What's It Worth?

Everything comes with a cost.

Everything.

We don't always think about it, especially when the benefit far outweighs the cost. But there is a cost.

I've been thinking a lot about cost lately.

The cost of starting my own business has been added stress and an extreme decline in my social life. To date, I feel like it has been worth it. I really do love cooking for people.

About four months ago, at the urging of Match, I started seeing a naturopathic doctor. She has been wonderful. At my first appointment she asked me to go on a fairly restrictive diet (I don't use the term as if I'm on a "diet," but rather as a definition of the food I eat) for eight weeks - we were trying to figure some things out and it was a good way to answer some questions. I was pretty good about sticking to it, with a few very rare exceptions. I didn't count calories, but I stuck to the foods that she asked me to stick to and I lost five pounds.

At the follow-up appointment she said that I should stay on the general plan that we had discussed previously. There were a few exceptions, but for the most part, this would be the diet that I would live with for the foreseeable future.

I haven't done as well since that first eight weeks. I don't want to give up things that I love.

I eat fairly well. Little to no processed food. Almost no sugar. A variety of vegetables. A fair amount of protein. 

I like my coffee though, and I'm not willing to give it up. I need to have the occasional hamburger (on a lettuce wrap). And I'm not going to live the rest of my life without sweet potato fries.

The other day I was reading an article regarding diet changes reversing and healing certain neurological disorders. It got me to thinking, if I had one of these issues and giving up these foods would reduce or eliminate my symptoms, could I do it?

And I guess you never really know until you are in that situation, but I'd like to think that I would.

The same is true for anything in life that is not making you better. Why do we keep the things that bring us down?