such an inspiration.
This is so true. The eternal putting off until we are so out of shape that getting in shape is sooo hard. Life is so much more than food, but we have to train ourselves to think that.
I love that analogy. Our lives are like a pot of beans….simmering, simmering, and then blam! We explode from too much pressure.
I put a pan of eggs on to boil one Sunday morning. I went off and took a shower, my hubby and I went to town (1 hour away). We were grocery shopping in Walmart. I walked past the eggs and remembered the eggs boiling away at home! I was so scared, that I didn’t tell my hubby, I just said, “we’re done here, let’s go home!” My hubbie is on the town fire dept. I figured if our house was on fire, they would have called us. When we were walking up the stairs, I swear…you could SMELL the burnt eggs outside. We walked in, and smoke everywhere. The pan had exploded and eggs were everywhere. We have a gas stove, and lucky for us, I had left the windows open. Nice smell….gas and burnt eggs.
This is an awesome post, Jenn. Thank you for you! <3