Permission to take yourself seriously.

Is it Rumspringa yet?

Image: Portrait of a Couple, Probably Isaac Abrahamsz Massa and Beatrix van der Laen, Frans Hals, c. 1622, Rijksmuseum. Used with permission.

Hello my friends. I just want to tell you one little more thing that I love about the Black Cardigan Edit's sequester checklist: it's got a space for "future seeds." This is not The To-Do List of Tomorrow, because blearggh, but a place for capturing ideas about what Carrie Frye calls "excellent weird stuff."

I am thinking of that little space as Rumspringa planning. Like, we're all gonna get sprung at some point, and when it happens, I want to go to the beach and get my brows done and pick up a signed copy of Writers & Lovers from my indie bookshop and most of all see my kids so I can hug them ON THEIR BODIES.

It's fun to think about, anyway, and important to have things to look forward to. That has always been true.

Meanwhile in my tiny little world where it's still not warm enough to have the windows open for long, I am spending this present time thinking about what to cook for ourselves and sometimes our neighbors (taking all the precautions for their health, of course).

Is it "excellent weird stuff?" Sometimes. I did the New York Times #thebiglasagna project led by Samin Nosrat. Super fun, learned a lot, took all day. Like the report card from Where'd You Go, Bernadette?, I give myself a grade of "working towards excellence" for that lasagna. We'll be eating it for the next month, even with outside help.

I am also asking myself, Is it weird right now to be writing almost exclusively about food and eating, and not from a food writer point of view, but from a habit change point of view? Should we all just agree that food obsession and eating disorders need to take a back seat right now? 

I'm sure some people feel that way. But this is what I have to write about, and this is how I help. If this is the kind of help you need, permission to get it!

Permission to take whatever is happening for you seriously. Permission to take your need for help seriously.

I guess that's my whole message this week. Permission to see to your needs. Really, if not now, when? <— not a rhetorical question. You should answer that for yourself.

Now then. If you are just a girl, standing in front of a fridge, asking the stuff in there to love her, we can do better for you. We can do better for you, despite everything that is going on in the world and everything your life has included to date. I have a 30-day email program called No More Binges. It is affordable, accessible, and as easy as anything gets.

Important note: No More Binges is not focused on weight loss. It does not ask you to "make the most of this opportunity" to shrink your body. We're focused on shrinking behaviors. 

It's a very smart and effective place to focus.