Creature of Habit

This weekend was everything a good weekend should be. Plenty of time to relax and lay around doing nothing, but also plenty of things accomplished.

I’m easing back into the work week feeling like I can handle just about anything. Provided, of course, that “anything” goes exactly my way and doesn’t actually interfere with my plans! Which means that I honestly feel a little nervous about this week.

To explain that, perhaps we should just revisit what my life is looking like these days. Remember my kitchen?

Well, right now it looks like this:

Which is not at all conducive to…well, anything, actually.  We’re getting by with a mini-fridge and microwave (the ones that usually live in my “apartment”) but most meals we just eat out or get carryout.

And every time we go to a restaurant, I look at the “healthy” options and give some serious thought to what the best choice would be. It’s not actually hard for me, and a lot of restaurants even include a special “healthy” section (though that’s misleading since with generous portion sizes those meals are still 700 calories or so). Then I usually decide to just get whatever I normally get when I go to that restaurant. I am nothing if I’m not a creature of habit. Usually when I say, “Let’s eat here,” I don’t think about the menu. I think, “We’re at Joe’s because I like their pizza and have been craving it for a week.” And so I order the pizza.

I’m in a bad habit of associating a restaurant with one particular menu item and only getting that one thing at that place every time I go there. Normally that isn’t a problem – though my friends and I are repeat offenders at most places, we have a decently wide selection of places we like to eat and usually we’d prefer to try a new restaurant over an old favorite. But when your only dinner option for about 3 weeks is to eat out, it’s time to get serious about breaking some habits.

I’ve written before about how success doesn’t mean having complete and total control over your environment and I think this is the perfect opportunity to prove that.

Are you a creature of habit at restaurants? Or are do you chose something new every time you go out to eat, no matter where you are?