Trying To Keep My MANY New Year's Resolutions: Day One

Tip Of The Day: The lovely folks at Cub Foods make it cheap and easy to lose your post-holiday poundage. All varieties of Lean Cuisine Frozen Entries are 50% off, until Sunday. Yup, the pizzas, too. At Target, you can get 4 Smart Ones Classic Favorites Frozen Entries for only $7 and 100 Calorie Yoplait yogurt for 50 cents a container, until Sunday.

Tip For Tomorrow: The most important meal of the day. No, I don’t mean Happy Hour.

Further Elucidation Of My Cheap Deal: So the holidays are finally over (except for Twelfth Night/Epiphany on the 6th, which some of us celebrate, i.e. use as an excuse to keep on with the partying and gift-giving) and for the most part, you are back on the straight and narrow with your diet. Notice how positive I am about you? Glass is half full, I say.

By diet, by the way, I mean healthy eating habits – not cabbage soup or the Master Cleanse. I mean the actual consumption of food that will nourish you, not make you faint from starvation. The Cheap Chick does not condone fad diets. Eating right may not be easy, but at least it won’t kill you. Didn’t you see that episode of Grey’s Anatomy? With the girl who died from too much diet and exercise? Moderation is what I’m getting at here.

I admit it’s hard for me to eat well, because, as I’ve said before, I hate to cook. Plus, I kind of suck at it. And I have no children to set a good example for, so why bother eating vegetables? Therefore, I tend to default to Totino’s Party Pizzas or fast food – neither of which has much in the way of redeeming nutritional value.

I found the best way to get myself to eat more fat-free and cheap is to go the low-fat frozen dinner route. You just nuke one in the microwave for 4 minutes and, presto! Dinner. I round out my frozen and boxed gustatory experience with a side of fruit or veg. Or chocolate.

Don’t be all judgy. Chocolate is good for you, ask any doctor.

I prefer Lean Cuisine and Smart Ones from Weight Watchers – most of their entries taste like actual food. Healthy Choice, not so much. Their stuff is too much like reheated cardboard box.

My faves are Lean Cuisine’s Butternut Squash Ravioli (90% of my daily allowance of vitamin A!) and Roast Turkey Breast (90% of my daily allowance of vitamin C!), also Smart Ones’ Ravioli Florentine and Chicken Enchiladas Suiza (less than 90% of everything! Oh well). But you can choose your own favorites. I won’t mind. No really, I mean it.

And Yoplait yogurt makes for a tasty dessert after your frozen dinner – if you like yogurt. I go through phases with it. Sometimes I love it, sometimes I just want some damn ice cream already. Right now, I’m pro-yo-gurt. Plus, it’s on sale for only 50 cents a container at Target, so it’s cheaper than ice cream.

Keep In Mind: frozen entries, diet or otherwise, have much sodium in them. If you are like me and have crazy-low blood pressure, the extra salt is fine – even good for you. Sort of. But for the rest of you, be mindful of your salt intake. You don’t want to puff up like a big water-retention balloon. That kind of defeats the whole purpose of eating better, no?

Stock up today on Lean Cuisine, Smart Ones, and Yoplait – you’ll eat better while spending less. Just one way of getting your 2 B’s back on track.

Where To Shop: Cub Foods are located primarily in MN, but also Ohio, Iowa, Illinois and Wisconsin. Target, of course, is nation-wide. Yay!