Live life like the weekend

One thing striving towards the primal lifestyle has impressed upon me is the importance of finding balance. As a graduate student, this can (and has been) particularly hard. It’s so easy to fall into the trap of eating whatever is cheapest and requires the least amount of prep work. As an undergraduate, I tended towards Kashi frozen meals and Annie’s mac and cheese when the work got to be too much. Nowadays, I make try to make better use of my weekends in preparation for the long and trying week ahead.



Gone are the long hours of surfing the internet without a purpose or destination in sight. Or if not gone, at least very much abridged. Also gone are the hours devoted to sleeping in, but that’s mostly because I haven’t felt the need to. Now I get up with the sun around six and cuddle in bed with my dog until 6:30, when my cats decide it’s time for their grub. Then I either eat breakfast or go to gym on a lifting day. After that, my hours are flexible, but I do keep a few goals in mind. On both Saturday and Sunday, I make it a point to:

• Do something for my health
• Do something for my house
• Do something for my week
• Do something for my school

Doing something for my health used to be a daunting prospect. There was a time when I didn’t have the energy or motivation to pull myself out of bed, much less from the front of my computer, after a long week at school. I had no idea the impact that regular exercise could have on my mental and physical health until I just did it. Now I can’t imagine stopping. On Saturday I lifted and on Sunday I took my dog for a long walk and then biked to school and around Forest Park.

Don't mind if I do.

I’m still working on meeting my goal to do something for my house, although I do clean every weekend (and mow less frequently than I should). My parent’s purchased this house, a foreclosure in need of some TLC, in December 2010, and I’ve made it a goal to educate myself about maintaining the property. Unfortunately, my commitment to school has made that hard, and minor disasters seem to keep cropping up. On a related note, does anyone know how to fix a garbage disposal?

Doing something for my week is always fun, because it usually entails bulk cooking. And food shopping, which I may like even more than cooking, except for the part where I end up spending a ton of money that I don’t really have. I try to shop smart and hit up multiple stores to make the most of sales, but it’s not always easy when you want to pick up provisions like almond butter, hemp protein, and coconut oil. I went to Whole Foods this past weekend and I’m pretty sure my food budget for the month is shot (and it’s only the 3rd!). Damn my tiny graduate student stipend.

Also lunch, because I didn't spend enough at Whole Foods on groceries.

Lastly, I always do something for school. Usually this involves heading into the lab for a few hours on either (or both) days. Sometimes it’s reading papers, or writing papers, or editing papers. Sometimes it’s analyzing the mountains of data I’ve collected during the week. Very often, it’s all of these things and more. Yet somehow, without my load getting any smaller and with all these other goals, I’ve found my schoolwork to be even more manageable. As stupid as it may sound, I think I am buoyed by the sense of accomplishment I get from meeting all these (admittedly low) bars, and that can help to combat the frustrations inherent in research.

And after everything, I’m in bed by 10PM with a good book, which is where I am heading right now.