My boyfriend, Matt, and I have been dating for three years. A few months ago, we finally moved in together.

I lived by myself before, and I was nervous about all the typical things one is nervous about when faced with sharing a living space with the guy you love. Will we fight a lot? Will he be okay with my cats? Will we fight a lot? How will we split up the chores? Will we fight a lot?

And of course, the big one- Will I Gain Weight?!?!

You hear it all the time- getting married, or moving in together, is bad for your waistline! You stay in and eat, and ladies try to match their guys' portion sizes. Pack on 30 pounds in the first year!, they say.

Well, I'm here to tell you if you're like me, you'll LOSE a couple pounds!

When I lived by myself, I didn't want to cook. Come on, seriously. Who wants to cook for one? More often than not, I'd grab a Panera or Subway sandwich on my way home for dinner, and then, later...

I'd snack all night long!!! I'm a bored eater, BIG time.

And Matt and I were both students (he has an engineering degree and I have a biology degree) so we were both too busy and too tired to cook much. When he came over, pizza or Chinese was always a good option if we were too tired to go out. When we weren't too tired, we'd often head out to a restaurant.

But now?

Now I cook meals for us. We rarely go out. I make us real food, not frozen plastic food. I make desserts too. But they are from scratch. I don't eat an entire row of Oreos. I have a piece of chocolate cobbler with a little ice cream and that's it. Homemade food makes a HUGE difference! Believe me, no matter how healthy you think you are being with your takeout food, homemade food is better!

And what about my nighttime snacking? Well, after dinner... I now have someone to talk to. Someone to watch Stargate with. Someone to play board games with. Someone to play with the cats with. Or heck, if it's not too nasty swampy hot, someone to go for a walk with. I'm not as bored. When dinner is over, I usually don't eat anything else.

We're having spaghetti and meatballs tonight. Homemade sauce. I'll sneak in whole wheat pasta and turkey balls instead of meat. We'll eat less than at an Italian restaurant, it will be cheaper, and it will probably be tastier.