“I was so busy–I just forgot to eat!”

I always thought that statement was, excuse my British, utter shite. Who can forget about food? The waffley temptations of breakfast. The decadent pastries of the early morning snack. Open-faced sandwiches for lunch. A melty, chocolate chippy afternoon cookie. After ten-plus years of counting every calorie, monitoring every morsel of food, and anxiously awaiting (or painfully avoiding) mealtimes, I couldn’t understand how anyone could just “forget” to eat.

But then it happened to me a few days ago.

I woke up and had a light but healthy breakfast (running late on this of all days, of course), thinking that I’d be having a snack in a few hours. Then I got to work and all hell broke loose. I was in meetings and conference calls from 9:30am until 3:00 with virtually no break. Around 4pm, I was finishing up an email when I heard my stomach growl. That’s when it hit me–I had forgotten to eat. For almost nine hours. For the first time in I don’t know how long, I actually, seriously FORGOT about food.

If you’ve ever suffered through skipping a meal to lose weight, you know how mind-blowing this is for me.

I couldn’t help but suspect that there’s a lesson in this for me. After a few days of reflection, I think the lesson is this: Boredom is really, really, REALLY bad for me.

Pretty much every time I struggle with or (God forbid) give into my disordered eating impulses, I’m sitting at home alone, with nothing to do, feeling kind of bored. Or it’s a really slow day at work and I’m struggling to keep myself occupied. I start to feel restless. I get a mental itch right in the center of my brain. Leisure activities (reading, watching TV, going for a walk) don’t fix it. I need to have something that I have to do–something I choose to do isn’t quite the same.

Does anyone else find this to be true? Does boredom derail you? Are you better off busy, or does being busy produce stress that gets you off track?