A HEALTHY lifestyle CAN BE a CONVENIENT one, too.

So often people want to find ways to save time: ways to get things done faster, and ways to get things done without really having to commit the time necessary to do something properly. This includes taking the time needed to eat healthy. This is a wordy way of saying that the word 'convenience' rules our lives. I see it all around me everyday: we drink breakfast shakes to save time in the mornings; we eat many of our meals at 'fast food' outlets to save time at lunch or dinner because we have found ourselves burdened by schedules that often leave us feeling too drained and unmotivated to prepare our meals ahead of time (for lunch) or to contemplate committing the time and effort we believe it would take to eat a healthy meal once we have arrived home from work (dinner). I know that I've been there, I have done many of the things that we know are not so healthy stop gap measures to help us keep on time:

* I have eaten a questionable breakfast meal at a McDonald's in the morning, or stopped off at a convenience store for a coffee and breakfast pastry because I just "didn't have the time" in the morning to prepare my own breakfast.

* I have found myself eating potato chips, sugary pastries, microwavable pizza pops or pepperoni cheese sticks for lunch because they were there at the store and I didn't want to spend the time to consider a healthier alternative.

* I have found myself eating at 'fast food' restaurants when I have gone out for the evening to see a movie and tell myself that it would be so much more convenient to do so.


* I have brought home my dinner in a frozen tray, a cardboard box or in a can or in a bag because i couldn't be bothered to put more effort into it.


See? I am just as guilty as the next person when it comes to living our lives at the whims of whatever is most convenient or efficient. Heck I'm sure that there has even been a hint of economical in many of my past culinary decisions.

Until my current partner started working on me to start giving up some of my bad health habits, I was firmly entrenched in the above behavior. I would buy a coffee in the morning instead of investing the five minutes it takes to grind my own and have it ready to brew in the morning. I would say to myself "Meh, I'll just go to Micky D's for breakfast", instead of having it at home. I would cross the street to the supermarket at lunchtime instead of making the effort to buy the right groceries ahead of time with which to make my lunches the night before ( again, another five minutes of my time to actually make that lunch the night before work, but ... nah) .

So what else helped change my mind?

Now if you are reading this while eating you might want to justr skip ahead to avoid these next couple of lines because they are a bit graphic. One night I was lying awake in bed at three in the morning wondering what was wrong with me: it felt like I was coming down with the flue or suffering from some kind of food poisoning. Whatever it was, I was lying there feeling quite nauseous and thinking to myself that I could still feel the frozen pizza that I had consumed for my dinner the night before just sitting there in my stomach going nowhere. Well I was quite mistaken about that, because no sooner had I mused on my feelings of fullness, that I started to feel much more nauseous and felt the urge to get up out of bed and rush to the bathroom. No sooner did I get there then the contents of my stomach decide to evacuate themselves through my throat- forthwith.

How did it turn out?

Well, lets just say that there was a frightening amount of orange goo everywhere in my bathroom after I was done. I have never really been able to eat a frozen pizza ever since then.

Of course it is very easy for someone to condemn bad habits but how about some alternatives?

Okay, here are a few of the alternatives I have been playing with so far:

*If you regularly buy your morning cup a joe and give the reason that your home-brewed ground coffee just doesn't quite taste as good as the freshly ground Starbucks you get on your way to work, then try this: spend the ten or twenty bucks necessary to get yourself a basic countertop coffee grinder. Next buy a bag of decent quality roasted coffee beans (even buy Starbucks beans, if you want-but go to somewhere like Costco to get them at a better price), and start enjoying your morning coffee at home or on the way to work without having to buy it on the way to work. You won't notice any real difference and the money you will save grinding your own will pay for the grinder in no time (and thinking of the money you are saving over time will make your coffee taste just that much better).


* Save more money by bringing your lunch with you: even make it appetizing by buying a variety of fancy buns, veggies, deli meats and condiments (and even some small bags of potato chips if you really have to) and you won't even miss that Tim Horton's sandwich at lunchtime. Of course if you figure out how much making your own lunch is saving you in time saved not lining up to buy lunch or in money by not forking over your dough at the end of that lunch line, your homemade sandwich becomes even more appetizing.

* Buy a rice cooker: it's healthier than using instant rice and just as easy to prepare (if not more so). It also tastes better, I think.

* Learn to really cook with that toaster oven that has been sitting idle in the corner of your kitchen counter. It is truly amazing just how versatile it can be and the stigma that some seem to have cooking with their oven is not there with the trusty toaster oven (it also takes less time to heat it up to the needed temperature). Remember it is not a microwave: you can cook a roast in it.

* Invest some money in a slow cooker. This is something that my girlfriend has encouraged me to start doing recently. One of the more reliable ones out there is the Rival Crock pot. I know, I know: this is starting to sound like some kind of 'welcome to my happy kitchen' kind of diatribe, but don't worry it's not as scary as it sounds, guys. Basically, with a Crock Pot the idea is that you throw in the meat and vegetables that you want for dinner, turn on the slow cooker and leave it - set it and forget it. If you do this in the morning, you can cook it on a lower setting, while if you set it in the afternoon you just set it to cook at a higher heat. Yes, it really is just that easy once you get the hang of it.


That's all that I have for you - for now, but I'm sure that I've left you with enough to chew on.