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I’ve noticed it with myself for years now. I can have all the fantasies about eating healthy that I want, but when it comes right down to it, when I’m hungry, I’ll take whatever is available and ready.

This morning is a perfect example. Hubby and I wanted to get going and check out a local landmark. So, while he was doing his morning exercise (I do mine at night- move in the morning? Perish the thought!) I went downstairs and pulled out the last slice of Kashi pizza. While one slice may do me for the evening, it’s not enough for running around all day.

So what did I do? Everything else would require cooking, so I grabbed one of those foam cups of Campbell’s Select soup. Not the drinking kind, the bowl kind. And that’s where they get you. On the bowl, you see calories listed as 180 cal. but if you look down, one bowl of soup is listed as 2 servings. 360 calories. Sure, that’s not too bad. But my slice of pizza is 225 calories. So my breakfast was a grand total of 585 calories. Technically, that’s fine. But guess what? I have no plans for lunch or dinner either.

Now, if I weren’t trying to reduce our grocery bills, I’d grab a bunch of Kashi and Smart Ones frozen entrees to keep in the freezer. That way, I’d be able to have a nice meal of under 300 calories, no guilt, and no cooking.

But when you’re trying to keep grocery bills low, you have to juggle numbers that Enron would balk at. Do you go for the high calorie, cheap, easy stuff? Do you go for the labor intensive healthy stuff? Or the expensive, easy stuff? Can you mix and match?

Usually, I plan about 1/2 of a week’s worth of meals within our budget (both monetary and calorie), and then give up and put down whatever I can think of. And when it comes to the weekends? I usually give up entirely and rely on our Burger King coupons. Did you know that they never offer coupons on salads?

The amazing thing is, if I have something healthy, and ready to heat up, I almost never choose to eat out or pick the unhealthy convenience item. Maybe it won’t work for you, but I need to start planning the groceries a little earlier each week.

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 16th, 2008 at 3:30 pm and is filed under general, weight loss tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.