5 things I hate about eating healthy

It’s a new week filled with hope, opportunity, and bright, shiny new hopes and dreams.

It’s also a new week filled with seven new breakfasts, seven new lunches, and seven new dinners. Not to mention all the snacks. Oh, the snacks! 

Let’s keep things real today…

There are so many wonderful reasons why you should eat healthy. 

BUT…

There are also some things about healthy eating that I simply hate.

Ok, hate is a strong word. But if we’re being honest, yeah, I think I hate these things.

I know, I get the irony. I’m a nutritionist and I promote healthy eating almost as often as I take a breath. So it may be shocking to hear that I’m not in love with some aspects of healthy eating. 

But stick with me, because I know you probably hate these things, too. 

The best part of all this is now that we’re airing our healthy eating “dirty laundry” we can find a way to get through it together. I’ve even done all the work for you! I have a plan and I have a way to make this simple. (back to that in a sec…)

In theory, “eat healthy” seems like very simple, straightforward advice, right?

The problem isn’t that we don’t know what eating healthy looks like - more veggies and less candy/cookies/donuts.

The real problem usually is in the strategy - how do you eat healthy?

As a holistic health coach, I coach on this a lot. How do you do this when eating healthy seems so far out of reach?

Here are 5 things I hate about eating healthy.

#1 Meal planning is one of the most uneventful, unexciting activities in the world.

Let’s face it. If we all had private chefs and an endless supply of money, eating healthy would be fairly simple. It’s not that healthy foods taste bad, more often, it’s that we simply don’t know how to prepare them in a way that makes them taste delicious. Or, making that meal from scratch seems like so much work. Sitting on the couch eating take-out feels so much easier!

Meal planning is one of the best ways to eat healthy because it saves time, money, and effort in the kitchen. When you know exactly what to eat for every meal this week, you free up precious bandwidth for your brain to do other (hopefully more exciting!) things. 

But in reality, most people do not look forward to sitting down and meal planning for the week. 

#2 Being the weirdo at the grocery store who holds up the checkout line because none of the weird produce I am buying is in their system.

Not to mention, having the awkward convo with the 15-year-old cashier about celery root vs. celeriac and then having to spell it in front of the line of angry shoppers just wanting their brats and kraut.

I used to like this. I thought it was a great way to educate people on different produce. Usually, it ended in a conversation about how to prepare it or why I’m buying it. 

But, you know who doesn’t care about how to prepare celery root? The 15-year-old cashier.

Now, I just want to get out of the store as quickly as possible. I’ll save educating others on the health benefits of weird vegetables for you – my wonderful digital family. You’re welcome.

#3 The clean up.

Oh, the dishes. There is no getting around it. Eating healthy and cooking at home definitely creates more of a mess than eating processed stuff. Well, unless it’s a frozen pizza. How does the cheese always get everywhere? My husband must be using the oven wrong… or the pizza tray…

#4 Sometimes pooping 3 times a day is not conducive to my social life.

Or when I’m on a plane. When you eat healthy, you poop more. That’s just a fact of life. And that’s a great thing for your colon and your entire body. 

One of my biggest fears is having to poop on a plane. The last time I traveled I almost had a panic attack because we were delayed on the tarmac because they couldn’t locate a gate-walkway-thingy for us. It was at least 30 minutes and I had to go, man! I contemplated jumping out the emergency exit for a split sec…

Holding it in is not a healthy thing to do. 

But in reality, sometimes my social life or plane anxiety gets the best of me. Sorry colon.

Unhealthy processed foods have a tendency to back you up. Mainly because they’re full of chemicals and seriously lacking fiber. Great for the plane anxiety, but very bad in all other aspects of reality. Eating healthy = more poop.

#5 Your house smells like weird food, or more accurately, the rotting food that falls behind the vegetable crisper drawer in the fridge.

You know, the stuff you bought with the best of intentions during your weekly grocery run but forgot about for a few weeks. The stuff you pretend is not there every time you go in for a snack. That stuff.

It’s annoying. It’s disgusting. Have you ever tried cleaning rotten cucumbers that were at least four weeks past their prime? It’s terrible. It might be worth it to just buy a new fridge instead of dealing with the slimy mess.

Processed food doesn’t rot. That’s one of the biggest selling points of food manufacturers.

You can save money when you’re not constantly throwing away produce that goes bad. 

There’s something to be said for food that doesn’t rot – it’s not real food.

And if it doesn’t rot, what’s it doing to your digestive system? Eek.

So, you could save money by buying cheaply produced, heavily processed, FRANKEN-foods that don’t rot but contain little actual nutrition. Or you could plan your meals and incorporate a little strategy so you can eat healthy foods without the waste, or the horrendous smell. 

So, yeah. I’m not going to lie to you and tell you that eating healthy is all gumdrops and rainbows. It can be tough in the beginning. You will mess up (just promise me, not with the cukes!). There is a learning curve.

Do you hate these 5 things, too? 

Here’s the thing, even though there are some things I hate about eating healthy, the good still outweighs the bad. 

You have to make a choice. Either suck it up and take the bad with the good knowing your body will thank you and you’ll be saving time, money, and sanity in the long run. 

Or continue to eat unhealthy, processed foods and feel like sh*t.

What I love about eating healthy is not feeling sick and tired all the time.

I don’t miss the painful bloating and gas.

Or that my jeans don’t button.

I really don’t miss the food coma after eating an entire cheese pizza.

And I certainly don’t miss waking up every two hours to pee.

I don’t mind paying more for fresh fruits and veggies than canned ones because I make up that savings with fewer trips to the doctor and less time off of work for being sick.

I will suck it up and be the weirdo at the grocery store because it means I’m taking control of my own health and not leaving it up to my health insurance company.

And, cleaning up the slimy cucumber from the back of the fridge is slightly more enjoyable than scraping cheese off the bottom of the oven – for the seventeen thousandth time.

As with anything in life, there’s a choice to be made. This is one of those instances. Even though eating healthy comes with some challenges, I’m willing to reluctantly tackle those challenges for the greater good of my body.

Remember I promised you some good news? 

I solve all these problems for my coaching clients. I’ve come up with strategies to make eating healthy not suck. I even do the meal planning for them! And I’ll do it for you, too!

Let me take some things off your plate. My goal is to make things simple, straightforward, and delicious so you actually want to do them. 

Ready to learn more? I invite you to schedule a FREE consultation call today! Click the button below and let’s go!