Fast food....need I say more...
sclabbatz
Posts: 3 Member
I am a new mom who recently turned 26. I have been overweight my whole life. I have recently come to the conclusion that I have an issue with my diet. I have never thought of myself as lazy, as I am a very physically active overweight person, however lazy is the first work that comes to mind when it comes to how much fast food I eat. Instead of taking the time to pack my lunch/breakfast, I get it on the way to work at fast food places. Since I have been doing this for so long its become what I would probably call an addiction. I just want to start eating healty but every time I do, it doesn't seem to last. Any suggestions and/or life experience would be helpful!
0
Replies
-
I absolutely love fast food...and it is very tempting in morning and lunch. The way that I overcome eating it for those meals is preparing ahead of time. Generally when I hit a drive thru in the morning its because I don't want to take the time to make something. I meal prep in advance for 5 days for the work week for both breakfast and lunch. I give into the temptation generally 1 or 2 times on the weekend.0
-
As a single guy, I relate to not spending hours in the kitchen preparing meals for the week. There are healthy choices to make should Fast Food be the Meal Du Jour. I order Double cheeseburgers from McDonalds, but without the bun. I get the Fiesta Chicken from Taco Bell with Double Meat and no shell. I like the variety of Wendy's salads. I started packing Greek Yogurt for breakfast at work. Although they are high in Sodium, I enjoy the Jimmy Dean breakfast bowls (not every day). 3 minutes in the microwave make them do-able at work, too.0
-
When I was taking lunch to work, I would take a loaf of bread, make it into sandwiches and then put them all back in the bag to store in the freezer. When it came time to pack my lunch in the morning, I would pull a sandwich out of freezer and throw it in the lunch bag. By lunch time, it was thawed enough to eat it. To me, that was a lot less trouble than stopping at a fast food place.0
-
You could make up a bunch of eggs, sausage, veggies like peppers, onions and mushrooms, and maybe some cheese. Mix it well, throw in a muffin tin and bake. Then store in freezer and microwave in the mornings.0
-
That's not an addiction. It's a habit, and you need to treat it like one.
Breaking a habit is tough, because it takes lots of repetition of an alternate behavior. If you really want to stop, you need to make a commitment to prepare lunch and breakfast in advance, and then do it come hell or high water. It doesn't matter what you prepare, as long as it gets done.
Plan on it taking 1-2 months for that to become your new habit.0 -
A lot of time people get stressed trying to change too much at once. Focus on one thing, like packing a lunch three days a week for work. Make it Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, if you like. Stick with it until it becomes habit. Then add in the other two days. When that is routine, fix breakfast the same way. Breaking it down into mini-goals and retraining your habits makes it sustainable, instead of trying to get it all in one fell swoop and ditching a week into it because it's such a huge change.0
-
Great comments above.
I changed everything overnight and it hurt. A lot. I craved fast food but was determined not to give in. After a few weeks of weighing and logging everything I didn't want fast food as it wasn't worth the calories, trans fats etc. Once it became my choice it was much easier and I didn't feel like I was missing out.
For me, fast food was part of my old diet that got me to be obese. My diet will now get me to be healthy. Fast food was just one of the casualties on the way. And I'm saving an absolute fortune by cooking a fair bit from scratch.
This is your journey so do it your way. And it might take you a few goes to find out the best way for you. Take it easy on yourself and if you're happy to have 3 or 6 fast foods a week then do that.
Good luck x
0 -
That's not an addiction. It's a habit, and you need to treat it like one.
Breaking a habit is tough, because it takes lots of repetition of an alternate behavior. If you really want to stop, you need to make a commitment to prepare lunch and breakfast in advance, and then do it come hell or high water. It doesn't matter what you prepare, as long as it gets done.
Plan on it taking 1-2 months for that to become your new habit.
^This. There are a lot of other foods to love. Take the time and make food ahead to take with you. When I make supper, I make extra servings and then pack those up right away so they are all ready the next day to take to work for us. It saves time in the morning rather than rushing around trying to pack up early.0 -
It's cheap, it's quick, it's yummy and requires no effort! What's not to love?
I loved fast food. And slow (restaurant to-go) food. It was a daily thing, if not more than once a day. Now, it's a rare treat.
That stuff will kill you.0 -
I still eat fast food, so I'm probably not much help. I just eat smaller meals than I used to. Like I'll get a happy meal instead of the "large" #5 or whatever. You'd be amazed at how full a happy meal can make you feel after a month or so.
If you don't feel like you can just cut down, or you don't want that as an option, then I'd pack my breakfast/lunch. Every day you do so, put roughly the cost of the meal you didn't buy into a jar. If you break your make at home streak before x days (your choice), the money goes to your husband/mom/sister/best friend. But if you make it the full amount of days, you buy yourself something pretty. It's a fun way to establish good habits with a little prize at the end.0 -
Tinabob777 wrote: »I meet my DH for lunch every day. We eat out. It may not be the most healthy, but just because it's fast food, doesn't mean you can't make good choices. Like mjtunney, I special order.
I just offer this, because you have to make this work for you. If you hate packing your lunch you may not stick to the long term.
This. I eat out with my husband quite often too. You just have to start ordering differently. A grilled chicken sandwich, no mayo, skip the fries. Or a kids meal, a salad. Most places have nutrition info so you can figure out what fits into your day.
0 -
I carpool with someone that doesn't like to stop in the mornings, saves gas money. But I am fortunate that my work provides fruit and stuff if I don't pack something0
-
This content has been removed.
-
This....it is only a bad habit that you can break. It is your choice.That's not an addiction. It's a habit, and you need to treat it like one.
Breaking a habit is tough, because it takes lots of repetition of an alternate behavior. If you really want to stop, you need to make a commitment to prepare lunch and breakfast in advance, and then do it come hell or high water. It doesn't matter what you prepare, as long as it gets done.
Plan on it taking 1-2 months for that to become your new habit.
0 -
Since I have been doing this for so long its become what I would probably call an addiction. I just want to start eating healty but every time I do, it doesn't seem to last. Any suggestions and/or life experience would be helpful!
You just need a plan that will allow you to have food you like as easily. IMO, it's an issue of establishing a new routine. Once you have, it won't seem as difficult.
One thing is figuring out what the barriers for you are. For example, for many they have no time in the morning so want to grab something on the way to work (I used to do this). If you don't think you can make time in the morning, you might want to figure out something that you can prepare in advance or otherwise grab and go. It should be consistent with what you want to eat in the morning and find filling. (For me that means some protein.) I could make suggestions but it's so taste specific that that probably wouldn't be helpful.
The same is basically true for lunch. When I first started this I started bringing my lunch and gradually fell out of the habit (my office is surrounded by lunch places that actually fit into my calories and nutritional goals just fine, but it's still extra money I could save). What I try to do is make an extra couple of servings of dinner and pack them immediately into a container to bring to work, as we have a microwave and refrigerator.
0 -
Even when I was a full-time working single parent, I never did much fast food. I get that people get busy (my own case makes that point - I had NO time of my own until 9:00 at night when my son went to bed, and then, I stole the opportunity to do the laundry or clean). But I mean...we would get home, I would put a bunch of veggies and some cut up chicken into a pan and stir-fry...it took maybe 10 minutes...less time than I would have sat at the drive-thru at dinner time.
For breakfasts I tended to grab something quick from my own house. If it had to be portable, it would be a muffin or something (I wasn't GF then). For lunch I'd grab soups and the like, quick and simple, and heating them up in the microwave at work took less time than leaving the office, going to the drive-thru and coming back.
Honestly, it was more lazy for me to do things that way than to haul myself out over and over again to go drive to a joint and sit there through the drive-thru or stand in line waiting for someone to take my order, then driving back home or back to the office. It was faster and all my food was right there at hand.0 -
First off it's not addiction, it's called no self control.
Prepare food ahead of time and in containers so it's easy to throw into a bag. Treat yourself once in awhile to fast food, there is nothing wrong with it and it won't kill you, LOL!!!
0 -
I don't spend a lot of time on the forums lately so please forgive me that I skipped over all of the other advice and am probably repeating others' suggestion(s).
But I really think the KEY for your success here will be routines/habits. Prepping and planning out what you will eat, and making it a truly appealing blend of foods that you will want to eat. I've seen many people fail and revert to their former fast food "addictions" because they went too hardcore, trying to exchange McDonald's breakfast for egg whites with spinach. While egg whites with spinach can be a delicious part of one's breakfast, I think it's important to mix it up (for every meal) and make sure you are getting yummy stuff in there too! After awhile it just becomes habit. And then if you DO indulge in fast food you will either realize how much you don't even miss it...or it will be just that, a "treat" rather than an everyday thing.
You will probably save money, too. If you don't, then you are doing it wrong.0 -
seltzermint wrote: »I've seen many people fail and revert to their former fast food "addictions" because they went too hardcore, trying to exchange McDonald's breakfast for egg whites with spinach. While egg whites with spinach can be a delicious part of one's breakfast, I think it's important to mix it up (for every meal) and make sure you are getting yummy stuff in there too!
I think this is a really important point. Too often people create a dichotomy between "healthy food" (which means foods that they think they should eat but don't particularly like) and everything else. So since they aren't excited about the alternative it becomes really easy to forget it and end up with no choice but fast food or some such, or just to eventually decide the diet isn't sustainable and fall off the wagon (so to speak) entirely. I also think this is one of many reasons behind the common "I can't eat my 1200 calories" posts--they are trying to eat foods they don't like much, because that's what they see as diet food.
I'm helped by the fact that I really enjoy (and know how to cook) vegetables, but for me losing weight wouldn't have been possible if I couldn't enjoy what I'm eating as much or more than most of the stuff I ate more regularly when I was gaining weight, or if I was too restrictive. That's why I said that you need to figure out what your barriers are and what you like to eat at those times. Then you can figure out how to create new habits that will address those issues and work.0 -
You've got a few choices. I will point out first and foremost, a hamburger Happy Meal does have roughly the same amount of calories as my usual lunch. You can do that and still lose weight, if that's your fancy. I'm not in the Evil Foods group.
That said, it's not how I want to spend my money and it's certainly not how I want to eat on a daily basis.
What my husband and I do is pack lunch as we're cleaning up from dinner. You know those sandwich blocks rubbermaid makes? They do a good salad one, too, if you like salads.
Then there's bento. That particular lunch was leftovers (well, planned-overs), repurposed with a few extra fresh fruits and veggies. It fit in a box the size of my hand, so portion control was awesome. It feels all special, so you don't feel deprived, and it took five minutes to cut up and put in the box.
I don't do those every day, though I did have one today.
And everyone who talks about routines and habits is totally right. If I don't bring my lunch, I WILL break down and buy something I shouldn't. I've totally proven it, so I don't.
FWIW, I don't do that stuff in the morning. I'm too busy to do so. I do it the night before and put it in the fridge.0 -
I will keep it short! Get yourself a Bento Box (A traditional Bento holds rice, fish or meat, with pickled or cooked vegetables, usually a box-shaped container) and take it for lunch. It is a standard way of eating on the run in Asia. You will be healthier and keep more money in your pocket.0
-
Great minds...0
-
I go out to buy my lunch if I'm at work. But instead of going for fast food, I go next door into the grocery store and grab some lean deli meat and a bag of salad. I could prepare this in advance but I'd do the same thing, so it saves me a bit of home time for something else.0
-
Just want to give a +1 to the bento idea: I don't see it mentioned on here all that often, but it's a great way to size out your portions and add some variety to your meals. Plus, you can pack it ahead of time and keep it in the fridge, meaning that you can save even MORE time in the morning by grabbing it and not having to waste a few minutes going through a drive-through. Plus, you can make large portions of things on the weekend and freeze it to use throughout the week!
This lady has a great site with bento recipes and a good book with lots of ideas, calorie conscious choices, and even timelines for how long it would take you to reheat things in the morning. Like I said, I just keep it in the fridge overnight, but it is a nice thought if you don't have one at work.
Aside from all that, I would also highly recommend that you read the nutritional information of your favorite fast food places and pick a few "go-to" meals that you opt for when you have to go out. You can get meals for under 500 cals most places out there, but you can't just stroll up and get the burger with fries -- you have to put a little work into it.0 -
I used to be just like this. Fast food almost every day. I started making my breakfast and lunch the night before and logging it in MFP right after. Breakfast is usually cottage cheese or greek yogurt with fruit, or scrambled eggs in the microwave. Sometimes I make a breakfast sandwich with a microwaved scrambed eggs. Lunch is leftovers from the night before or a big salad with lots of protein.
I still get fast food occasionally but I fit it into my calories.
You could commit to one week of taking your meals and see how it works for you.0 -
pincushion14 wrote: »A lot of time people get stressed trying to change too much at once. Focus on one thing, like packing a lunch three days a week for work. Make it Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, if you like. Stick with it until it becomes habit. Then add in the other two days. When that is routine, fix breakfast the same way. Breaking it down into mini-goals and retraining your habits makes it sustainable, instead of trying to get it all in one fell swoop and ditching a week into it because it's such a huge change.
^ This is excellent advice.0 -
I was the same as you, loved my junk food and failed miserably every time I tried to make the change. To be honest I think I was expecting too much of myself, I'd cut out everything and set myself up to fail. This time round I have filled my freezer with tasty but healthy meals so that on those days where I can't be arsed I can grab and go without it meaning insane calories or fat content.
But also if I'm having a day where I really want something junky I allow myself to! The occasional bad meal but overall staying on track is better as far as I am concerned than severe restrictions and packing it all in.
What I've learnt this time is to drop the guilt. You have a bad day, then that's it, you had one bad day, you didn't fail, don't dwell and don't beat yourself up! Hell I've had a bad week sometimes, but just make it right next week, I learnt that they world will not end if I eat a pizza.
Good luck!0 -
Think of all the money you'd save. It's easy to waste a stupid amount of money buying lunch every day. I used to work in the city and buy lunch most days. Now I work somewhere where there is not shop nearby, and only a basic fridge/microwave kitchen. Takes 5 minutes after dinner to throw some food into a plastic container for the next day (salad, cold meat, eggs, cheese, avocado, mayo, any or all of these). I also make the egg muffin things, or a heap of meatballs with cheese in the middle, or leftovers from dinner. It's really pretty easy.0
-
If you don't wanna eat fast food then try to meal plan and prep. If you want to eat it and it fits your macros that's ok too. I actually have a phone app called "Fast Food Calories" just for when I'm on the road and will inevitably stop for fast food.
Its easier knowing you can switch up your choices too if you need. If you can't fit in breading...KFC and popeyes have grilled chicken, long John silvers has grilled shrimp, etc. 0
This discussion has been closed.
Categories
- All Categories
- 1.4M Health, Wellness and Goals
- 393.3K Introduce Yourself
- 43.8K Getting Started
- 260.2K Health and Weight Loss
- 175.9K Food and Nutrition
- 47.4K Recipes
- 232.5K Fitness and Exercise
- 424 Sleep, Mindfulness and Overall Wellness
- 6.5K Goal: Maintaining Weight
- 8.5K Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
- 153K Motivation and Support
- 8K Challenges
- 1.3K Debate Club
- 96.3K Chit-Chat
- 2.5K Fun and Games
- 3.7K MyFitnessPal Information
- 24 News and Announcements
- 1.1K Feature Suggestions and Ideas
- 2.6K MyFitnessPal Tech Support Questions