If you cannot bear the thought of pouring yourself into running tights and slipping around on the sandy aftermath of the snow days, I strongly suggest that you update your iPod playlist.

A solid combination of Ellie Goulding and Walk the Moon propels me up the 6th street hills. But I can only listen to “Anything Can Happen” so many times, so I know that in order to incentivize my run tomorrow, I will have to update my iPod playlist.

Unlike Sarah Whipple, who is probably a nature goddess and lives to listen to the sounds of the birds, I am not physically capable of running without my iPod. I read an article in the New York Times recently about how listening to music while exercising makes your body more willing to work hard and endure pain. Perfect for running.

I naively took my rest day Tuesday, so I will indeed have to sacrifice my usual lazy days (Friday and Saturday) to go running. This means that tonight I will obtaining new music. I think a mix of Cold War Kids and Kid Cudi will probably work.

In other news, the amount of Korean food I’ve been knocking back is bordering on fiendish. It’s a combination of increased exercise and the fact that it’s low in calories that accounts for the amount of kimchi I ate today.

Don’t get me wrong, I’d definitely be helping eat this Korean food even if I weren’t on a healthy diet. But it’s very serendipitous timing.

Running plus fermented cabbage equals a healthy Hannah. I don’t think I’ve quite been eating healthily for long enough to start feeling the emotional benefits of it, though. I obviously feel more virtuous and in control, but my general happiness level remains unchanged.

It’s sad because in my life pre-Clean-Living-blog, red velvet cupcakes and truffle oil fries made me happy. But this week, I haven’t felt guilty about something I’ve eaten, which is incredibly valuable. In scrumptiously unhealthy foods, the rush of initial deliciousness is always followed by a guilt wave.

With my new diet, I experience neither an initial rush nor a guilt wave. But it should also be noted that even though I haven’t been eating my “happy foods” I don’t feel less happy.

Sarah probably believes that I am having the most miserable week of my life. It may have something to do with the complaining that she hears every day in newspaper class, “Aren’t those cookie bars good? I wouldn’t know.” Or, “WHY DID JOSIE HAVE TO BUY THOSE HASH BROWNS FOR ME TODAY?” And, “If Jason waves a shortbread cookie under my nose one more time, I will literally flip a…”

I feel as if this week has been especially full of temptations. But even as I complain heartily about turning down hash browns and cookie bars, I have come to the realization that it’s really not that bad.

That’s right. Five days in, I’m saying right now that eating healthily isn’t as painful as I thought.–HKM