Today is the twenty-eighth day in a row that I only eat what
I can cook at home.
“Eat IN September” was born out of the blue for me. I just wanted to challenge myself to go a
whole month without eating outside the home.
(I think in the back of my mind, I wanted to save some money, but this
was not the driving thought.)
Then my friend Maggie decided she wanted to join me. I didn’t ask her to, beg her to because, “I
just can’t do this by myself, I need someone to keep me accountable!”
Nope, it just happened.
Even though the concept came seemingly “out of the blue”, I
now believe that there was a reason for it.
There was a reason I chose this particular month, in this particular
year, in this particular season of my life.
I’ve had some changes at work that require me to drive more, and had I
not sacrificed eating outside the home, I may have found myself in the red
financially this month. I’m also trying
to pay for my trip to Orlando
It was also not an accident that Maggie decided to join. I believe she’s learned a lot about herself
this month too, and has also opened her eyes to some things in her budget that
she may not have seen before.
I think it’s most of all been empowering. I really DON’T have to let the machine of
consumerism control me! I really CAN step out and CHOOSE to do something
different, small a thing as it may be.
This month has shown me that I still have that willpower I remember
having in my teenage years, before jobs and incomes and stress and work and
freedom.
One of the coolest moments that happened this month was with
my friend Jodi. She lives in a tiny town
about an hour and half’s drive away, where she teaches music. She and I had been trying to schedule a
Friday night/Saturday for me to come visit her for about a YEAR now! Well, this month, I finally made it happen,
because I wanted to make it happen before the weather changed and then I had
THAT excuse as to why I couldn’t make time to go see my friend.
Well, in scheduling my visit, I said, “So, the thing is,
Jodi, I can’t eat out this month. I’m
doing a month-long challenge and I can only eat what I buy in the grocery
store. So…we may have to get creative.”
Her response?
“Oh, okay! I have tons of food! Will you want dinner when you get here? We
can figure it out!”
We then proceeded to plan how we would shop for the makings
of a picnic lunch on that Saturday morning.
Which we did. And where did we
picnic? IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE. On her
family’s farmland. Surrounded by fields
and nothing else, with the sun warming our backs, and the bugs trying to share
our food.
It was awesome.
What was more awesome was the fact that Jodi said, “I’m so
glad you did this no-eat-out thing; I’ve never been on a picnic before in my
whole life, and I wouldn’t have been able to today, if we could have just gone
to a restaurant for lunch!”
Epic win.
I took video. It was
that exciting.
It was a first for me, too.
Eating in the middle of nowhere, that is.
This month also went by really fast. After the first week and a half, it was
already a habit to just cook at home, pack lunch, eat before I leave the house,
take a snack. I can’t believe I only
have 2 and a half days left!
I may end up carrying on with this. Maybe I can finish out 2013 eating at
home.
Dare me?
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