Challenge!! no fast food for a month

amllarsen07

Alright folks, I need help doing this.... my will isn't that strong at the moment. All I am asking is for someone to keep me motivated to stay away from fast food for a month.. maybe even longer... you can yell at me, just keep me motivated to not eat fast food...

blukitten

I always wanted to do this, you can add me if you want. The only thing is that I think it will take alot closer contact than just the mfp site to keep you accountable,, just my opinion. I think it is easy to encourage on here but harder to have an accountability partner because you still have to be accountable to yourself- and be honest about when you are thinking about going out. Just my opinion-- but would love to do this with you -- or talk about the struggles of fast food/going out to eat.

Tutis28

Hi,


I have to say I have always loved fast food, ate it everyday on my lunch and even sometimes for dinner :brokenheart: . I stopped about 3 weeks ago after realizing I don't want to live like this, and knowing it will kill me one day. It is hard I won't lie but everyday it gets a little easier now I can drive by Mcdonalds and not be so hurtful :laugh: . Add me I'd be happy to go through this challenge with you, if I eat out for lunch I go to Subway but not anything else.

TheDarlingOne

Hi hi hi!
I'm proud to say I'm 21 days clean today. lol
I'm actually clean of fast food AND regular soda, 21 days today.

What's helped me a lot - is to get an app on my cell phone that keeps track of days.
Sort of like you've probably heard of a DAYS TIL tracker...til christmas, til my birthday, thanksgiving, etc...

well this is a DAYS SINCE tracker. so i keep it on my home screen and every morning when i turn my phone on upon waking, I see that big proud message there:

SINCE: CLEAN
21 DAYS.

You might find that helpful. If you're a visual gal.

I took would have to agree with a poster, the person who's about 3 weeks in....gets easier every day.

What I have promised myself though, because to totally abstain from food outside of my home to me, comes across as very unrealistic.
But I've made the promise to myself, that at my 30 day/1 month mark, I will adjust to every payday (once every 2 weeks) I will treat myself to a dinner at an establishment WITHOUT a drivethru window lol.
ie: I have to want it bad enough to get dressed, drive to place, get out of car, sit down, and order.
make it worth my while, other than a quick (like a junkie) fix that drivethru was for me.

feel free to add me
i'm not on a lot - but i come around time to time and i'm on twitter! lol @TheDarlingOne

Patttience

Well done to all who are taking on this strategy.

People should get made with the fast food industry. i am now convinced that this is the reason for the obesity epidemic. I have watched tv shows and read books that explain how it all came about in some detail.

the population has been severely manipulated by this industry. Fast food affects your appetite and not just your weight. It affects the way you think about food. Its not really about lack of willpower at all.

one good book is The End of Overeating. A tv series is the men who made us fat which you can watch on you tube. Another good one which takes a slightly different angle but still good is In Defense of Food.

Ultimately the take home message is Eat WHOLE FOODS. that is food that you prepare yourself because its not just fast food restaurants in this business. Its also all the bars and cans of food and packeted stuff in the supermarket.

Anyhow, you can learn to love the food you make. I can't tell you how much more i am enjoying my food since i have been dieting this year. And 8 monhts in my food is so much better than even at the beginning. I've become a better cook. And i'm loving it.

Eat a wide variety of foods.

When you want a break from cooking, go to a nice restaurant that sells carefully made food prepared in house and or look for other healthy food outlets.

My nemesis has not been fast food meals but just sweet foods so i've banned them from my diet. That said, its not a blanket ban. On monday i had a cake for someone's birthday at work which i made myself (the first one i have made all year). It was a cashew cake with melted chocolate on top and then whipped cream - so it was pretty over the top. It is a sri lankan birthday cake called Love Cake. Everyone loved it. I had just one piece and enjoyed the occasion of sharing it. It was a risky thing to do and i won't be doing it often i can tell you.

But i can eat cake or any sweet thing if someone else offers it to me outside my home - not family of course. And i can eat dessert at a restaurant if i am there with others. When i eat sweets, i can only eat one serve no matter how small. These rules have kept me strong all year and i intend to live with them for the rest of my life. They help me stay on the straight and narrow.

So make up some rules for yourself which you can live with. and stick to them. For sweetness, i enjoy my fruit more than ever and i've widened the choice of foods i eat. So i eat more nuts and seeds and cheese than i used to. But i still try to limit them because they can easily become bingy foods too. I do not eat honey. Honey is just a yummier form of sugar. I do not eat artificial sweeteners either. In order to reeducate my palate, i need to not eat very sweet foods often.

jables85

30 days will go by faster than you think!! I know this might sound silly - but pretend fast food doesn't exist.

Four years ago I'm pretty sure I was addicted to Taco Bell. :-) But then I moved to a town where the nearest fast food restaurant is 300 miles away. My first couple visits back to the city I would always stop and get Taco Bell. But four years later I've forgotten about fast food all together. The longer I went without it, the less I wanted it.

I guess my advice would be to pretend that it is not an option. There are so many moments before you place your order that you can turn yourself around. When you first start putting on your brakes or your blinker to pull in the parking lot, be mindful of what you are doing...you can always take the exit and keep on driving. Talk yourself into parking instead of using the drive-thru...that can give you another opportunity to be mindful of what you are about to do since you will have to physically walk inside and wait in line to place your order. If there is a grocery store in the same vicinity, talk yourself into passing the fast food joint (just as one small victory!) and pull into the grocery store parking lot instead. You can find infinitely healthier (and filling) options in the grocery store! I'm constantly making small decisions, like not visiting a certain grocery isle, that ultimately force me to make the right decision. I'm not always thrilled about it at the time - but later, every small victory pushes me to continue on my quest to remain healthy.

Good luck! You got this!

maddyk91

30 days will go by faster than you think!! I know this might sound silly - but pretend fast food doesn't exist.

Four years ago I'm pretty sure I was addicted to Taco Bell. :-) But then I moved to a town where the nearest fast food restaurant is 300 miles away. My first couple visits back to the city I would always stop and get Taco Bell. But four years later I've forgotten about fast food all together. The longer I went without it, the less I wanted it.

I guess my advice would be to pretend that it is not an option. There are so many moments before you place your order that you can turn yourself around. When you first start putting on your brakes or your blinker to pull in the parking lot, be mindful of what you are doing...you can always take the exit and keep on driving. Talk yourself into parking instead of using the drive-thru...that can give you another opportunity to be mindful of what you are about to do since you will have to physically walk inside and wait in line to place your order. If there is a grocery store in the same vicinity, talk yourself into passing the fast food joint (just as one small victory!) and pull into the grocery store parking lot instead. You can find infinitely healthier (and filling) options in the grocery store! I'm constantly making small decisions, like not visiting a certain grocery isle, that ultimately force me to make the right decision. I'm not always thrilled about it at the time - but later, every small victory pushes me to continue on my quest to remain healthy.

Good luck! You got this!

^^ALL this.

I was also pretty much addicted to TBell. Dude, I had one time where I had spent $120 in one month on it...just for myself...and that wasnt an abnormal amount for me to spend in a month on TBell. ((( But adding it all up "just for kicks" with my roommate was when i finally realized what I was doing to my body.

You can do it, OP! It's hard saying no at first, but it gets easier after a while!! WAY WAY easier!!

angela233Z

I was eating Taco Bell at least 5 times a week for last 10 years ( its cheap, tasty, quick, always available)

Now I have been logging all my food on MFP and I notice how much more full I get on other foods that are quick and easy. This has helped me to cut down a lot.

good luck

CCSunlight

I'm giving up everywhere with a drive thru! We can do this!

siratlas

I'm in Feel free to add me if you wish. Good luck, just take it one day at a time!

Hearts_2015

Well done to all who are taking on this strategy.

People should get made with the fast food industry. i am now convinced that this is the reason for the obesity epidemic. I have watched tv shows and read books that explain how it all came about in some detail.

the population has been severely manipulated by this industry. Fast food affects your appetite and not just your weight. It affects the way you think about food. Its not really about lack of willpower at all.

one good book is The End of Overeating. A tv series is the men who made us fat which you can watch on you tube. Another good one which takes a slightly different angle but still good is In Defense of Food.

Ultimately the take home message is Eat WHOLE FOODS. that is food that you prepare yourself because its not just fast food restaurants in this business. Its also all the bars and cans of food and packeted stuff in the supermarket.

Anyhow, you can learn to love the food you make. I can't tell you how much more i am enjoying my food since i have been dieting this year. And 8 monhts in my food is so much better than even at the beginning. I've become a better cook. And i'm loving it.

Eat a wide variety of foods.

When you want a break from cooking, go to a nice restaurant that sells carefully made food prepared in house and or look for other healthy food outlets.

My nemesis has not been fast food meals but just sweet foods so i've banned them from my diet. That said, its not a blanket ban. On monday i had a cake for someone's birthday at work which i made myself (the first one i have made all year). It was a cashew cake with melted chocolate on top and then whipped cream - so it was pretty over the top. It is a sri lankan birthday cake called Love Cake. Everyone loved it. I had just one piece and enjoyed the occasion of sharing it. It was a risky thing to do and i won't be doing it often i can tell you.

But i can eat cake or any sweet thing if someone else offers it to me outside my home - not family of course. And i can eat dessert at a restaurant if i am there with others. When i eat sweets, i can only eat one serve no matter how small. These rules have kept me strong all year and i intend to live with them for the rest of my life. They help me stay on the straight and narrow.

So make up some rules for yourself which you can live with. and stick to them. For sweetness, i enjoy my fruit more than ever and i've widened the choice of foods i eat. So i eat more nuts and seeds and cheese than i used to. But i still try to limit them because they can easily become bingy foods too. I do not eat honey. Honey is just a yummier form of sugar. I do not eat artificial sweeteners either. In order to reeducate my palate, i need to not eat very sweet foods often.

:drinker: :flowerforyou:

Tanie98

avoid fast food restraurants for a while and start cooking at home.I used to drink allot of sugery juice with my meals all the time and I didn't think I could cut out sugery drinks .Then one day,i decided to stop and replace them with water and now I rarely drink sugery drinks.You can do it:happy:

Uselessly_Irrelevant

I highly recommend taking one day a week (mine is Sunday) to prepare some quick easy meals. I make crock-pot something-or-other, burritos, divvy up snacks into portion sizes - that way when I'm hungry *now* and cranky and tempted to eat fast food I can't justify it with my laziness because I already have food ready to go. Good luck everyone!

amllarsen07

I wish there was a like button for most of these posts. I am going to do that tracker thing for days since.. I really do like fast food, because it is just convenient. I am going to start using my crock pot more... I am just trying to get rid of one addiction at a time. Fast food is the first one that needs to go.

amllarsen07

I am going to try that tracker thing. It will be a very helpful reminder. thank you for suggesting it.

Genaarmstrong

I'm so excited to see this thread! I thought I was the only person who loved fast food! So embarrassed by it. My daughter just went away to college. It was super hard for her to leave home. But she made herself because I wanted her to try. Well I thought if she could stretch herself emotionally, I needed an equal challenge. Track calories and avoid fast food! I'm 25 days clean! Lol guess what my blood sugar is back to normal! I have a long way to go but I'm taking it one day at a time. Count me in this challenge! Thanks for everyone's advice. We CAN share our struggle with McDonalds and apparently Taco Bell, right here checking in each day!

Genaarmstrong

Oh one more thing I noticed. I REWARD myself with trips to the FF place. Long day at work, FF. Stressful situation and I lived, FF place etc. etc. etc. so this week I took the money I would have spent at the FF place and got my hair cut. LOL I'm trying to think of more inexpensive ways to reward myself without poisoning myself withFF. ????????

siratlas

today kicks off day 1 for me!

randomtai

:huh:

chubbpupp

I'll be glad to help you out. I could use it a little bit to anyway.

GiveMeCoffee

Well done to all who are taking on this strategy.

People should get made with the fast food industry. i am now convinced that this is the reason for the obesity epidemic. I have watched tv shows and read books that explain how it all came about in some detail.

the population has been severely manipulated by this industry. Fast food affects your appetite and not just your weight. It affects the way you think about food. Its not really about lack of willpower at all.

Why should we get mad at the food industry? Maybe we should get mad at ourselves for blaming everyone else for our poor choices. The food industry didn't force feed you while you sat on the couch.

I will continue to eat fast food, sugar and whatever else.... but hmm good luck to you all