Losing Weight: The Poor Diet

I'm pretty broke right now. I've got a car to pay off, and I have rent to pay monthly, which I've never had to do before. That's a minimum of $500 out of my pocket each month, but since I'm trying to advance my car payments before school starts, it comes out to whatever I can spare, as long as it's more than the minimum. This has led to several changes in my habits that have caused me to both save money and lose weight. I think I will keep it up even when I'm out of debt, just because I'm a cheapskate and prefer to save as much money as I can.

The biggest change I've made is in groceries. I used to eat a frozen pizza almost every night, as well as ordering half-priced meals when I work. I would also go out to eat frequently because of girls and friends and such. I still eat at work sometimes because it's not a bad deal, but I rarely patronize restaurants anymore, and I've cut the frozen pizzas out of my daily life. I'm buying the stuff that's a pain in the ass to cook because it's cheap, and I don't pig out on it because I'm too lazy to cook unless I'm really hungry. Life's too short to be spent cooking and eating.

As mentioned in the previous post, I'm also taking every possible measure to reduce my fuel consumption. This means hypermiling, carpooling, and will soon include biking to any destination within 5 miles (that means school). Of these, carpooling is the only option that doesn't provide exercise on top of the fuel savings. Hypermiling can be fairly exhausting, though you get used to it, and steering at low speeds with the power steering off may not seem like much of a workout, but it's definitely more of one than regular driving.

Because my mindset is that I'm in dire need of cash, I've been more eager to work as much as possible at my job. When I'm exhausted and normally wouldn't want another table, I actively offer to take them instead. I've been taking as many shifts as I can without getting overtime. This wouldn't do much for my health if I had an office job, but my job consists primarily of running around like an idiot, which is the best kind of exercise there is.

To top it all off, I've decided to actively work out at home. This will save money over going to the gym (ripoff), and there's no real excuse not to do it frequently. I can actually see the form of most of my muscles and a few veins now, which hasn't happened since I first got a car. I don't have a scale because, again, I'm broke. But I can feel a difference.

I feel sexy, but I'm also poor. I'm happy, but I'm also worried. I might be the most emotionally conflicted person I know right now.