I was talking to a friend who had recently started riding her bike to work instead of driving her car. She was delighted. Using the car had been very efficient and convenient so far but now with the bike everything had changed for the better. She was exercising, enjoying the outdoors, feeling the wind in her face, noticing more things around her, stoping by places she wouldn’t be stoping if she was driving a car, because you know, parking, traffic, convenience.

When I was living in Scotland there would be times when I also opted for not driving my car, even when it was freezing cold, and walked instead because I wanted to make time for listening to all my favourite podcasts.

I’m using the car as an example here but there are so many occasions when convenience sneaks into our lives in the name of efficiency outshining things that make us happier, healthier and wealthier. In the food industry I find convenience almost insulting. Ready-made meals, peeled and chopped fruit, washed salad leaves and grated carrots, are a few examples of how we could be happier cooking a homemade meal because cooking can be a relaxing and joyful activity, healthier by chopping our fruit as needed, since peeling and chopping in advance contributes to the loss of vitamins, and wealthier given the abusive price for a ready to use packed salad versus buying a lettuce and a couple of carrots and doing it yourself. Not to mention all the packaging.

It was hard to choose just one quote from this article and I strongly recommend you to read the full version here.