Holidays are the dessert of life

It's really tempting to go on Instagram, look at carefully curated posts of aesthetically pleasing views from endless holidays and long for the influencer life. In fact, I was doing just that up until 3 minutes ago, wishing I was anywhere but here, at my desk in Cambridge, in quarantine and having to 're-vise' lectures I haven't even 'vised' the first time round for my fast-approaching mock exams. 

But didn't I get to do that up until a couple of days ago? I was fortunate enough to get 2 weeks of uninterrupted downtime over the holidays, where the only thing I did was switch between eating, watching movies and playing board games in my Christmas pyjamas. And I have to say, it got pretty boring pretty quickly. So why do I find myself in this position, wishing I had nothing else to do but rest up from all the resting up I have been doing? 

Well, it's a simple logical fallacy - my life is a meal and I'm craving dessert. 'Dessert' as in that final part of a complete meal that serves no other purpose, but to bring enjoyment (and pack a few extra calories in your full stomach). But I crave dessert at the end of a meal, because it is delicious and, after all, why shouldn't I treat myself? I got through some boring salad and I chose the healthy main, which meant some bland beans or tofu, so now I rightfully deserve the reward for doing the work and putting the right nutrients in my body. 

And this is exactly why holidays are the dessert of life. I know that a complete meal is made up of dietary fibre, protein, good fat and complex carbs. There isn't really much requirement for 150 grams of sugar and butter at the end of dinner, nor will those give me satiety for long, but my brain loves them and so therefore tries to convince me on the regular that I should be having dessert all day every day.  

I similarly know that a wholesome life is made up of things like meaningful productivity (whatever that looks like for you), physical activity, continuous learning, interesting social interactions and emotionally-fulfilling relationships, but my brain loves lazying around and so therefore constantly tries to convince me that being on holiday with no plans, no tasks and nothing to do is the absolute end goal. The classic 'effort is bad, rest is good' mentality. 

So I thought about writing this just to remind myself that a constant holiday looks amazing on the gram, but this is just the dessert of your life - you cannot have only that or you're left feeling pretty hungry.