“Take a snack break.” OK.
“Eat some fruit.” Hmm ....
“Have a cookie.” Yes! I like how you think!
It’s up to you which of these tidbits of advice you take to heart.
And that’s because the book You Need to Hear This: 365 Days of Silly, Honest Advice You Need Right Now is a choose-your-own-adventure of sorts. It’s scheduled for publication by Chronicle Books on May 3.
You can flip through the pages in numerical order, accepting whatever wisdom you find. Or open the book at random to see what you get.
“You have food at home,” on the very first page, might nudge you to offer a prayer of gratitude, since that statement isn’t true for all of us. Or it might save you money if you were thinking of grabbing a drive-thru dinner instead of preparing a meal for yourself after a long day at work.
If you flip a little further, “It’s always the right time for pizza” might enable you to kick back instead of cooking, and support a local business at the same time. (Remember this, too, from another page: “Say yes to more cheese.”)
Or maybe you’ll seek out “No adulting today” and pair it with “Eat dessert first.” Grab that bag of jelly beans and eat a few (or more) as your appetizer before getting to the protein and vegetables. Life is short, as they say.
You Need to Hear This isn’t the voice of doom that you might think when reading those words. It’s encouragement. It’s wisdom. It’s cheerleading. It’s good counsel.
It’s what you need to hear when you need to hear it. And it’s all meant to be positive.
“Don’t ignore what your body is telling you.” It may need a hearty salad, even though foods like chocolate chip cookies and enchiladas are usually thought to be the stuff of cravings. If you listen, you can intuit whether you need sustenance, whether you need soothing, or whether you need hydration: “Drink some water.” On another page, “Seriously, drink a glass of water.”
For those who keep pushing through a long day with caffeine and then have trouble relaxing or sleeping, there’s “No coffee once the sun goes down.” (Or, at least, drink decaf if you enjoy the coffee experience but not the jitters.)
“Cry over spilled milk.” Not intended to be taken literally, remember that it’s OK to feel your emotions even over seemingly small matters. Perhaps they loom larger to you — for any number of reasons, in these very stressful times — than they appear to others.
These are prompts regarding your self-care.
Not all of the wisdom offered is food-related, though some of it can definitely be interpreted through that filter.
After all, “Just try it” could be about ordering a new dish instead of your usual at a favorite restaurant, sampling a new food you’ve never had before, or learning to kayak or crochet.
How you hear and interpret it is entirely up to you.
First Published April 10, 2022, 3:00 p.m.
