FOMO, or Fear of Missing Out, is powerful, and something I had no idea about, until recently. I am unsure if this has been a term that has been out there for a long time and I am just late to the party, or if this is a relatively new discovery; whichever it is, it is a strong reality for me. I have suffered with this for as long as I can remember, I just did not have a name for it.

FOMO is not life threatening, at least not for me, but it is limiting and can be costly. There are lots of areas in my life that I really do not care if I am on the latest bandwagon, or if what I am wearing is ‘trendy‘. My fear is more about missing out on the latest cooking technique, or knowing the best way to cook something. It is the reason why I belong to not one, not two, but three meal plan groups – yet in truth, I only halfheartedly use one of them. It is why, when I find a cookbook author and I love their recipes and/or advice, I feel the need to own every one of their cookbooks, yet I rarely use a recipe when I cook. For some reason, at least in theory, I like having the options the meal plans provide, the community that comes along with it, and the knowledge that I can, should I choose, have my meals all figured out for me. The reality is, I absolutely hate being told what I can or cannot eat and when I should eat it. As much as I love structure in my life, I want the freedom to eat what I want when I want to. It isn’t the healthiest way to go about life, but it is my truth.

Right now, I am hoping that changes when we get done with the plans we have over the next few months. I am hoping that I will be able to sit down and really follow my meal plan of choice and let the others elapse. My past does not fill me with confidence about this, but regardless of how much I feel I need to have this “just in case”, if I have not actually implemented it and am on it all the way, it too will have to go. I have thrown enough money at it.

I have to ask myself why is it so important to me, and I honestly cannot truly answer that. I do not know the why, I simply know it is. So, that’s something else I’m working on. I have many cookbooks, eBooks, paperbacks, hardbacks. All totaled, I have over 500 of them, and that is not including the number of single recipes I have on my computer either as a PDF, Word document, or in Evernote. Chances are that if you need a recipe for something, I have one. At the very least, if I don’t have one on hand, I know how to find one from the plethora of phone apps, websites/blogs, and/or Facebook groups I belong to. The thing is, on my own, I am a great cook. I have created several recipes that are rather delicious albeit not plant-based. I should be concentrating more on creating my own stuff instead of feeling like I have to have every cookbook that comes out. It is where a lot of my money goes, not just to cookbooks, I buy other books too, but to unusual food items and kitchen gadgets.

I am not sure if  a 12-Step program is necessary for dealing with FOMO, but I may consider it, LOL. I do know that admitting there is a problem is the first step to overcoming it. So now I have to ask myself things like:

• Why do I want it?
• Will I actually use it?
• Is there something else I would really rather spend my money on?

Not having the latest cookbook, or belong to all of the cool meal plan groups will not be the end of the world. I imagine it will actually be a bit freeing. Maybe if I cut back on a few Facebook groups, I might actually get more things done.

Update:

Here is an update on my consistency issues:

I have only missed one day of writing something. Everything else, I am on track with, and I’m am pretty proud of that.