canyonwalker | Dining Out Again, Occasionally

I've written before about how, at the start of the Coronavirus pandemic in the US, I switched rapidly from dining out most of the time to eating nearly all my meals at home. Initially I went 31 days before eating food from a restaurant. That's an absolutely seismic shift for me as I've been in the habit of eating out nearly every lunch and dinner for most of my adult life. I've always assumed that as things start getting back to normal my restaurant habit will revert toward normal, too. My goal has been to moderate it.

So far I'm doing well with not going all the way back to old habits. I've set a soft limit for myself of dining out (or eating takeout food) twice a week during the workweek and twice on weekends. I've stuck to it the past few weeks.

I definitely feel temptations to go out for food more frequently. I knew the temptations would return. I counteract them by keeping plenty of foods I like to eat at home. It's not good enough for me if there's one thing I could eat; thus I stock the freezer, fridge, and pantry with lots of things I enjoy eating. On any given day there are several things I don't feel like eating or preparing, but by having ample choices at hand there's usually something I'm happy eating. On the other hand, there are times when I crave a restaurant flavor, or crave getting out of the house (a challenge of working from home), or both. That's why I allow myself a modest number of dine-out meals per week.

Speaking of dining out only occasionally, it's time to fire up the grill... to cook burgers at home tonight.