Goal #78- 1 month without eating out

11 days in- 33 meals down….

So this month I celebrated the 1 year mark of my 101 goals journey and started on one of my most difficult goals… goal #78- Don’t eat out for 1 month. Anyone who’s been even halfway following my blog(s) probably realizes by now that food/eating plays a huge part in my life. I also L.O.V.E. eating out. Trying new restaurants is probably my favorite activity, but unfortunately after living in NYC for 5+ years, my love of eating out has quickly turned from an occasional treat to an almost daily necessity.

I love to cook and I have to come straight home most nights to tend to the creature, so dinner is never a problem… . Breakfast and lunch are my biggest challenges… I’m pretty lazy and disorganized…. if you look at my list, like 80% of the goals were designed to help me resolve the lazy disorganization that plagues my life. Planning, making and packing a lunch the night before and THEN getting up in time to make and eat breakfast AND make coffee is no small feat for someone who’s been known to spend hours each night watching reality TV (instead of keeping a tidy house) and hit the snooze button up to an hour. The folks at Starbucks make it SOOOO easy to visit them every morning… smiling at you, and remembering what you order “skim milk in that grande iced coffee, right?’… so attentive… what better way to start your day? The lunch people aren’t much better…. Automatically offering me extra turnips on my chicken pita or the witty banter I’ve developed with the empanada guy… it puts that extra spark in my day…. Even though I know in my heart all that is just a ploy to keep me coming back.

So…. All that being said, the purpose of this goal is mainly to get me into the swing of becoming more organized about planning meals and eating routine meals at home. The goal is much more about being organized and disciplined, than saving money…. Saving money’s got its own goals :-p In light of the fact that this goal is really more about planning/organization than some sort of exercise in restraint, I’ve decided to make it a little bit more relaxed than originally planned. Originally I had planned on not eating ANY food that wasn’t prepared at home… meaning I couldn’t buy a red bull if I was dozing off at work, or a cookie if I wanted something sweet. I realized fairly early on in the month that if that was the case I wouldn’t be allowed to have any sweets that month or junk food, since I don’t have the willpower to have that stuff in my house…. A very unfortunate episode on the 5th day involving chicken broth, the trash can, a pan of homemade raspberry shortbread and tub of whole foods brownie bites served as a bleak reminder of what happens when there’s sweets in my house… but I digress.. I decided to focus on meals only with the goal being to prepare 3 meals a day for myself each day this month.
So meals have been going really well so far… 33 down! I really do feel more organized and put together. I haven’t quite gotten the hang of actually packing my food at night (like my mom has done for the past 20+ years), but I think I’m getting there.

20 days to go!