Congratulations, you've reached your goal of..

If I had an iPod programed to do this, the little girl's voice would say, "congratulations, you've reached your goal of 30 days without eating out". Sadly today for lunch I had to go to a restaurant. I actually did put in some effort to avoid that but that's for another day. So, here's how it was for me.

At the beginning, it seemed like something I thought I could do so I wasn't too nervous. Everyone else either thought I was crazy or thought it was sad that I had to save money that way. In the beginning I was more worried about how everyone else was going to handle a month of this. I also seem to remember Kelly not being very supportive in the beginning either. The first day of the "no restaurant" rule, she brought Chipotle and ate it in front of me. (By the way, Firefox thinks "Chipotle" is spelled wrong and suggests "Shippable" in it's place. Firefox also thinks "Firefox" is spelled wrong.)

As time went on, I worked out a good routine. I started preparing my meals way ahead of time which was really nice. It made me plan grocery shopping better, helped me think about the actual number of meals I eat in a week, and what I really need at the store. And cooking ahead of time makes me weeks much more pleasant. Usually when I get home at night I don't want to be bothered with tomorrow's food anyway.

I also liked that the Tuesday night crowd (you know why I'm not using the other name) was very supportive. It was fun to cook for everyone. It was also fun to switch houses. And have other people cook for me. And since we were no longer buying food, it meant that we had more cash to spend on alcohol.

There was a point last weekend when I wasn't too excited about cooking for myself. Why yes, it did coincide with the time my living room was moved all around for painting. Last weekend was rough. It's like that moment right before you can see the home stretch. I knew it was right around the corner and I just wanted to see it so bad and have it be done.

It doesn't seem like that big of a deal looking back. I think if I'd been doing some of this stuff all along (planning lunches) I would have eaten out a lot less anyways. It seems like a mild accomplishment, something you wouldn't ordinarily do, but ultimately probably not my biggest achievement of the year.

I went to this training about personality disorders today. At the end of it I felt quite crazy.

So I went for a run at the Y. I ran five miles of intervals which was fun and an accomplishment. And I learned that the Nike+ sensor has no idea what to do when I run or walk backwards. Seriously. It says "zero miles per hour". I'm freaking moving. Why was I walking backwards? (Who cares?) I was stretching out my hamstrings. Walking and running backwards is a good way to do that. It's why baseball players run backwards during warmups.

After that, Amanda surprised me by dropping by. Which was nice because it made me feel less crazy after that training. And we played with Photo Booth. I got some pictures that are Christmas Card worthy but this is the only one that Amanda may actually allow me to post. Enjoy.