I think it becomes a habit. It's easy to do, jump in the car and go. It's much harder, to keep the kitchen stocked with staples and shop for meals and have it on hand. Some people take one day and cook for the whole month. That's an idea but sometimes I enjoy making fresh food.
I find that it helps to plan about 4 days in advance for myself and DH. I buy fresh meats and then some frozen ones, like chicken breasts, etc. I found that buying those individually wrapped boneless chicken breasts, are a great time saver for me and such a nice thing to have in the freezer. I always have a few bags of those in the freezer. I can throw a meal together with those and a vegetable and some rice in 20 minutes.
I also use those for chicken Caesar salad. I have those bagged lettuce mixes in fridge usually and use that, grill my chicken breasts, cut them in strips, add some croutons and dressing, put it all together and that's a fast meal that's nutritious.
My feeling is that anything I make at home is better for us than what we get in a restaurant. I feel like the ones we usually go to are relatively clean and I do like going about once a week, but you never know what they are using to season or prepare their food with and usually it's things like butter, sauces etc. I am very careful to use a little less salt, lo calorie things, even lo calorie barbeque sauce.
About once a week I will buy some fresh fish fillets-- usually grouper or tilapia, and broil that and slice some red potatoes and toss those up with some onions and peppers and grill those on top of the stove. Nutritious and fast.
Things like that, are quick. I also keep lean hamburger patties in freezer bags (I make them myself) and take 2 out at a time, when we want one and then add some frozen organic fries and cut up some broccoli or steam some green beans and that's a meal idea.
But sometimes I get bored, or lazy and don't want to cook or don't feel like it, if my arthritis is bothering me a lot and we will just go out. I do think that it can pack on the pounds quickly if you go out a lot. You don't have control over things they cook your food in, and it makes a difference after a long period of time.
We go out about once a week now, and about every 2 or 3 weeks we will order pizza but that is really about as much as we eat out now or don't cook.
I have a friend and she does not cook-- at all, she won't cook anything in the kitchen. She jokes and says her kitchen is for looks only. I don't even know if she's ever used her stove or knows how to. So she and her DH go out to eat every single night!
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