Health
I didn’t cook much when I was still teaching — not much time left after teaching, grading, planning, and the cafeteria lunches were sort of a balanced meal. I kept up the eating-out habit until forced to economize while waiting for the condo to sell. Then I discovered that simple meals at home were way cheaper, way healthier, and a bit less time-consuming than going somewhere and waiting for service.
Subscribing to Terripin Farms CSA* tipped the balance, to working a bit harder on meals (and on putting away the extra in the freezer part of the fridge — still eating from last summer’s bounty) but really seeing the benefits in a very healthy result and much better taste. I still eat out sometimes, when friends want to go, but bring half the meal home to have the next day with many extra veggies.
Exercise was similarly a discovery of necessity. When I got hurt in a fall at the police station (filing an identity fraud report), the P.T. sent me to aqua-aerobics and I added tai chi later. My lazy self never actually “feels like” exercising, but I always feel better about five minutes in. Y friends today were encouraging each other to keep going, “Use it or lose it.” I remembered an interview with Katherine Hepburn who, when asked about her hip injury, summed it up with, “It hurts, but it works.”
If it’s worthwhile to maintain car and home, why not myself? Proof of effectiveness, I had a very similar fall in the driveway this winter, and instead of weeks of agony, I had a bit of soreness easily ignored. I even made a snow angel while I was down there . . .
* http://www.localharvest.org/terripin-farms-csa-M32881
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