My grandma always forced me to eat soup or borscht for dinner when I was a kid. She said that one liquid meal a day prevents gastritis, ulcer, and a bunch of other stomach-related diseases. The rationale was that a liquid meal is like “giving your stomach a break because it doesn’t have to work as hard to digest some delicious homemade soup as it has to digest nasty dry foods”.

I don’t know about giving breaks to stomachs or my grandma’s crazy Ukrainian hoodoo beliefs, but I got used to having regular meals, with one liquid meal in the middle of the day. Because a human body is pretty much like my supercool 1984 Merecedes-Benz diesel in that they both are reliable and cleverly put together, whatever fuel you put in either of them means how they are going to run in the long-term.

This new job of mine is a huge enemy to having regular meals. I wake up, eat some random breakfast, work ’till about noon, then grab whatever they offer at “the cafetorium”, and don’t eat anything until I get home, which could really be anytime from 5 pm till 4 am. This is like putting rotten crap diesel fuel full of sulfur and algae into my car.

So after eating crappy meals at the “cafetorium” for a week and paying dearly for them, I decided to brown-bag my lunches. I went straight to Sam’s Club and got me a few cases of what looks like junk food:

Here’s the explanation:

• I don’t want to be “that guy” at work, so to prevent my co-workers to ever question my breath, I got a box of gum and stuck it into my desk. With the amount of social interaction we have to deal with at work, rancid-ass breath that smells like roast beef and hot garbage is out of the question.
• Baked chips have no saturated fat and are a good source of the carb intake. They are also very convenient.
• V8 juice – I love. Two servings of veg make it a great lunch drink.
• I know, a case of Coke … Not really necessary, but I don’t want to brew or buy coffee, so it’s my morning pickmeupper. I gotta have the caffeine and sugar because sometimes I’m dragging because of long work days and not enough sleep.
• Diet DrPepper is for wife.
• TLC bars are an awesome source of fiber … plus they are convenient.

What you see on the picture costs about fifty bucks – a price of eight lunches at work. I’m hoping to make it all last a month. Here’s people who don’t brown-bag:

Of course, that’s not all I eat. I throw in a can of soup, a sandwich or a hot-dog, some raisins, and fruit.

So is it worth it?

Ah … Duh. A similar meal would cost $7-8 at “the cafetorium”, and my cost is only $2-3, if that. I have to put in a little more work into it, but 1) I’m saving a ton of money 2) I’m keeping my grandma happy by eating a liquid meal 3) I’m putting decent fuel into my body regularly.

Before I sign off, I’ll share this little ditty – wake up, toss eggs on stove, then shower. The eggs are ready when you get out, and it forces you to not spend too much time in the shower, which in turn cuts water and electricity consumption.