It's not just food

I take my breakfast and lunch to work every day. Sometimes I eat it.

This week is oatmeal for breakfast (Kodiak instant blueberries & cream), and salad for lunch (lettuce, carrot, radish, cucumber, tomato, avocado & chicken - no dressing). 

Sometimes I get busy and forget about eating one or the other. Sometimes I will eat a late breakfast (10 or 11) and take my lunch home and eat it around 1 or 2. The plan is to usually have breakfast around 8 or 9 and lunch around 12:30 if I can.

One thing I almost NEVER do, though, is BUY breakfast or lunch 'out' (or coffee). Sure, we do go out to eat on occasion, and I am not necessarily opposed to purchasing and eating restaurant food. But as a habit/practice I want to avoid "eating out" on a daily basis for three reasons.

First, I'm cheap. Although I don't know that it's being cheap necessarily, as much as wise. It costs a lot of money to "grab a quick meal" or "get coffee" at expensive shops if you add it up over time. The taste of most coffees is simply not worth it to me.

Second, there's something to the discipline of planning and preparing my meals ahead of time. I like knowing what I'm going to have each day of the week. I don't have to waste any time trying to figure it out but once. I also love opening the refrigerator and seeing the salads all lined up. It adds order to my life.

Third, and maybe the main reason... it's a way for me to fight the consumerist mindset. "Oh, that looks soooooo good. I simply MUST have it!" I could think those thoughts; but I don't want to. I also have a thing against the "Starbucks-ing" of America. Yeah, yeah, I know... I'm probably just old. But there's a lot of marketing that goes into that stuff. It's the same with the restaurant industry. In a way, taking my lunch and drink drip coffee feels like my little way of "sticking it to the man." 

So, it's more than just the food. It's about financial planning, living a simple disciplined life, and not getting sucked into consumerism.

[I thought of this as I walked through Costco one day. How they promote certain items at certain times by sticking them in the aisles and whatnot. I don't ever want to buy what "they" want me to buy. I want to try as much as possible to ONLY buy what I need when I need it. Because beyond the consumer mindset is the responsibility we have to keeping the planet around. Every cheap piece of furniture and to-go container adds to the piles upon piles of garbage polluting the place for future generations. Where will it end? Certainly I could do more, but at least I'm doing this.]