Short Shopping List

A couple of weeks ago I realized I had too much food in my house!  I had too many choices, although good choices, and I've been trying to buy less and less until I get in the habit of having "just enough".  I love to cook and prepare food, but I don't need near as much as I think I do.  In fact, this was the point of a discussion Mark and I had one evening.  He said exactly that!

"I don't think people realize how little food they actually need!  Do you know how long it would take you to die from starvation?  Weeks!"  And that's with no food, literally no food.

This part of our conversation stuck with me.  I knew I've been eating more than I need to for months now.  How did I know?  Because I weigh more than I say I want to!  It's not a mystery why.  I had been eating more food because I have so much in my house to chose from!  I think I'm like a lot of people that don't like the idea of throwing perfectly good food away.  And the best way to avoid that is to not have extra in the first place.  Seriously, those of you with pantries full of snacky foods like chips, cereals, crackers, granola bars, cookies, etc, I don't know how you live like that!  Even though I think I have a lot of food in my fridge, it's not that much compared, and I know I have very little in my pantry, but it's still too much, it's a fraction of what the average household has.

I found myself taking advantage of this years summer crops and overbuying fruit especially.  Life is good!  So much good foods available...but really, there's always something as good coming along no matter what time of year it is, and where you live these days is also of little matter.  So I stopped buying pounds and pounds of fresh fruits.  And to be honest, sometimes I feel sad leaving  them at the store!  Big piles of summer melons, peaches, nectarines, grapes!  I've only bought grapes one time this year!  For real!  (but I made up for it with other things, for sure!).

These past two weeks I practically willed myself to not go to the market!  Every time I wanted to stop and pick up a few things I reminded myself that I still had plenty, and if I wanted more I just had to finish the foods I had at home first.....I'm still working on it!

Overbuying may lead to overeating, and personally it had that affect on me more than once!  But I'm reigning it in!  And what a relief!  And here's a real change....ready?  I now leave the house without my lunch!  That's a different subject for another time, but it's related to "over preparing".

I've got a salad for the entire week made.  I've got beef, chicken wings, eggs for proteins this week.  I've got plenty of yogurt, cheese, oats, beans, nuts, avo, salad greens, a melon, figs, and there is absolutely nothing else I need to eat!  I even bought one Big Hunk candy bar in case I feel like chewy sweet nutty treat!

My shopping list was so short this afternoon and it felt great!