Interestingly I have found that frugality and weight management seem to go hand in hand. My original motivation to decreasing my time spent at restaurants and bars in NYC was because I wanted to stop paying people to serve me: to pour my drinks, cook my food and literally wait on me hand and foot. Instead I’ve sought to do it myself to save money until I am rich enough to pay people to do my bidding as MMM implies. So my partner and I eat and drink at home and we buy and make food and drinks ourselves.
As an unintentional result, I have been successful in controlling my weight for the first time in over a year through knowing what goes into my food and being able to resist alcohol as the only socially acceptable stress reliever in New York. It didn’t originally occur to me that the two would go hand in hand. Only time will tell if they’ll continue to be that way, but so far in 2015 that is the pattern I’ve seen.
I know that eating and drinking more at home and actually the cold winter weather have all played a large part, but I wanted to examine why a little closer. The reasons I usually gain weight include eating at restaurants and drinking along with the inevitable food binge that follows heavy drinking. I gain weight when I eat often at restaurants because I do not like to pick the healthy, more simple dishes at a restaurant because feel like a waste for a few reasons: 1. The dishes look simple enough that I could make them myself 2. I’m not actually excited to eat that food. So I go for the more complex dishes that are usually carb and fat heavy and enjoy it. But it’s hard to estimate the calories in those dishes – especially in restaurants when the objective above all else is to taste delicious which means using butter and salt with abandon.
On the weekend in the heavy drinking culture of NYC I often used to drink more than I should have with friends. There seems to be a no-empty-glass policy here and you are lightly made fun of if your drinking isn’t keeping up with the rest of the group. Or if you don’t want a glass of wine during a normal weekend activity like eating brunch or watching a film. So I would drink a lot as a result of peer pressure and the idea of “getting my money’s worth” at half off happy hours and brunch deals. The binge eating that followed was understandably my body’s response, saying I drank too much and that it needs something to help absorb the result. Luckily I’ve become much better at not getting myself into these types of situations and moderating my drinking — not turning to it to relieve my stress. Though I admit I have been less stressed overall lately. I’m not sure if that’s because of my job, the fact that I now have a set plan for my life or what. But the end result is positive.
Lastly, another aspect of frugality that has helped me manage my weight has been the removal of taxis from my budget and the increase in lugging my luggage on the Subway to get to the airport, braving the cold while waiting for the bus and in general learning patience instead of hiring a chauffeur. MMM describes this phenomenon quite well on his blog. Frugality seems to improve many aspects of life besides your net worth or even your happiness – a nice unintentional result is that your clothes fit better and you live longer. And I am very excited for my new healthier and longer life.