7 Take Aways from No Take Out

For the month of July my husband and I decided that we would challenge ourselves to not eating out or getting take out for the entire month....oh and we were each going to go to the gym 10 times.

Let's start with the fail. The gym. We suck. We really really suck. Neither of us went even once. SIGH.

I wrote a whole post on this particular topic already but suffice to say I am really disappointed in myself because I need to just embrace the fact that it is going to blow, my face is going to turn red, I'll be embarrassed, and it will feel like I accomplished nothing. And more importantly, remind myself that it doesn't stay that way and I'll feel awesome later.

On to the not eating out. Without having to go back in time and read all my posts I'm going to sum up the situation before the 'July Challenge'.  Despite being a pretty good cook, the hubstar and I would eat out all the time. I'm talking 2 - 3 times a week. It was out of control. It cost a huge amount of money and it was terribly unhealthy.

I'm copying this from an earlier post because it kind of sums up the money issue...

Here's some horrible math I just did: this is London. A trip to London for a week would be about $5000. If the average meal out for 2 is $35 that trip is worth 143 meals out. So if you were eating out twice a week in 18 months you could have had an awesome trip. Now figure the math if you're eating out more than that. *shudder*

And while we failed on the workout portion, we pretty much rocked the no eating out. We each had one justifiable cheat (he had a work thing and my grandmother really wanted me to take her out to lunch at her favorite spot and I didn't have it in me to say no but I just got a soup and salad).  And then, a couple days ago, on the 30th we jumped the gun and grabbed pizza from our favorite spot...but we didn't eat out tonight so I'm going to count it as a win.

But here's the funny thing. When we did finally get that pizza we'd been looking forward to...it sort of wasn't worth it. The pizza was delicious but it wasn't insanely better than the stuff we'd made at home. And the $28.00 we spent felt kind of like a waste. It was kind of anti-climatic...
 

...maybe like a flavor orgy...I don't know...meh

 Anyhow, so like every lame grade school assignment ever - please allow me to discuss what I learned...

1. Eating out is every bit as expensive as I thought

Dude - I did the math. Holy crap - not eating out REALLY helped us. We really cut down on our food costs and I think it truly gave us an appreciate of just how much much money we were spending.

Or, you know, saving fat stacks bitches!

2. It's also very easy to blow a ton of money at the grocery store and some meals at home cost about as much as takeout.

On the flip side, the grocery bill was no where near as low as I thought it would be. I think I was so excited about the money we saved by not eating out that I wasn't as careful with my shopping. It really added up fast. I also decided to get creative a couple nights and by the time I bought new ingredients, spices, meats, etc the bill for one meal at home could be around $20. So, moving forward I definitely need to manage that better.

Not as much as you'd think :/

3. I'd rather spend the money on things other than food

When I looked at the pizza receipt I was bummed. For $28 I could have bought this cute owl lamp I saw at World Market last week. An owl lamp I could have loved and my husband could have tolerated.

Squee! It's uber cute!

And also this month I took the hubs I took my husband to get a couple's massage for the first time. I made a convert of him. We both agree that doing fun stuff like that trumps Chipotle because we're too lazy to cook.

Despite my complete lack of rhythm and inability to dance I feel like taking up Ballroom Dancing is a good move for us...

4. I didn't lose weight like I expected I would.

This part was a huge bummer. HUGE. In the beginning I figured that even without going to the gym I'd notice some substantial skinniness happening from the mere fact that I wouldn't be stuffing my face with greasy crap. This did not happen. In fact - to my shame - I gained about a pound.  And I know exactly what happened - I completely over compensated for not eating out. We made lots of delicious complicated meals at home and lots of treats too.

I made this Key Lime Pie and then pretty much ate the whole thing. I blame Hubstar for not sneaking more of it during his midnight refrigerator raids...

It was pretty much the Diet Coke Effect...

I essentially substituted Phad Thai with cheesy potatoes. Not good.

5.  There is more to eating out than just getting food

From pretty much as far back as my knowledge of history goes (circa Greece 500BCE ish...probably...I don't know...like some Sumerians and a small bit about cave men) people have gathered for feasts. Eating for humans is very social. We turned down a couple opportunities to go out to eat with friends and family and in the end both Hubs and I realized sometime you have to eat out. My Gram lives at a swanky (and I'm not kidding dude it is very nice) retirement community with it's own in-building restaurant but she can't drive, doesn't really cook, and misses eating out with my Granddad (who has since passed) so you know I'm not really going to say no when she wants to grab lunch.

This is one of the lounges at her place. Dude. If this is 'senior living' I'm so in.

6.  Eating out is a life saver when you've had the day from hell...or just made a batch of inedible crap...

I can't tell you how many times this month I was tempted to pick up food because I didn't get anything done that day, forgot key ingredients at the grocery store, and the children were just on fire with their neediness. But I got through it - sometimes with frozen food, sometimes with just throwing on my big girl pants, and I am proud of that. But nothing - nothing at all - was so tempting as when I completely screwed up dinner.

We'd had huge success with this homemade Lemon Chicken from an Asian cookbook we bought that I decided to make these spicy Thai meatballs with peanut sauce for dinner. I'd been jonesing for them for a solid week. I spent stupid cash buying the ingredients. And they were GOD AWFUL. I don't want to shunt responsibility but I really do think it was the recipe or my palate or whatever. They were so gross we just tossed them all out and I was left with no yummy dinner, out $20, a filthy kitchen, and a belly full of heartache. And in that moment I would have killed (ok, maybe paper-cutted) for take-out Chinese. Instead I ate cereal and yogurt. It sucked.

It was a super big sad.

7. Like pretty much everything else - it is all about balance

Last Friday the Hubs and I were downtown for a work event and after we popped in to one of our favorite and ridiculously pricey places to eat (the kind of place you go to propose or something) for drinks and a stupid expensive appetizer.  But it was worth it. It was amazing being out, just the two of us, somewhere we loved to go. It was worth it because eating out was special again - because it wasn't just out of laziness or boredom or because I forgot to buy chicken again...it was because we just wanted to enjoy some great atmosphere and time together.

These are their candied jalapenos. Screw ambrosia..these are the real deal.

And when we do go out from now on, I hope we remember that. And I also realized that eating in isn't a license to go buy everything at the store or eat cheese covered cheese potatoes all the time.

Cheese covered cheese potatoes as originally found when I was in Stuttgart.

All in all this was a great thing to do. I really gave us some great perspective on our habits - good and bad. I'll be honest I don't think I never want to eat out again or anything crazy like that, but I have found a huge love for eating in.  I think the convenience, accessibility, and relatively low price (so it would seem) of eating out or picking up food makes it very easy to succumb to it but I think that most people could stand to really take a break from it and see how much of a habit it becomes.

Finally.......wheeeeeee!!!!! Friday Night Thai is back baby!!!!!!!