DURING MY COVID-19 QUARANTINE IN AIRDRIE I LEARNED THIS ABOUT MYSELF
The first thing I learned during my Covid-19 quarantine? I’m not ready to stay at home and retire. Along with my family even I found myself annoying when I had nothing to do!
The main thing I learned? I’m a waster. I’m embarrassed.
I never thought I was but I am. I thought I was really good at utilizing what I had and minimizing what I throw out, but take a pandemic like this to make me realize I’m not even close to being as good as I thought I was.
When you’re stuck at home during the Covid-19 quarantine and you’re not allowed to leave your house for 14 days (this was after we returned from our holiday in March when the world imploded), you have to make do with what you have. Thank God I’m a hoarder of supplies by nature (I also never thought I was this either!) because somehow the world thought that toilet paper was going to be the first thing to disappear. Do you remember this? Recently I heard there were concerns for paper towel….. God help us all!
I had an unopened case at home and we treated it like gold. I did stop short of limiting my kids to 2 squares per ‘event’ but I will admit I was not far from it.
But food was the biggest thing I found I wasted. And maybe waste is a harsh word, maybe I should say I wasn’t efficient at using my supplies. At any point in time we had many wonderful people in our life who were willing to get us groceries but we didn’t want to abuse them. And on top of that we came to the realization that we also go to the grocery store FAR more often than I thought we did. When we ran out of cream for coffee after a few days or needed a lime for a recipe or discovered that the kids used up the rest of the cereal and left an empty box in the pantry (does this also happen to you?), you cannot simply call your friends to go get you more supplies after they dropped off stuff just yesterday. That would be madness!
I started military rule.
I measured out exactly what we needed for whatever meal we were making so there would be nothing wasted. Rice was portioned out properly. Noodles were measured. I would make the amount of coffee we would actually drink rather than extra that I would normally pour out. I would tear off one paper towel instead of 3. Our house is right under a flight path and when the Fedex or UPS or Cargolux planes fly in (we know they’re cargo because they always fly so low and so LOUD) my kids would yell out, “YAY! Here come our rations!” like we’re in some sort of famine. There was nothing left to discard. My family told me I was going insane, but that ship sailed long time ago!
I also used mind tricks with our food. This is what I did with my daughter’s apple snack:
I cut her apple into a billion thin pieces. She made fun of me and my tactics, but guess what? She didn’t eat all of it because she said it was too much so there was some left over for me to eat! It was the same size of apple I would normally have cut up for her. The mind is a powerful thing. Maybe her jaw just got tired from chewing so many pieces?
I’m not ashamed of this. I’m embarrassed that it came down to this, but I’m more embarrassed that I was not efficient when I thought I was being efficient.
I cut a few other corners too. Our pancake recipe we use calls for 2 cups of milk and 1 cup of applesauce but again, because our supplies were limited, I substituted ½ cup of water and ¾ cup of applesauce instead and guess what? It made no difference! Nutritionally it might be slightly weaker but not by much. I have still continued to use this modified recipe because nobody notices the difference.
The point I’m trying to make is that sometimes it takes an event like this to make you realize something you did not know before. I would have preferred if it was someone just pointing this out versus a Covid-19 quarantine and giant pandemic that has changed everybody’s lives but what can you do? When life gives you lemons….
It opens your eyes and also opens a door to making changes. In this example it showed me how I need to be less wasteful and be smarter about what I use. Our garbage bags and compost bins are less full. Our food lasts longer. Our toiletries? Let’s just say I didn’t push the boundaries on that one!
Please feel free to visit our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/accesswellness! Drs. Jacqueline Boyd and Paul Bajor are the only husband and wife chiropractic team in Airdrie, Alberta. Their practice, Access Chiropractic and Wellness, is located at #120, 52 Gateway Drive NE in the north of Airdrie. They have been in practice in Airdrie since 2004 and in practice since 2001. They have two kids named Liam and Julia and have one of the largest family practices in Airdrie. They have a vested interest in keeping Airdrie and surrounding communities healthy because Airdrie is also their home.
Drs. Jacqueline Boyd and Paul Bajor are also both registered and active members of the ICPA (International Chiropractic Pediatric Association).
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