Moving Bags of Lettuce

A phrase used to describe something that:
A) should be incredibly simple, but is instead quite complicated
B) should be easy, but instead requires immense effort
C) seems like it should take only a short while to accomplish, but instead takes exponentially longer than expected

The phrase appears to have originated from a conversation between an engineer and his sister early in 2024. The story goes that in describing his day, he was explaining a conveyor belt that he was designing. Intending to use “like” as a filler word, he said, “It’s just, like, moving bags of lettuce! It shouldn’t be so hard!” His sister, thinking he was using some new expression she had never heard, asked him to explain what he meant by, “like moving bags of lettuce.” Thus the expression was born.

My work was terribly difficult today. I felt like I was moving bags of lettuce.

Changing that tire was like moving bags of lettuce. It took three hours longer than I thought it would have.