Some life-hacking today, because otherwise I would have to be cleaning my room. My biggest decision so far has been to abandon my beloved "one meal a day plan," which as it turns out was much more unhealthy than I had realized — the humongousness of my dinners notwithstanding.

I suggest that you too join in a "breakfast kick."

(I CANNOT believe that commercial isn't on YouTube. For shame, YouTube, for shame.)

Under the current plan, I'm usually only hungry once a day, and sometimes not at all. On a few occasions I've just forgotten to eat: I'll be all like "wowie, this beer sure is strong" or "it's eleven at night, so why am I suddenly so hungry?"

This condition seems to be surprisingly common among twenty-something college graduates. As in, I know at least one other person who does this.

My parents' constant fear that I'm starving notwithstanding, I've only recently returned to the one meal plan, since I stopped telecommuting. Six months of being able to walk to the kitchen whenever — to go anywhere, for that matter — and still get my work done really spoiled me. If only I'd had, you know, money to do things, I could have taken greater advantage of that freedom.

Basically I've sacrificed freedom for a balanced budget and a slight uptick in my living standards. To grasp some of the power I now have, I recently dug up my "employed wish list" from last April, back when I was dirt poor but thought I was mere months away from getting a well-paying job:

Teddy Grahams
Salt and Vinegar Pringles
Cheez-Its
Grater
Ice cream
Chocolate chips
Chopped nuts
Meat
Subscription to Reason
New socks
New shoes
Television
New headphones
Rhubarb
Malt powder

This isn't a Christmas list, and there are some glaring omissions (beer? Burger King chicken sandwiches? hello?) but essentially these were the small luxuries I found myself longing for in Chicago. And now I have prettymuch all of them, or easily could.

Why, I had a malt tonight! In this small respect, life is good.

(Another food-related lifehack, courtesy of an old article in Wired: "Eat the same foods. You'll get more pleasure from consistently eating what you enjoy than from eating different foods just for variety's sake.")