I’ve been eating lots of healthy, yummy salads over the last few days & I realized another roadblock that’s been in my way: TIME!!

It takes time to make a salad, even when you buy bagged greens & cherry tomatoes–no cutting.  What with all the other  prep for all the veggies I like it takes me at least 10 minutes.  Then it takes me at least 1/2 hour to eat one (I’m a very slow eater).  So while I was steadily eating a marvelous blend of spring greens, romaine, baby spinach, carrots, cucumber, red cabbage, red onion, an entire red bell pepper, & a large handful of cherry tomatoes (lots of red foods!)  a grilled half of skinless chicken breast (chopped), topped with a smidge of Italian balsamic vinegar/olive oil dressing, I had a revelation.  (And yes, I know I make extravagant salads, but YUM!)

So as I was chomping happily away, it suddenly hit me: With the extreme time crunch we’ve had here for the past 3-4 years I don’t make salads that often because it’s so time-consuming.  I’ll get salads when I’m out or at someone’s house–no cheese, heavy dressings, croutins, greasy stuff–but I might make a salad st home once a week, if that.  Plus,  much of the time I’m literally on the move in the car, between teaching sessions, or just cleaning the house & yards.

When I really think about it I still try to make healthy choices, like non-fat yogurt topped with frozen fruit and a few walnuts, or a piece of fruit with an organic, low-glycemic whole-food protein bar, but I choose these types of things most of the time because they’re fast & I realized this sort of fast food has become the norm of my daily diet, not the occasional thing as it should be.

Now I have to make time for:

1. Time to stretch & exercise
2. Time to relax (some ‘me’ time with no work allowed)
3. Time to prepare healtheir food
4. TIme to eat the healthier food
5. Time to clean the kitchen after preparing said healthier food

Whew!  Talk about changes.  Looks like it’s time for me  to figure out how to do this!!