The thyme it takes

I don't just write blogs, I read other people's blogs, too.  I try to explore new topics from a diverse crowd, but when my good friends write blogs, I always read them.  My friend Christina is doing that whole30 thing, that nutritional program designed to change your life in 30 days. whole30 program.  She's blogging about her experience, and today she wrote something that really hit home for me.

From Christina's blog: "Something funny I thought about while cooking on Friday night: how if you are simply a reader of this blog and have never participated in any sort of food regimen such as this, you might not realize just HOW MUCH cooking & cleaning & mess is involved.

This statement resonated with me because:

The time it takes to plan, shop, prepare, cook, eat, and clean up after a healthy meal is overwhelmingly ridiculous.  This is why the rich and famous have killer bodies and personal chefs. They never have to think about it - the perfectly planned portions just show up on the table.   For the rest of us, we have to do it all ourselves.  This is why the average person who begins cooking in order to eat healthily and lose weight, inevitably gains the weight back and beings making poor eating choices.   And I can't blame them - the long hours - it's almost like having another job.   With this job, taxes eat away almost all of the profit; the skinnier, heart-healthy, happier you has no time to go out and actually show it off.   

It gets so tiring.  Coming home from a long day and going straight into what's for dinner is not relaxing.  Never mind when you realize you are out of something - then you have to get back in the car and go to the store, come home, and start the process again. Sometimes, I want to choose a nap over making dinner.  

Some people hit a breaking point; the planning and making of meals gradually decreases, and suddenly that Thai takeout looks really good. The sandwich shop near work sounds much easier than packing your lunch the night before, and who doesn't love a bag of chips, a pack of crackers, or some chocolate as a mid-day snack?  And while none of those are horrible choices, (I don't think people really go from making chicken and veggie stir fry to getting chicken and cheese quesadillas from Taco Bell), they are still overly processed, carb heavy, and the serving size is consumed x 10.   

This time commitment to cooking and eating well is something I struggle with every day, and I don't even have a family to feed!  I've been focused on healthy eating for almost two years now, and I've somehow managed not to fall back into the trap of eating what's easier and faster.  But I could.  And I know why people do.  And it's ok if we have weeks where we throw our Fradishes in the air and say, "screw it!"  

I dont really have a solution or a fix.   I just wanted to shed some light on what some people are going through.   Perhaps we could all stand to make a healthy meal for a friend one night.  I’ll even bring the coffee.