AmberKillian, I have left my game untended for as much as 2 weeks without serious consequences. I routinely take a day or two off, for instance so I can enjoy an unplugged weekend in the mountains. You should take a few precautionary steps and then feel free to leave your game untended:

1) Plant flowers on housing lots and in the botanical garden, and spend the small IAP fee for the irrigation system. Those flowers will be safe as they will be auto-watered.

2) If you have large gardens outside the reach of the irrigation system, make peace with the fact that you will likely lose some flowers. They will become weeds, and if you have the Beautiful Town ordinance, the townies will pick at least some of the weeds. Take a screenshot of your garden so you can rebuild it, and store some replacement plants in a safe area (the botanical garden or a house lot).

3) Get the Beautiful Town ordinance. It will help a little bit.

4) Buy a bunch of metal trash bins and put them in places where litter seems to accumulate, such as the area behind the town buildings or the grass south of the western houses.

5) On 3 consecutive days, plant at least 3 fruit trees, which will give you 9 pieces of fruit a day. Unless you have a really incompetent townie who always gets in line last for food, this will keep your peeps fed. Even if all your trees fruit on the same day, your peeps will probably be fine, since they can go a couple of weeks before they starve to death. Since every random event generator creates outliers, I like to err on the side of too much fruit and not too little.

Your health is more important than the game, and even if you lost peeps by taking a break it would be worth it if it kept you (a living breathing real person) healthier. However, if you take those steps you probably won't lose anyone. Enjoy!