For the next month, my husband and I are challenging ourselves to prepare all our meals at home, with no restaurant or take-out meals for the next month. Good thing we picked the shortest month of the year!

Would you like to join us to improve nutrition intake, develop better habits, and save money?

It's February. Did you survive your new year's resolutions? Most people have completely reverted to old habits by now. It's the reason I never make broad, sweeping change-your-whole-life resolutions. I've had enough new years under my belt to learn, that is not how change happens.

We don't decide to change our whole lives with a flip of the switch and begin behaving like a different person without challenges, resistance, and obstacles. It never happens.

A better approach is always to attack your daily habits, one at a time. Work on that habit daily until it becomes a part of your life, then move on to something else. For example, don't attempt to reduce calories, remove all processed foods, quit soda, quit smoking, quit drinking, and exercise for an hour six days a week starting tomorrow.

Your brain and body will hate that and revolt. Instead, focus on one habit for a few weeks, a month, or longer if necessary. Tackle your habits one at a time. Yes, it takes longer, but not really because the other way, changing all your habits in one day, won't likely last more days than you can count on both hands.

It's not faster; it's only less effective.

I work hard to live a life of moderation. It's challenging for me because my personality tends to think of everything in terms of all-or-nothing. It took me a decade of yo-yo weight loss and gain to figure out that all-or-nothing usually leads to nothing.

I am as likely to obsess about exercise and under eat as I am to be lazy and overeat. I've learned to be aware of my triggers, and have gotten skilled at self-correcting quickly when I get off track, in either direction. I always say It's not about how many times you get off track but how quickly you get back on.

It's not about how many times you get off track but how quickly you get back on.

Life is not perfect; maintaining a healthy lifestyle is not easy at first. But once I learned how to self-correct, I was able to reduce the fluctuations in my weight drastically, so instead of gaining and losing thirty pounds over months or years, these days, I may gain and lose three to five pounds—much more manageable.

When I start to see a habit get out of hand, I am quick to self-correct. The amount of meals we have been eating out of the home has been slowing increasing. Of course, there is nothing wrong with eating out. You can certainly eat at restaurants regularly, make healthy choices, and live a perfectly healthy and balanced life. I do it all the time.

It's just that lately, I've noticed our restaurant meals have increased. Instead of once a week, it's turned in to almost every meal over the weekend. We are not eating out for celebrations, enjoyments, or date nights, but because we're feeling lazy, bored, or worse, out of habit. See the difference?

When something we occasionally do to treat ourselves starts to become a habit, I like to examine it and pull back. Do we need to eat out so much? What would happen if we didn't? Are we eating meals out that we enjoy more than meals at home, or just because it's more convenient?

When I realized that we were spending 20 minutes deciding where to go for lunch only to end up with a mediocre, over-priced lunch, I knew it was time to reexamine our habit.

For us, eating out ceased to be a special treat but a habit because we were too lazy to spend 10 minutes to make a healthy lunch or dinner at home. Most of the time, I enjoy lunches at home more than I do at a restaurant. (My notable exceptions are sushi and Gyro salads because I'm not able to make those at home, and I enjoy them.) Sandwiches or salads from a chain restaurant aren't usually worth the calories or money spent.

To help make a change to our habit, we challenged ourselves to prepare all our meals at home for February to break our unproductive habit of eating out due to boredom or laziness. It's not forever. It's for one month to break the habit, build new healthy habits, and to remind myself I usually enjoy eating at home more than eating out, except for special occasions.

BENEFITS OF PREPARING AND EATING MEALS AT HOME

More control of the ingredients in your foods
Easier to control calories
More likely to choose more nutritious foods (less temptation)
Improve the quality of the foods you eat
Save money

PREPARE FOR CHALLENGE SUCCESS

To be successful in this challenge, I will have to do some preparation in advance to make sure I have homemade food available to eat so that restaurant foods won't be tempting.
Loosely plan the meals you will eat. It doesn't have to be detailed, but know in advance what you plan to eat for each meal all week.
Grocery shop for enough meals for the entire week.
Do any necessary meal prep, for example; you might pack lunches for work in advance, plan snacks when you will be away from home for a while, or cook protein in advance to make dinners easier during the week.
Have a back-up plan. What can you prepare quickly in case you are shorter on time than anticipated? I like frozen microwave vegetables and a frozen turkey burger—can be cooked in about ten minutes for a healthy, quick dinner, and if you pre-cook the turkey burgers in advance, even faster.
It doesn’t mean you don’t get to indulge. Instead of hamburgers from a fast-food restaurant, make burgers on the grill. Get creative with researching how to make some of your favorite restaurant meals at home.

frozen turkey burger and microwave vegetables

OVERCOME OBSTACLES

When you decide to challenge yourself, it's essential to think through the obstacles that could come up, because we know anything worth doing will come with challenges.

What if you have to work late?
What if you have a mandatory work event?
What if your kids have activities after school?
What if a friend invites you out?
What if there is a celebration?

Decide in advance what you will do in those scenarios. You don't have to be perfect. You may decide in advance that if a legitimate celebration pops up, that requires you to enjoy a meal out, or a mandatory working lunch, then you will do that, but continue the challenge otherwise.

It's not about removing yourself from your social circles, because time with friends and family is an essential part of a healthy lifestyle, and often that includes meals and drinks. But make your decisions before the challenge begins what will be acceptable to you. Your life, your challenge, you make the rules.

However, if you decide in advance that you will skip the post-run dinner and drinks with your running buddies, or a Friday night dinner with your co-workers, challenge yourself to hold that commitment to yourself. Remember, it's just for one month. Your friends will be there next month.

Maybe your friends would be up for going to class instead of a restaurant, or a walk, or a movie, or a mini-golf game. All social engagements don’t necessarily have to be over a meal. This could be an opportunity to try something new. “Hey friend, I’m trying to reduce the number of restaurant meals I eat this month as part of a challenge, how about we watch a movie instead.” Or ask them if they have ideas.

Don't let every offer to go out for a drink or meal throw you out of the challenge.

Often our brains tell us we can't do something to try to protect us from feeling uncomfortable, "I couldn't do that because..." But challenge yourself to combat those thoughts and limiting beliefs.

What if you could?
What would you do differently?
What solutions could you come up with to overcome that obstacle? Get creative. Where there’s a will, there’s a way.

What would happen if you didn't eat at a restaurant for a month? Would it be terribly inconvenient to your lifestyle, or would you improve your eating habits? Would you miss restaurant meals, or would you improve your cooking and meal prepping skills? Would you eat a bit healthier? Save a bit of money? Would you learn something about yourself?

Think through if this challenge is something you would like to try. It might not be for everyone, but remember, perfection is not required. Make an honest effort to improve your efforts to prepare and eat meals at home. How much can you get better in a month? Next month we'll go back to eating out regularly, but with better habits, we will likely be less tempted to eat out due to boredom or not being prepared.

I think I’ll make a reservation for the sushi restaurant in March.

Are you in?

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