Masterchef judge Melissa Leong’s ‘stupid’ holiday confession

MasterChef judge Melissa Leong is learning how to take a break, and she thinks the busy people of Australia should follow suit.

I’m writing this column for Stellar off the back of returning from the first proper holiday I’ve had in more than four years. I don’t say this to garner sympathy; more to put things into context about the kind of life I’ve had this past little while.

When you’re busy, holidays tend to take a back seat and, if I’m honest, there’s a certain kind of stupid pride for me that comes with being really, really busy. At least, I thought so.

I noticed a funny thing while away: every time someone asked me “So, you’re on holiday?” I flinched. It was as though I felt shameful about the fact that I was out somewhere not working. I started asking myself why I found it so hard to admit that I was doing something purely for enjoyment’s sake.

“We wear being busy like a badge of honour.” (Picture: Daniel Nadel)

It doesn’t take a therapist to work out that most children born into migrant families like mine feel the compulsion to justify family sacrifice by working hard. But I also think it’s something all Australians can identify with on some level. We wear being busy like a badge of honour and consider not having time for recreation and recuperation as an indication of success.

Perhaps it’s why burnout has become more prevalent than ever, with Australians clocking some of the highest burnout rates in the world in 2020… and I’m not talking about the kind that leaves cool tyre marks in cul-de-sacs.

I had my own burnout experience a couple of years ago, a culmination of working hard on a job in food that I loved, then working out too hard to balance out loving my job (and the food) too much. It was a one-two punch that stopped me in my tracks for a while. And yet there I was, at it again.

“Self-care isn’t just red wine and sheet masks, but also doing whatever it is you need to come back to who you really are.” (Picture: MasterChef Australia)

I think it’s easy to say that 2020 taught us the grace of slowing down, but it’s not so simple.

With all that enforced time to reduce the pace of life in 2020, if you were fortunate enough to keep your job, providing for yourself and your family took on a whole new sense of responsibility that left little rest for the wicked.

Slowly but surely after a few days off, I felt like I could exhale. Suddenly, overly sunny people no longer irritated me, and by the end of the week, I was able to answer that question about being on holidays with a resounding “YES!”

Melissa Leong features in this Sunday’s Stellar.

I’ve come to realise that self-care isn’t just red wine and sheet masks, but also doing whatever it is you need to come back to who you really are beneath that hard-candy coating of stress we often hold on to a bit too tightly.

Think of it as an insurance policy for a better quality of life. Whether it’s a walk in nature with friends, using your car commute as a karaoke booth instead of catching up on missed calls, or even taking a few guilt-free days of doing absolutely whatever the hell you want, it just might be the best investment we can make for ourselves... and one another.

Melissa Leong co-hosts MasterChef Australia, which airs Sunday to Thursday at 7.30pm on Network Ten.