Written by Amanda of The Buttery Bean Counter.
I have been coddled for most of my life. I don’t mean that I came from a super-privileged background, or that my parents walked me around wearing pillow-armour; I mean that, up until the age of twenty-two, I was time-rich, free to do as I please without the worry that there wasn’t enough time in the day to get it all done. Even during rigorous university crunches, there was still enough time to make some food and take a break every once in a while.

In October 2010, I started work as an auditor for a very large company; the implication of this (among other things) is that during the months of January to June, I am a slave to “busy season”. The hours during busy season are consistently almost unmanageable, the chairs uncomfortable and the clients irritable..

As a junior (which I am), you have little to no control over the hours you work, regardless of how efficient you are – you stay until the last person decides it’s time to trudge home. I was aware of this impending doom, and was understandably frightened.

Leaving my comfortable university bubble and stepping out into the big city and bustling working world was shock all on its own, but when you couple that with the fear of having no time to even brush my hair or feed myself, shock became something else altogether. All of October was an existential crisis that seemed to extend far into the months ahead, the fear of being tired and work-worn all of the time brought my soul down an awful lot.

Surviving a busy season without ordering takeout or going stark raving mad taught
me that food can be an anchor and a support system all of its own; using something so simple as a fixture of control in your life can help you survive the most hectic of situations.

When you have no control over your time, sometimes you feel like you’re drowning. It was a fear of this (and eventual swimming in the midst of it) that kept me in my kitchen every Sunday (and some weeknights at eleven pm), making sauces and soups. Let me explain: in order to ensure that work didn’t swallow me alive, I found something (a few things actually) that I could actively control and that brought me great joy. For me, these two things were food and my health.

I write a food blog, and if you’re reading this, you probably do too (or you follow them pretty closely), so I’m going to assume that you can relate. Food – creating, eating and sharing – is something that is a permanent spot of sunshine in my life. I love the satisfaction of eating something I made that is just so good. I also love the smiles on people’s faces when I share delicious treats with them.

So, I took control of my life the way I knew how: I prepared like a madwoman, afraid of the atomic bomb. I made frozen meals until my freezer door wouldn’t close and did my groceries at seven am before work when it was necessary – and you know what, it definitely helped. Not only did I not have to eat bad-for-you takeout, but when I was in the kitchen, it seemed to calm me down. That teeny bit of control I was exerting over my life eased my nerves.

There were days that I would bring my lunch in a full-sized cloth grocery bag – it was that big. Lunch, dinner and snacks take up a lot more room than you realize, until you have to carry them on your shoulder. But honestly, the happiness I felt from having hot spaghetti or squash soup and salad for lunch on a frosty January day was totally worth it. Proper re-fuelling helped my productivity too! It’s amazing how something so small can become an anchor in a crazy time – a hot bowl of soup can really make a difference.

Sometimes, I bribed my coworkers with cookies. I’m not proud of it, but I did. People are easily swayed into a good mood by sweet treats and I took full advantage of this fact. Sitting in a tiny room for fourteen hours with people who like your brownies is way better than sitting in a tiny room with people who are hungry and crabby. Sometimes they let me out early just so I could bring more. Use your strengths – little snippets of joy are everywhere in your life, you just have to find a way to grab them.

Although I wasn’t ordering takeout every day or skipping breakfast, it’s still really easy to lose sight of your health when you’re sitting in a chair for long periods of time. One day, mid-busy season, I decided to stop complaining that I couldn’t get to the gym and make a change. I joined a gym with tons of locations in the city, and went before work. Travelling to the gym at six-thirty in the morning meant that I missed traffic, saving me time overall, and that I could make time to work out in my busy schedule.

Taking control of my health (through food and through the gym) as well as finding little bits of joy, helped bring my stress level down throughout a crazy time in my life. Although I recognize that many readers are not in the same “life stage” as me, I know that everyone has tough patches when time seems to slip away.

To go along with my slightly abstract discussion, I have a few practical points that come from personal experience and other (maybe more experienced) sources:
Meal plans are not to be scoffed at. I make one each and every week before I do my groceries. They save you time, money and wasted perishables. They also allow you to get excited about the week ahead! If you need advice on this, or examples, try http://www.5dollardinners.com .

If you know you’re going through a crazy period (or it’s coming up) set aside time on the weekend when you know you can make big batches of freezable food. Try and do this whenever you have the time, just in case you can’t in the coming weeks. Some suggestions of recipes that I’ve frozen are: enchiladas, macaroni and cheese, chilli (a favourite), spaghetti sauce (without the noodles please), squash soup, chicken stew and homemade pizza pockets. Most of these recipes can be found on my blog (http://www.butterybeancounter.com ) - but if that was too shameless of a plug for you, use your family favourites!

Keep the important things, even a little. During busy season, I worked to post on my blog at least once a week (which isn’t a lot, but it was all I could do). This made me feel like I wasn’t giving up on everything, and brought happiness in unexpected ways.
The blog seemed to be a catalyst for conversation and friendship, allowing people to easily see who I was outside of work as well as identifying other kindred spirits with a love of food – “oh, you have a food blog! I love to bake!” and so sparks a friendship.

Plan your time as best you can in order to make time for the things that bring you the most joy. My goal to make time for baking, family, friends and working out (these are my priorities), so I scheduled them in as early as possible so that I could ensure I kept my plans and so that I had things to look forward to. A really good time resource (and a fabulous book all on its own) is 168 Hours by Laura Vanderkam (http://www.my168hours.com ) – it might just change the way you think about life.

You may be wondering (or at least I hope you are), how I fared during my first busy season; I’m not going to lie to you, there were a few nights where I found myself sitting in the middle of my bedroom floor, sobbing not-so-quietly and wondering where my life went, but I survived. I managed to take the little joys with the big falls and made time for family, friends and cookies whenever I could. I made some friends at work (not only because of my baking) and did my very best to keep my old friendships strong. Although it was hard, and not always successful, that’s how life goes sometimes , and I know I’ll get better at rolling with the punches with every round I box.

Food is something that we use to celebrate good times, family and love, but it can also be something that holds us together when times get tough. Sometimes, you have to swim up river; you find yourself alone fighting an invisible current that keeps pushing you down. Finding something that you love and holding onto it for dear life can bring control back to your crazy life; and sometimes, you finally realize that you’re not alone at all.