Choose What Fits

A week and a half ago, our second freezer decided to give up its fight. It was a good freezer, though I can’t say it had a very long or exciting life. It lived to be 12 and a half years old, which, in the life of a freezer, is probably about average.

We can’t complain. It served us well.

Yes, it’s a bit inconvenient to have a freezer break in the middle of the summer, during a pandemic…when there is a shortage of freezers. (Who knew?) But it’s just a freezer. The freezer (and the food in it) can be replaced.

In an attempt to save the items that wouldn’t fit into our regular freezer, K and I decided to cook some of the thawing food. We’ve been eating leftovers for the past week just like we do over the winter holiday season. The menu is a strange collection of foods that we wouldn’t normally eat together — Thanksgiving vegan roast with gravy, veggie sloppy joes, various vegetables such as broccoli and Brussels sprouts, quinoa with black beans and corn, cauliflower fried rice, soft pretzels, pierogi, and the list goes on…

For that matter, our leftovers are a strange collection of foods that probably sounded good when we were shopping while hungry. (Oops!) Some things have been quite tasty — though I’m realizing that, with the exception of the frozen veggies, a lot of what was taking up space in the freezer isn’t something we’d regularly eat at this point in our lives.

In 12 years, we have transformed the way we eat. The freezer was purchased prior to contemplating any of these changes, and our cooking and food-storage habits have changed over that period of time, too.

Instead of rushing to buy a new freezer, we are taking this opportunity to see if we can manage with the mini-freezer we were able to borrow from my mom. (Now that’s an impressive little freezer that is going strong after more than 18 years!) In a few weeks, we’ll figure out if this experiment in downsizing is going to work or not. In the meantime, we’re thinking about what we love to eat, what we enjoy eating every now and again, and what we can do without.

When it comes to living a healthy life, there are variables that you can adjust to improve your experience. You get to decide what type of life you want to build and what is important to you.

Exercising is one of those variables that can be adjusted to suit your preferences. Spending some time to figure out what you love to do, what you enjoy doing every now and again, and what you can do without, will help you design an approach to regular exercise that works for you.

And just as there are many types of freezers, there are many ways to incorporate exercise into your life. You might want to go big and exercise every chance you get with a variety of activities. Maybe exercising three days a week with one or two selected activities is more of a fit. Perhaps you like to stick with one type of activity and aim to exercise twice a week.

Choosing to aim for an exercise routine that makes sense in the context of your life is more valuable than picking a routine that doesn’t fit. When you choose a routine that fits, you are more efficient with your time and energy, and that routine is more sustainable as a result.