Walking the Walk - Making It Work For You

Eating at home (or a homemade meal) is an important part of losing weight, I think. Even "diet" meals at restaurants are usually huge, and unless you have unflappable willpower, it's hard not to overeat when all that good food is sitting in front of you.

Eating out is just a habit, and like any bad habit, it can be broken. If you want to eat in more often, try one of these tips for keeping you in the kitchen and out of your favorite restaurant:

• Decide why you want to eat in more often. Bad habits are easier to break when you know your motivation behind them.
• Create a menu. Write down your meals for the week, then hit the grocery store and make sure you have everything you need.
• Pack your lunch. Grabbing fast food at lunch is tempting, but if you know you have something scrumptious waiting for you, you'll be far less tempted.
• Plan ahead. Know you've got a late meeting planned? Throw something in the Crock-Pot.
• Prioritize. If you find yourself eating out more nights than not, then something's going wrong in your schedule. Take a hard look and see what you can eliminate, and give yourself time to nourish yourself with home-cooked meals.
• Double up your recipes. Believe me, I know how busy a week can get. When you make a big meal, plan ahead to double the recipe. Freeze what you don't use for dinner on a busy week night, or even into individual portions to grab for lunch.
• Treat yourself. Let's face it ... it's fun to go out to eat and be social with family and friends. Don't ban it completely, just do it less often.

Have you ever tried to cut back on eating out? What kinds of tips and tricks can you share with our readers to make this healthy habit stick?

Got a Walking the Walk idea you'd like to see Bethany try for seven days? Share it with us in comments!