The Downside of Healthy Living

The downside of healthy living is that it takes up so much damn time! I am trying to eat healthy, by cooking myself using only fresh ingredients, and cutting for the moment most processed foods like refined grains from my diet. The food tastes great, and I am experimenting with quite a few vegetables that I have never cooked with before, like kale, collards, and fennel bulbs. My fridge is literally stuffed with various dark green leafy vegetables, and I spend much time every day researching recipe and planning meals.

BUT, this means I don't get to hang out with my friends as much, since much of the bonding was over eating out. Plus, I spend at least an hour every day chopping, cooking, and washing dishes. Most of the time during the week, I just make salads and smoothies, which is not bad. But if I want to cook anything more complicated, then it takes up a substantial amount of time.

Come to think of it, the time it takes is probably not significantly longer than the time it takes to walk to a restaurant, order, wait for the food to arrive, and eat. So perhaps the real complaint is that I miss out on that socializing time. Perhaps I should just invite my friends to dinner more often...

I'm determined to go to the gym at least 3 times a week, for about 1.5 hours each. This too takes up what seems like an inordinate amount of time. Including the time of getting ready, going there, and walking back, the whole enterprise takes about 2.5 hours each time. That's 2.5 hours I'm not using to work. Sigh...

Trying to go to sleep every day at a regular time has also been hard. There is just so much to do and the temptation is to stay past my bedtime to do them.

In the midst of all this drive to take responsibility for myself, I am also trying to do my errands like laundary and housecleaning more regularly as well.

Speaking of which, my sheets needs its weekly wash, so I should run to the laundary room now!