Last Sunday I had my whole week planned out. I did all the laundry, stopped by the grocery store, and went home to food prep for the next several days. Kale salad for Monday. Spinach salad for Tuesday. Chicken salad sandwich for Wednesday. Pasta salad with a side of fruit salad for Thursday. Tuna salad on a Mediterranean salad for Friday. I know it sounds like a lot of salad, but I was determined to have a healthy week so that I could feel good about myself when that inevitable sloppy Saturday came around. On top of a healthy diet, I imposed a «no internet after 6pm» rule to prevent myself from watching funny animal videos on YouTube until 2am. I must have vastly overestimated my discipline, because my first offense was Monday afternoon on my lunch break. By noon, I was ravenous. The hunger seemed to wipe all memory of the diet I’d so perfectly planned for myself, because when I opened my lunchbox, my heart sank at the sight of raw kale in a plastic container. Right on cue, the boss walked in with a dozen pizzas. «It’s pizza time!» He yelled. Needless to say, I ate the pizza. I ate five slices, in fact. 

Later that evening, I felt deflated from my lunch failure, but there was still a chance to redeem myself. «No internet» was my mantra all the way home. «No internet» was still on a loop in my mind as I walked through my front door, plopped down on the sofa, and opened up my favorite meme account on Instagram. When I snapped out of it and realized what I’d done, I gasped and threw my phone across the room. Dejected and feeling pathetic, I sat there for a moment and stared at the wall. «Screw it» I thought to myself as I picked my phone back up to continue scrolling through memes.

Being a health freak who reads books after work might come easy to some, but it’s a struggle for many others, and that’s okay. If you’ve fallen off the «no internet» wagon like I did, don’t be too hard on yourself. Have some memes and try again tomorrow. You can do this!