Giving up Fast Food...Is hard to do

berz82

i would say the best idea is to avoid it through the week and allow it on a sat or sunday if you have been keeping it clean through the week.

Shapefella

It can be challenging to eat healthy and make your own meals when you are crunched for time. What works for me is to eat before I leave the house or bring easy to put together meals. I still cheat but i just make sure that if I have, say, a burger for lunch, that breakfast and dinner would be healthy choices.

feisty_bucket

Rebeccabecca1985 wrote: »

Its too easy to get bad/yummy/cheap food through the drive through these days! Any insight?

It's just as easy to get good/yummy/cheap food via the drive through or a convenience store or whatever. The food retailer is pretty irrelevant. Just learn enough and be disciplined and pick stuff that fits your goal.

EZ Rules of thumb:
1. no sugar soda
2. no fried potatoes (hash browns, fries)
3. ditch buns for extra awesome. Bread has very little nutritional value.

beautifulciera

Fortunately - I work at a place that serves food that's cooked to order. So I have eggs and spinach every morning for breakfast. I'm also taking Hydroxycut hardcore Elite, which severely suppresses my appetite. I'm like NEVER hungry, which is not that healthy...because as they say you must eat in order to lose...starving yourself isn't the key. When it comes to fast food - just keep driving! This is the best way to let go of this bad habit, and once you keep doing this - you'll just keep driving without even thinking about it. You won't crave it, you won't even want it. Over the past 2 months - I've had fast food maybe 4 times, that's not bad compared to 3 to 4 times a week as I was having a few months ago. If you need to get something on the go - try Subway, Chipotle, places that cook their food fresh - nothing that comes already cooked in plastic wrap lol.

Jasmine

NikonPal

When starting on the path of calorie counting one year ago, I realized the only way to significantly reduce my calorie intake (which was humongous) required me to make “healthy” choices to ensure proper nutrition. I also knew fast-food was a trigger / slippery slope for me.

I still do NOT deprive my wife of her favorites. She does not have a weight problem – I do. I will buy her occasional chocolates, ice cream, pizza, chips and McDonald's etc. and have none of it myself. She has always had those things in moderation and it helps me condition myself. Just because you walk into a bar, it doesn’t mean you have to drink.

I no longer “crave” or have much interest in fast-food, but do order a “planned” piece of fresh haddock from the local fish store once a week or so. When I say “planned” that means I have adjusted calories / choices for that day accordingly.

I "personally" am thrilled about my decision "for me". I was tempted the first month, but it got easier every week. After all, the first McDonald’s “DRIVE-THRU” wasn’t even created until 1975 and I predate that event. LOL

Good luck to you – no matter what you decide.

feralkitten1010

I was never big on the fast food thing, but I did prefer to pop a frozen dinner into the oven every night for convenience. I started becoming more aware of my macronutrients and had little control over them unless I started making my own meals. The sodium content was also a big kicker, not that sodium is all that bad, I just really hated seeing that number so high in the red.

You can still have a yummy "fast food" type meal by cooking it in less than thirty minutes, and relatively easily.

wolverine66

i have tried to do what i have done without making drastic modifications to my diet. It seems that in the past, i would cut out foods only to a) ultimately binge and b) consider myself a failure and the diet over once i did. which led me back to my overeating.

i needed to do this in a way that i could live with forever. because it's not a diet for me. so i still have my fast food, chicken wings, beer, cookies, pizza, and cake...but i do it in a more responsible and knowledgeable way.

with continuing to eat the evil, bad, crap, poison food: my cholesterol dropped from 213 to 169, and my glucose dropped from a pre-diabetic 97 to 82. and i've lost the 55 lbs.

Cortneyrenee04

Don't go! I know people say to just fit it into your day, but I just can't get fast good anymore because then I just want it every day. When I did try the "for it in" method, I would feel sluggish the next day and break out on my face!

At this point, I just don't want it any more. The smell turns my stomach and I know it's not worth it. My food I make at home is so much better!

I also remind myself that I've had plenty of it before so it's nothing special. Eventually you'll crave better stuff

segacs

Believe it or not, once you stop eating it for a while, fast food starts to taste and sound really gross and you stop craving it.

I know there's no "bad" food and sure, you could keep eating it in moderation. But if you're really having a hard time with it, sometimes the best thing to do is just to force yourself to go cold turkey on fast food for a set amount of time, say, 30 days. It'll be rough and you'll hate it, but it will get a little easier each week. By the time the 30 days are up, you'll probably wonder how you ever ate most of it in the first place, because your brain will look at it and think "no thanks!"

ems212

I didn't give it up completely, I just am far more cautious about what I get. Instead of getting a double cheeseburger and a large fries with a coke, now I get a chicken sandwich, skip the fries, and a light lemonade. I also distract myself. If I'm thinking about fast food, I will drink a lot of water, and turn up the radio a bit. Usually, this does the trick.

Kristyai3

I went a few months without eating fast food before deciding to indulge. The grease made me so sick that I haven't wanted it since.

GaleHawkins

corinic91 wrote: »

Don't give it up -- find a way to fit it in, in smaller portions, to your calorie goals. The less you eat it, the less you'll crave it, but if you try and go cold turkey you'll end up resenting your "diet" and bingeing all over again. I eat McD's at least once a week, I just make sure I'm logging it ahead of time and have the rest of my day planned out so I don't end up in a "oh no I only have 32 calories left for dinner" situation.

Good points. Some fast food places are better than others but in the USA we are going to be eating some fast food if we are mobile. We got lucky in that a CookOut opened in town (they are now in like NC, SC, TN GA, KY, etc) that offer really great Low Carb options. Most places will have one or two good options. Well the pasta only places are off limits for low carbing.

0_Chrissie_0

corinic91 wrote: »

Don't give it up -- find a way to fit it in, in smaller portions, to your calorie goals. The less you eat it, the less you'll crave it, but if you try and go cold turkey you'll end up resenting your "diet" and bingeing all over again. I eat McD's at least once a week, I just make sure I'm logging it ahead of time and have the rest of my day planned out so I don't end up in a "oh no I only have 32 calories left for dinner" situation.

I like this.