Imagine waking up every morning with a few spoons in your pocket. These spoons represent your energy for the day. As you go about your physical and mental tasks for the day, each one costs you one or more spoons – getting out of bed, showering, working, socialising, and even preparing a meal.
When your spoons are nearly spent, imagine you start to feel like a flickering lightbulb, struggling to shine as brightly as it once did. Every step feels heavier, and your thoughts become muddled, like wading through treacle. Your patience wears thin, and everyday noises become a cacophony that grates on your nerves.
You long for solitude, a haven where the world's demands fade away, where you can recharge your dwindling spoons. You crave the simplicity of a "pyjamas day," where nothing else matters except replenishing your precious, dwindling stash of spoons.
Running low on spoons is like trying to navigate a marathon with just a few drops of water left in your bottle, desperately rationing each sip to make it to the finish line. It's an everyday battle where every action and decision becomes a calculated expense, leaving you yearning for a reserve of spoons that, for today, is just out of reach.
Now, imagine facing this not as an isolated incident, but as a daily reality. This is what it feels like to run low on spoons, and it's a reality that many individuals - including those with chronic illnesses - confront daily. Understanding this experience can help us to build greater empathy and compassion, enriching our collective understanding of what it means to conserve and manage our precious reservoirs of energy, and it can give us the words we need (as stupid as you might feel saying "I'm low on Spoons"!) to convey our feelings to other.
And it doesn’t just apply to Chronic Illnesses, or, in my case, your dear ADHD-afflicted author. The "Spoons Theory" can apply to pretty much everyone.
At Random Creation House, we're putting all our effort into using the immense power of our everyday technology to create a useful meal planning app that really, deeply considers the implications of "Spoons Theory" - in particular, that some people just need food to be easier.
Our app makes nutritious, delicious, home-cooked meals accessible to all who need it, whether they're busy professionals, busy parents, neurodivergents, chronic illness suffers, everyone in between, and especially those who are all of the above. It's not just a mission; it's a practical example of why our mission matters.
What is Spoons Theory?
Spoons Theory, a term coined by Christine Miserandino in her essay "The Spoon Theory," offers a simple way to explain the daily challenges faced by people with chronic illnesses. It uses spoons as a metaphorical unit of energy to help others comprehend the limited reserves of strength and vitality these individuals can sometimes have. It helps us to understand how our daily challenges impact our well-being.
Here's how it works: Each morning, a person starts with a specific number of spoons, representing their available energy for the day. Every activity requires the expenditure of spoons. If you run out of spoons, you're left with no choice but to conserve your energy or face the consequences of overexertion, such as debilitating fatigue or pain. It doesn’t have to be as overt as that - almost everyone will recognise the feeling of being completely wiped out after a particularly hectic day, week, or month.
For me, I know I'm "Running low on Spoons" when I've done way too much: if I've had a busy week at work, done too much DIY around the house, too much in the garden. It's when I've done all that, and then life piles some more stuff on. Things start to grate on me… my tolerance drops for hearing people loudly chewing , I get mentally foggy, I start to feel completely burned out… I can start to crave "being on my own" or to have a "pyjamas day". I have a fairly average energy level, or number of spoons - the thing for me is that my ADHD-powered brain will start burning its own spoons at the pace it decides, on whatever it finds interesting, and it can quickly tire itself out. I get mentally completely exhausted, overrun with thoughts. It's the sort of day where I just know that my Ninja will probably be taking care of dinner that night.
There will be some people reading thinking "That's not No Spoons!", and they're probably right. It's a very subjective measure - my state of "Low Spoons" might be seen as an exceptional high that someone in a bad case of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome would love to reach. You and I might have the same, or entirely different experiences of "high" and "low".
It's not about comparing people to each other, it's about understanding yourself, your own energy levels, and being realistic about what can be done in the day. Its also about understanding your day to day variance - a task that uses 1 spoon on a clear, reasonably carefree day, might use 5 on a day when you're stressed, tired, or injured.
It leads to a thought process - at least for me - about how I can do more by spending my valuable Spoons more efficiently, and how I can have low-effort options lined up for days where things feel like they're taking a little more energy. For me, it's the last minute meal decisions, the out-of-the-blue life events, and out-of-date ingredients that burn my energy reserves, and the prototype Food app has already helped me immensely to speed up the "what shall we eat" decision I really don’t look forward to, into a series of decisions that are already made, or a shortlist of options I can easily choose from.
The worst thing of all, is that only any given day, I can have the same ingredients, but without a plan, if I'm tired, then I'll get takeout, or just eat bread and butter, or worse - my famous Steak McCoys on White Bread sandwich, the king of sandwiches, not that my doctor would agree.
If I have a plan, the effort to make a homecooked meal stops being a big task: I can rustle up a decent meal in 10-15mins, much less than the effort of scrolling endlessly through Uber Eats, Deliveroo, Just Eat, or the pile of random menus in the kitchen drawers… and I get a wholesome meal, at a fraction the cost of the fat-laden motorbike-delivered health disaster alternative.
Why Spoons Theory Benefits Us All
Efficiency and Time Management: Just as Spoons Theory helps us understand the finite nature of our energy, our food planning app is designed to save you time and energy. It streamlines meal planning and preparation, making it easier than ever to create wholesome meals.
Smart Choices: Knowing and managing your spoon count can empower individuals to make informed choices about how to allocate their energy. It encourages self-care, prioritizing tasks, and setting boundaries. This sense of control can lead to better physical and mental health. Our app helps to reduce the number of "Spoons" needed to make good food.
Reducing Stress and Decision Fatigue: Spoons Theory teaches us that energy management is vital to reducing stress. Our app generates weekly meal plans, complete with recipes and shopping lists, minimising decision fatigue and maximizing your mental "spoons" for other important tasks.
Reducing Stigma: Understanding that people may have different spoon counts challenges stigmatising beliefs about laziness or malingering. It promotes empathy and compassion, fostering a more inclusive and supportive society. It shows us that people - as individuals - can start with different energy levels, maybe because of illness or a health condition, maybe because of the humid weather, maybe because of their nutrition, and being aware of that can help us to be more empathetic.
Our Food Planning App - Your Spoon-Saving Sidekick
At Random Creation House, we're dedicated to crafting innovative and original apps that harness the power of technology to enhance people's lives. Our current project, a revolutionary food planning app, is designed to make affordable, nutritious, and delicious home-cooked meals more easily accessible to everyone, whether they're neurodivergent, on a tight budget, or simply super busy.
Our mission is to make mealtime interesting again, reduce unnecessary expenses and waste, and alleviate the stress of meal planning. With our app, users won't need to spend much effort at all to make the switch from the last-minute meal club to #TeamHomeCook. And in the context of our users' energy levels, here's how our app helps folks conserve "Spoons":
Efficiency: We understand that you're juggling multiple responsibilities. Our app simplifies meal planning and preparation, saving you precious time and energy. Say goodbye to the hassle of figuring out what's for dinner. Our app streamlines meal planning and preparation.
Nutrition Made Easy: Our app promotes balanced meal choices. It offers tailored suggestions based on your dietary preferences and available ingredients, keeping your energy levels up with nutritious meals.
Stress-Free Meal Planning: Our app generates weekly meal plans, complete with recipes and shopping lists. Let technology do the thinking, so you can enjoy more spoons for the things you love. Say goodbye to the stress of figuring out what to eat.
Inclusivity and Sustainability: Our app accommodates various dietary restrictions and preferences, ensuring that everyone can savour home-cooked delights. Plus, it addresses food waste, aligning with Spoons Theory's focus on efficient resource use.
If you want to read more about the origins and applications of Spoon Theory, here's a couple of web articles for you:
"The Spoon Theory" by Christine Miserandino: The original source of Spoon Theory is Christine Miserandino's essay, which you can find on her website "But You Don't Look Sick." It offers a detailed and personal account of how the concept came about and its application in daily life.
"The Spoon Theory: A Powerful Metaphor for Energy Management": Healthline has published a great article that explains the concept of Spoon Theory and its significance, providing a broader perspective on how it relates to various aspects of life.
A Controlled Release of Energy, One Spoon at a Time
Spoons Theory is a remarkable concept that gives us a simple, accessible way to think about our own, and other people's energy, limitations, and well-being, with empathy. It helped me to get a better understanding of my own capabilities, and to understand where I could get more out of my day, and it's really helped me to empathise with those around me who are running on no-spoons.
Our innovative food planning app is your partner in mastering the art of spoons, regardless of what labels or attributes you've got - everyone needs food, and everyone deserves to eat properly.
Whether you're a busy professional, a parent, or someone striving for a balanced life, we've got your back. It's time to embrace the power of spoons, make mealtime interesting, and join #TeamHomeCook for a more energetic, compassionate, and inclusive world. Get ready to savour every moment – and every delicious meal.
How do you adapt to the ebb and flow of your energy levels? Do you have go-to "No spoon day" recipes that you swear by? What are your top tips? Let me know in the comments, or join the conversation here on LinkedIn, or here on Facebook.
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