Get Rid of Your Microwave

If someone had told me a few years ago that I’d be writing this blog post, I’d say that they were completely out of their mind. Last week, my husband and I did something completely radical: we got rid of our microwave. Yes, you’re reading this right, it’s gone, goodbye, adiós…  GONE. You may be thinking “she’s gone nuts!” Maybe…. but maybe not. Let me explain. I have read a lot about microwaves, the good, the bad and the ugly, from suspicions that we lose nutrients when using the microwave, to studies which seem to indicate the contrary. The way I see it, is that there must be some reason for which Chef Ramsey hates microwaves… so I can’t help but think that I’d make him proud (*sniff.)

We live in a “microwave” society, one in which we want results at a push of a button instead of realizing that it takes time to get the results that we seek, be that in business or weight loss. It should be as easy as the push of a button, right? I mean seriously, why would we consider working out, getting a sweat or for goodness sake, eating healthy when there are diet pills and injections that “guarantee” that you’ll lose weight, or so many other weight loss fads out there that blow my mind away, make me scratch my head and wonder why do we abuse our body so much? And I often want to ask people directly… what about your health when using any of these crazy approaches? But I have come to the conclusion that people mostly don’t really care about their health until it’s too late. We live in a society where we want the results NOW regardless of what it’s going to cost us, either financially or health-wise.

So here’s the thing, just like with any weight loss it’s a pain in the butt (literally) sometimes having to workout and eat healthy, in the same way that it’s a pain in the butt to reheat your food on the stovetop, heat water or make popcorn. It’s SUCH an inconvenience… but every single little step we take to bring health back into our lives will guarantee that we live a much healthier life. It will take 5 minutes to heat water instead of 1, but it will heat evenly. Today I had to reheat my leftovers from dinner for my lunch and it took 4 minutes, instead of the normal 1 minute. Will my life end if I have to wait an additional 3 minutes to eat? Nope. How about popcorn? For years people had been eating cancer causing chemicals through their readily available microwave popcorn and it wasn’t until 2007 that someone said something about it. I love popcorn, so I buy organic popcorn and use organic coconut oil to make it, much to the delight of my daughter who watches the kernels pop from a safe distance in the kitchen.

As with any diet, weight loss approach or lifestyle, it’s  completely a personal choice to do something radical like this… but I found myself using our microwave less and less as the months went by, so we made a conscious choice to let it go.