The Art of Eating In.

Alright lovelies, I've taken on a new task. I'm committing to start eating in. Gasp, I know. As a 20-something with a career and a whole list of other weekly activities eating in has gone by the wayside. It is time to get back in the groove. In part, for my waistline. Eating out is not the new black when it comes to flattery! Also, it's time to cut back on wasted money spent stuffing my face and focus on furthering my financial savvy.

Kicking it in to gear last week, I committed to eat lunch at work. If you're like me, you see lunch time as your chance to escape. Whatever drama or lack-there-of your work day may be bringing about, you get to leave for one glorious hour. On bad days this is the perfect chance to eat your feelings, Mean Girls style. Well no more. Not for this girl. Time to crack down and eat in - even at work! Even on crappy days.

I'm hoping this will give me the chance to expand my mind by freeing up some of my lunch break daily to read, read, read! Thankfully, since I'm such a social butterfly that I hate spending meals alone, one of my coworkers and good friends is doing this with me. So we're lunching together - chatting & reading in intervals. What a help she has been.

Also, I'm trying not to dine on the go. I find that not only do I eat crap for food when I eat on the go but I eat too much of it. This tends to be my error around dinner time as I think of cooking and then having to clean up after myself. Usually I have to be somewhere again by 7, so why not eat in the car and save myself some trouble? This is murder on my wallet, and my health too I'm sure.

This includes morning Starbucks or McDonald's coffee runs. Sad. Oh, and Panera run ins for bagel. My wallet will thank me for cutting these overpriced morning treats out of my day-to-day and eating a healthy breakfast at home. Want to do the same and have it suck less? Tivo great shows and eat your breakfast in front of the tube. I'm finding that still feels like a treat!

As for dinners...a great way to talk yourself into eating dinner at home is to find a friend who will alternate with you. You feed them once a week, let them feed you once a week. It's really not any more expensive to cook for 2 than one. It's more fun, AND you get one night a week where not only does someone cook for you but you don't have to do the dishes. Score! I love the social aspect of having a dinner buddy too.

Parting advice for those of you looking to cut back your dine-n-dash money (and calories) is to buy stuff you will actually make and eat. It never fails that when I go to the grocery I tell myself that I should get all super healthy raw food and that if that's all that's in my house I'll eat it. Wrong. I will let it rot while eating anywhere but home...avoiding my fridge like the plague. This neither helps my budget nor my health. Time to be real...

Buy food you'll eat. Get meals that you won't have to slave over so that cooking isn't a horrendous chore. Make eating in fun, whatever that looks like in your own life. Better yet, cook enough to last more than one meal. When you live life on the go (like I), it's nice to have something waiting for you. This week for example I have something in the evening Weds, Thurs, and Friday evenings. So, if there's food all divided out for me at home, I can eat it before I have to rush back out to face the next task. And grab a different tuberware on my way out to work the following morning.

That my friends, is the beginning of my journey to master the art of eating in.

Love,
B