Like putting the oxygen mask on yourself first, I have long been struggling with the fact that in order to make time for myself, to exercise for example, I am going to have to cut corners elsewhere to make time. Which, as a working mom who works about 30 hours a week (better than 60 like it used to be!) still means I don’t have much time for taking care of myself.

And in today’s headline horror show every day, it’s easy to see why self care is a trending hashtag.

While microwave Monday might not seem like a big deal, it’s a big deal for a recovering perfectionist – and that includes not making a scratch meal of healthy veggies for my family. Call me strange, or maybe even old fashioned, but preparing food for my family really does bring me a sense of joy (especially when they love what I make). Because sometimes I make things with root vegetables for example that my husband calls “I didn’t know you could eat that” meals.

But tonight, after taking  an end-of-workday jog to the park to play with my daughter while it was still warm before the sunset…and coming home to do a little circuit of some more exercises, I knew there just wasn’t time to do everything perfectly, and that was okay.

So I microwaved a Costco dinner. Hey, we love the vegetable dumplings, Aidell’s teriyaki chicken meatballs and yaki soba from Costco. It’s a love-hate relationship with Costco… much like I have with myself… hating what’s in the mirror since having a child and seeing something that will never be the svelt size two I once was when my husband and I got married just seven years ago. But the only way to get back to a body image I can love (or at least not hate) is to work at it, which means, microwave Monday and other fast easy dinners might have to become more frequent and those homemade gourmet meals can wait while I take care of myself first.

Whatever it takes to make life a little easier right? And we can all be a little kinder to ourselves, our own worst critics holding ourselves to standard higher than anyone else. So here’s to easy…on ourselves too.