When did healthy eating become so complex?

This was the kind of week which makes a person want to gaze at the universe and ask, "Really?" And not in a hopeful, expectant kind of a tone either. It's more a question asked with chagrin and a looming sense of foreboding that the universe is going to say, "Yeah, really." And perhaps also, "Deal with it."

So naturally, I decided to start this very week to make healthier food choices.

I don't recommend doing this.

Timing is key; mine was unfortunate.

Here are the things that I learned from my not wholly successful attempt at improving my diet:

A) Healthy eating takes considerably more time. Plan on spending too much time washing, coring, peeling, chopping, cooking, and seasoning things.

B) It's not a bad time of year, theoretically, to attempt to be healthier since people with burgeoning gardens are offering you plenty of tomatoes, green beans, corn, and the like.

C) It's unclear if eating all this fresh produce still counts as being healthier if you garnish it with butter and salt before consuming.

D) Healthy eating used to be easier. Back in the day, it was all Food Guide Pyramid simplicity, or even (waaaay back in the day) the Four Food Groups. Badda bing, badda boom. So. Very. Manageable. But now it's all about raw, and grains and gluten are wicked!, and smoothies come in unholy shades of green, and everyone takes supplements, and "treats" are berries or nuts instead of cupcakes and peanut butter m&m's.

E) I preferred the simpler times, when I added a salad to our dinner, and ate some fruit with my sandwich at lunch and called it good.

Anyway, to cap off my week of trying harder, food-wise, the hubs and I sneaked out on a mini-date where we split a French dip sandwich and I ate my greens in the form of some three-cheese cauliflower soup and a Key lime tart.

Whatever, universe.