Eating the Egg White First – and Other Things About Life

Eating the egg white

When I was a child, I loved dippy eggs. I still like them, and every time I eat a dippy egg, I remember. I was not a fan of egg whites, but we all knew better than to skip eating the white of the egg. For goodness sake, there were all those starving children in China. Those children would give anything to have only the white of an egg to eat (fried, of course). Plus, throwing food away was wasteful and not good stewardship. Of that we could not be guilty, either.

One day in my usual pre-school complaining about that egg white, my mama gave me some advice. I still practice that principle today.

“You know you are going to eat the egg white. Stop complaining about it. Eat the white of the egg first. Save the dippy part for last because you like it best. Do what you don’t like to do first, and then you can look forward to the yolk since that’s the fun part.”

The fun part was dipping toast into the dippy, yellow egg. You know what happened? I learned to enjoy my egg instead of complaining. It started when I started eating the egg white first.

“Eating the egg white” daily

I still practice that principle today. When I have several tasks that must be done by a certain time, I choose the egg white first. I (usually) knock tasks out by choosing the one I least enjoy first. Each task gets me closer to the one I like best!

A few weeks ago, we had a big weekend planned. I knew when Saturday evening arrived, I’d be exhausted. I was working away at what needed to be done by Sunday. Yet, I also knew that if crunch time arrived Saturday evening, I might still have three things that must be done. Rather than fret about I don’t know if I can do this, I focused on the egg white. I asked myself, “When we get back Saturday evening, which of these three items will I least want to need to accomplish when it’s late and I’m tired?” 

I knew which task that was. Rather than putting it off for later, I chose eating the egg white first. Once that task was completed, I asked myself, “Which of these two tasks will I not feel like doing when we get back late Saturday evening?” and I chose that task to do next.

By the time I whipped those two items out of the way, I knew I could handle the third task. Even if it was late and I was tired, I’d be eating the ” yolk” instead of the “egg white”. Because I chose to “eat the egg white” earlier in the week, I got to enjoy “the yoke” later.

Practice the principle and achieve

I realized that day how often I practice the principle of eating the egg white first. One bite at a time, we can do more than we think we can. We can accomplish more than we think possible. We do this by focusing on eating the egg white first instead of dreading the egg white all week long. It’s true  there are times I choose what I’d rather do first. Sometimes I have time to do that, and sometimes I just need to do something fun instead of  heavy. Yet, when the chips are down and I need to fulfill responsibilities, eating the egg white first helps me win, every time.

Photo credit: Steve Busissinne via pixabay.com