The Week of Eating In. It sounds so homey and cozy; seven whole days of browsing recipes, cooking up new creations and spending time with family and friends around the kitchen table. Wait one second — we need an official, designated week to do these things?

Sure, this Week of Eating In, sponsored by the Huffington Post, advocates for a focus on what most of us already know: eating at home means cooking from scratch and knowing what goes on your plate, which in turn indicates healthier food that saves you money. But when did eating out transition from luxury to standard occurrence, so much so that we have to make a personal commitment to not doing it for an entire week?

Have we become so jaded in our Crackberry/iPhone society that we really have no time to put towards cooking meals? Points to Huffington Post for reminding us that cooking at home is important, but a big slap to society that has made eating out the norm.

Yes, many of us work high-stress, high-hour jobs, and could easily make the argument that we don’t have time to cook for ourselves. But those high-stress jobs should make us want to eat at home all the more; not only does eating better affect how we feel physically, the simple act of cooking affects our emotional well-being, a form of therapy that’s goof for reducing stress and doesn’t require a doctor signed prescription.

This Week of Eating In is practically another version of Earth Day. We know perfectly well that we should be thinking about the environment on a daily basis, but we still feel the need to write big checks to eco-oriented nonprofits on April 22nd of every year, giving a lot of hype to an issue that should simply be ingrained as a part of an everyday routine.

So yes, commit to eating in this week, but then take a serious look at your life and think about why you need to force yourself to do so. We could all benefit from life changes that allow us to eating better, and slower. Maybe then we would be less seduced by trendy, week-long tasks, and more committed to long term sustainable lifestyle changes that actually make a difference.