Healthy Living DIY

In the previous article, we left off talking about the resistance that some of us have to preparing healthful meals. I think most people meet up with this stuff in our lives from time to time. I know I do.

Just last night, for example, I was out late at a meeting. It was around 8 pm as I headed home for dinner. That little voice in the back of my head started right in. "Why not just run in the drive through. It's been forever since you've done that. You can get away with it once in a while, you know. Go on. It'll be easier & quicker than finding something at home."

You've got a voice like that too, I assume. Its arguments may be different than mine are, but regardless, things occasionally come up. Fortunately, last night the other side chimed in next. It reminded me that I'd be much better off choosing something at home, which I did.

It's helpful if you know your own vulnerabilities ahead of time. That way you can develop strategies for dealing with them. Mine usually run toward the "quicker and easier" variety, as you've just heard. One of my strategies is to keep a serving of something cooked and easy to thaw in the freezer for "emergencies." Last night I raided my stash.

The other common piece of logic we identified last time was the one that goes "cooking is too much work; it's best left to others." Since I actually like cooking that one doesn't usually grab me. We've each got our favorites!

Today we'll explore two more common ways people talk themselves out of preparing the kind of delicious, fresh, healthful meals that could otherwise bring nutrition and enjoyment into our lives!

Meet Jane, an average young woman in her late 30's. Jane has two kids, a husband, and a demanding job. She's a great mom, a reliable employee, and a devoted wife. There's really only one place that Jane consistently falls short of her expectations for herself, and that's when it comes to her personal life.

As an example, there's that pile of mail and papers on the kitchen counter. (We'll talk about the pile of mail as though it's for real -- it is -- yet in the privacy of your own mind, feel free to consider it a metaphor for all the other things that Jane is allowing to "pile up" in her life as well.)

As the family comes home for the evening, everyone's rushed and tired. The mail and papers get plopped on the counter on the way in the door. Periodically someone sifts through to pull out the bills, but otherwise it pretty much goes untouched. When the pile gets too big to manage, it moves. To the floor in the home office. To an even bigger pile.