The Recession Diet

Yes, I have lost weight. I have yo-yo'd my entire life and I don't ever see that changing. Currently I'm at a happy weight though, which is ironic because it was caused by an unhappy circumstance.

The recession took my frugalness and magnified it by ten. In the 48 hours after being laid off I found it hard to eat anything. When my appetite came back, I decided not to pamper it with a 14 dollar omelet. Instead, I tortured it with an approximately $2 one I cooked up after shopping at Keyfoods. For lunch I got an epicly delicious sandwich from Sal Kris and Charlies for five bucks. Instead of attempting to stuff myself with the entire hoagie, I stopped eating when I was full and had the rest for dinner. Add some colorful produce to the mix and voilà, a days worth of healthy eating for under $10. Kind of a big deal for a girl who used to on average blow $12 on lunch.

I know guys can't stand a girl who talks about what they ate all day. So I'll spare you an in depth look at my daily menu (almonds and salmon and Fage oh my!). But for the first time in my life I am obsessing about nutrients and cost instead of fat and calories. I want more bang for my nutritional buck. COBRA is expensive. Gotta stay healthy.

The gym also gives me something to do with my plentiful unemployed time. I make it my job to take a few classes or hit the treadmill. Getting a workout over with in the morning is my best bet if I actually want to do it that day. Plus, I feel like I've accomplished something before digging in to whatever it is I just burned in a pan.

This thrifty lifestyle isn't something I'll be able to keep up forever though. When I work, as I have been temporarily for the last week, I have little time for the gym and crave chocolate cookies at my desk all day. More fat in than fat out ='s I won't be at my happy weight for long. But I need to decide – do I want a nice job or nice legs?

If I get up early enough in the morning to work out and avoid random free office donuts I can have the best of both worlds. But when you are tired and hung over from ditching the gym to hit up a happy hour... the vicious cycle continues. I gave up a social life to run 10 miles a day in high school and I'm still regretting it. There has to be a happy balance between fun and fiesta nachos.

For now I'm going to enjoy numbers on a scale I haven't seen since high school. I'm going to stay healthy because I respect my body. I'm going to avoid buying $2 red velvet cupcakes because they are costly empty calories. I used to talk about food and my weight all the time. Now I constantly talk about how I'm spending/saving my money. Thanks for (pretending to be) listening. Now, time to reap my Duane Reade dollar rewards and pillage another Cheerio sale...