3 posts tagged “eating out”

This morning I stopped at Starbucks on my way to read. I had a tall Skinny Vanilla Latte and it was good.

Three weeks in and I am done. The valuable lesson is that I do eat out too much. But instead of it being about the ease of eating out, it helped me see those meals are essentially my social life.

For the last three weeks, I have eaten nearly every meal alone and it was really starting to affect my attitude. And not for the better.

I've been getting crankier, which has kept me keeping pretty quiet (as to not offend folks more than normal), which in turn isolated me even more. A few days ago, a close friend called me out on it:

I really wish you'd call a halt to the eating out ban. I don't think that is healthy for anyone. Life is way too short. I wish you'd go to Starbucks and order your fav and enjoy.

It made me smile that she cared enough to say something. And it made me think, "She's right. This is stupid."  It got me to thinking about how isolating it'd been and freed me to break up with the idea.

I did good for 20 days, but it's over. Sorry Suze.

I had lunch with a friend today, but she paid. We tried a new Indian restaurant, but it wasn't that great. I'm glad mom is gone for the weekend so I don't have to resist temptation from her!

I've had thoughts every day about buying something to eat, but it only takes a sec for me to remember the challenge.

I have wrestled with buying Chinese stir-fry from a local grocery store (made fresh in front of you). I feel conflicted, wondering if it doesn't count as eating out (even if I take it home). I figure if I feel conflicted, it counts.

After my Godson's basketball game last night (last one of the season for me - boo!), I made several stops along the way home. But I hadn't had time to eat at home before the game. So I was hungry. It would've been so easy to just grab something. But I prevailed. And ate a candy bar at mom's house while I fed her cats. Maybe that wasn't so much of a win, it being candy and all.

Earlier in the month, I mentioned watching Suze Orman on the "Live Your Best Life Now" week on Oprah. At the time, she issued a 3 Step Challenge:

• For just one day, do not spend any money on anything.
• For just one week, do not use a credit card.
• For just one month, do not eat out at a restaurant.

The first two are very easy for me. Something I do all the time. The third would be the real challenge. One I've decided to take on for the month of February. No eating out at a restaurant. I'm including Starbucks, trips to the "little store" (at work) or a convenience store. No buying or eating of any food item that did not come from a grocery store.

The only gimme I will allow is if someone wants to take me out for lunch/dinner/coffee.

This will be especially hard for mom and I on the weekends. We talked about it yesterday and figured we'd spent about $60 on meals Saturday and Sunday (eating together). And, we're both lazy cooks. This will definitely be a challenge!