Isn’t it amazing how bad, really bad habits can sneak up on you?

Two years ago, I was doing fine. No, I was doing better than fine, I was doing great.

I had dropped over 60 pounds, was eating healthier than I ever had in my life, and exercising on a very regular basis.

Fast forward 2 years and you can find me sitting on my living room couch eating bowlfuls of popcorn while watching The Biggest Loser.

Oh, and those 60 pounds I lost? I was able to locate a bunch of them.

Many factors contributed to my backsliding, way too numerous (and embarrassing) to go into here. But one of the chief ones was my need for easy.

  • “It would just be easier to drive-thru instead of cooking tonight.”
  • “I don’t have time to workout.” (but apparently I had time to watch the Real Housewives of New York City)
  • “I just bought the frozen pizza – I thought it would be easier.”
  • “I worked hard today, I don’t want to go for a walk. Let’s just relax tonight.”

The problem is easier has made me gain weight and left me feeling run down. Oh and chest pains? So not sexy.

So things around our house are going to get a whole lot less easy.

Starting today, with a few exceptions*, Roger and I are not going to be eating out, picking up, driving thru for the next 30 days.

Now for some of you that would be no big deal. For me, this is a major change in lifestyle. I am guessing, between Starbucks runs, lunches out with Roger, hitting the frozen yogurt store, and drive thru Diet Cokes, I probably hit some kind of eating establishment 2-3 times a day.

Wow, it was really embarrassing to write that sentence.

Not only have we taken a hit in the waistline, this is an obvious money drain that we needed to plug up.

We are not doing this to create some new kind of reality show, we are doing thing to put some mindfulness back into our eating and spending. We are not looking for perfection from ourselves, but a change in the speed in our lives. (That being said, if any of you care to keep me accountable, I will be happy to post any of my missteps/victories here.)

*So, here are our rules/exceptions:

  • No personal money will be spent on eating out. If it is not a business expense or we don’t have a giftcard, it ain’t happening.
  • Previous Engagements Eating engagements already set up (one at Starbucks with my friend Dina,) along with my weekly date with my son, Justen, will be kept – but I will only use gift cards I already have to eat there. (I will be ordering a lot of drip coffee…)
  • Business Stuff Roger and I have a weekly lunch meeting to go over ministry stuff. Also, I write with friends at a coffee shop twice a week and need to order something so I don’t get arrested for vagrancy. If Roger or I need to meet someone for business, this is OK – we will just talk with each other first (being mindful and all.)

So one of the ramifications of this is I am going to start cooking again. My freezer meals have been woefully low for a while and it is time to ramp them back up.

So I am looking for two kinds of comments today:

  1. Is there something in your life that you are looking to be more mindful about? Eating, spending time with your kids? Exercising? And if so, what are you doing about it?
  2. Do you have a great summertime recipe that I should try? I would love some with lots of veggies as we are trying to be healthier.

A commenter will be randomly chosen to win The Frozen Gourmet (just in case your goal is to eat at home – or not to stand in the middle of Safeway every night saying “What am I going to make for dinner.”


 

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