Diminishing Returns ““ Pantry Provisions

 

Diminishing Returns — Pantry Provisions by R. Ann Parris

Whether it’s daily life or a disaster at any scale, we have to be able to fuel our bodies. When we’re strapped for time due to other labors, or pushing through something that’s limiting our usual (or younger) capabilities, it’s more important than ever that we eat, and eat correctly.

That can be difficult when battling through the flu trying to take care of animals and family, fighting past a migraine to accomplish the simplest of tasks, left gasping by dust and pollen and smoke, or in a condition where it takes effort just to get up and hop around on a stick.

Arthritis-swollen hands, decreased hand strength, stabbing pains up through the elbow and bicep from carpel tunnel, and trying to work one-handed from either an arm injury/condition or the need for a cane or crutch adds further challenges.

When we’re so exhausted from all else and a crying baby or the medical and support needs of a partner or family member that we can lean against a wall or post for just a nanosecond, find our eyes closed, and then have to spend whole minutes working up the fortitude to will ourselves upright and forward again, it’s sometimes just as tempting to let meals slide, altogether or in favor of something easy.

We’re also likely to face increased stress with the fatigue — whether it’s regular ol’ daily life taking its toll, or disasters ranging from tiny and inter-personal out to regional and national and worldwide. Both stress and fatigue further decrease our likelihoods of eating, eating enough, and eating correctly. Both also act very much like aging and ill bodies in that they also decrease our ability to absorb certain nutrients.

We need to prep our pantries for those conditions.

That takes all kinds of forms, from the actual foods we stash and the things we choose to supplement them with, to the sizes we store. Those aspects are important enough for any truly well-stocked pantry, but when we’re already in a position to see diminished returns, it’s even more vital to address them. The posts below introduce the factors most likely to come into play when it comes to eating at our low ebbs. By all means feel free to add suggestions for seniors and sickbeds to them.