September to Remember: Day 5

5th – “Be late for something day” is also “cheese pizza day”, so this post will obviously be about the reaction I get after arriving late to a Labor Day BBQ while grubbing on a huge slice of cheese pizza 

I never considered eating out to be a bad thing and I still think that's true. What you need to watch out for are the unnecessary fast food trips. I classify fast food as anywhere you get served sans waiter (read: don't have to tip). So the obvious McD's and Taco Bell yes but also Papas John & Gino, ice cream parlors, etc.

Since the beginning of March I started bringing a salad to work every day for lunch. For nearly 8 years I had gone out to eat every single work day and I didn't really see a problem with it (read: $$$). But Brig challenged me and I accepted. As long as she made it, I would eat a freaking salad every single day. And I have done it for 6 months now with absolutely no cheat days. I know if I fall off the wagon once and convince myself that just this one lunch out is OK, that will snowball and there will be nothing stopping me from getting back into the old habit.

With the big life change in March I thought I should start paying attention more to what we were eating, or really, where we were eating. If we eat out less and cook more at home, we will most likely be eating healthier food and saving money in the process. Win-win. So I started tracking how often we ate out and specifics like which day of the week and what type of restaurant (fast food, sitdown, brunch, ice cream/bakery, etc) so I would be able to see what our weaknesses were and any patterns that may emerge.

For the first few months it looked pretty good and like we were eating out a normal amount. But July and August have been really bad. I'm sure it is directly related to the season and the fact that we are taking more trips and it's so humid in the house that a nice, cool restaurant sounds great. As the days shorten the further into Fall we get, I expect to see our number of days eating out shorten as well.

To tie this back into today's topic, we have not gotten a fast food pizza in a couple months now. All frozen pizzas for us and none of the big chains. It's amazing to think how overpriced pizzas are when compared to a DiGiorno. Mind you, I'm not someone who ever liked frozen pizza growing up but DiGiorno is actually good. The only time the little devil on my shoulder starts to shout is thinking about Little Caesar's $5 Hot 'N Ready. But so far I've brushed him away every time.