FAST FOOD addiction!!! HELP!!!!

Are you packing lunches of food you like? Or do you bring things you don't really like but think you should eat?

no I bring food I like. I have lots of fruit I like along with healthy stuff. Really healthy. But it seems right after class I'll do arens before work and get fast food instead of reaching in my back pack and pull out the banana I packed for the cheese string. It is really depressing.
Or the people at work always ask if I want to get anything to eat and even though I brought stuff I'll still get something. It is a never ending battle.

I want to lose the weight but I am making the wrong choices.

Or, if you still decide to get fast food try to make a healthier choice, log it, and make it fit.

I eat fast food all the time. You can make it work for you by making better choices if you just can't give up the convenience or the camaraderie of going out with your friends/coworkers. You'll see a bunch of responses about how fast food is bad for you, and it's definitely not as good as whole fresh foods, but it CAN work.

This might work for some, but be careful...if you're nursing an obsession/addiction w/salt and fat I wouldn't play with it. For people who have food obsessions/addictions - there is no "just eat a little and log it".

The best advice here (which is the hardest to swallow, no pun intended) - is DECIDE and DO. You are not powerless. Make the choice to love yourself. When you feel like getting fast food - don't. When you feel like driving there, don't. When you feel like eating it again, don't. When you think about it, don't. If you feel like cheating and just having a little, don't. Are you getting the picture?

RUN from it as far as your legs can carry you. It does NOT control you. YOU control your life and your destiny.

In reading your recent posts, every self control or dietary problem seems to look like an addiction/ obsession problem to you. I'd suggest you get therapy.

Op looks like a troll post to me.

Agree on both counts.

*sigh* Fine. I'll go get therapy since you both recommended it. Y'know - total strangers who hide behind their computers lobbing insults at others they know zippo about, that is... Where should I begin in my therapeutic journey? Can you educate me about my "problem"? Y'know...cuz I'll need something to introduce to my therapist when I make that first appointment.

Shall I go into how my eating addiction has been broken for two solid years?
How I lost nearly 70 lbs effortlessly after I got my ED under control?
How I just completed my 2nd 5K at 6.25mph when I'd never run in my life before last year and am going for another in a couple weeks as well as a half-marathon next summer?
How I used to be so depressed I couldn't leave the house but am now a social butterfly?
How my weight-loss success is so evident to folks around me that I'm constantly being approached for life-coaching advice?
Or perhaps how many of my relationships have blossomed further because I'm not so self-involved and don't loathe myself as I used to?
Maybe how I no longer have the constant weight of guilt over me that accompanied the endless cycle of bingeing/dieting?
Shall I talk about my rediscovered spirituality and love of God even though I used to blame him for all my problems the years I was caught in my addiction?
Or maybe about how I now sleep well at night, have no pain in my knees when climbing stairs, my head is clearer, vision brighter, smile broader, step quicker?
Oh I know! Maybe about the joy, happiness, self-control, peace, love, and freedom I now experience on a daily basis.

Tell me o-wizard-o-wise-ones... Which of this horrible problems should I tackle with my therapist first? I REALLY need more of your advice! Don't leave me hangin!

Lol! So, a couple of people make observations on the internet that you don't like and you write 1000 words essays back to them? That'll show 'em!

TL/DR

Are you packing lunches of food you like? Or do you bring things you don't really like but think you should eat?

no I bring food I like. I have lots of fruit I like along with healthy stuff. Really healthy. But it seems right after class I'll do arens before work and get fast food instead of reaching in my back pack and pull out the banana I packed for the cheese string. It is really depressing.
Or the people at work always ask if I want to get anything to eat and even though I brought stuff I'll still get something. It is a never ending battle.

I want to lose the weight but I am making the wrong choices.

Or, if you still decide to get fast food try to make a healthier choice, log it, and make it fit.

I eat fast food all the time. You can make it work for you by making better choices if you just can't give up the convenience or the camaraderie of going out with your friends/coworkers. You'll see a bunch of responses about how fast food is bad for you, and it's definitely not as good as whole fresh foods, but it CAN work.

This might work for some, but be careful...if you're nursing an obsession/addiction w/salt and fat I wouldn't play with it. For people who have food obsessions/addictions - there is no "just eat a little and log it".

The best advice here (which is the hardest to swallow, no pun intended) - is DECIDE and DO. You are not powerless. Make the choice to love yourself. When you feel like getting fast food - don't. When you feel like driving there, don't. When you feel like eating it again, don't. When you think about it, don't. If you feel like cheating and just having a little, don't. Are you getting the picture?

RUN from it as far as your legs can carry you. It does NOT control you. YOU control your life and your destiny.

While I agree with this to a point, I also have to point out that this advice is just simply not going to work for a lot of people. If someone's going to make a lifestyle change, it needs to work WITH their lifestyle. Yes, obviously completely avoiding fast food is fine for some and definitely healthier, but if the person can't stick with it, isn't it better to learn to make better choices in everyday situations? I never would have lost my weight if I had been told to completely avoid the foods I enjoy forevermore.

Agreed that it won't work for everyone - because not everyone has addictions to food. If you don't have bonafide compulsive overeating issues, then by all means my advice does not apply to you. I would never advise a person who was not an alcoholic to stop having beer.

I have no idea where the OP stands with these issues; however, some of their language seems to point to a possible "problem" with particular foods, such as fast food - the very title of this post is "Fast Food Addiction - HELP!". They talk about this problem being "out of hand", they feel "depressed", and indicate feelings of powerlessness and confusion over this issue. This is classic addict behavior.

I have to gently take issue with the phrase, "if the person can't stick with it, isn't it better to...." I'd argue that for people in this position, no...it's not better for them to "learn to make better choices" because that doesn't work for compulsive overeaters. That's just it, you see...you never learn...you can't. In the same way an alcoholic cannot "learn" to just enjoy "a little" of the vodka he loves. For people who have problems with certain trigger foods, I will always recommend abstinence from them.

I completely understand that this is EXTREMELY difficult for people to handle. This is because most of us cannot fathom the horror of giving up the things we use as emotional crutches in our lives. We "need" them...thus we will do ANYTHING to keep them - even justify to ourselves that we can "handle it" if we'd just be more self-controlled. Why, even the fact that you believe I was saying this person must "completely avoid the foods [they] enjoy forevermore" betrays this belief. I never said that, you see? I simply was talking about *fast food* for *this* person in particular. Not that this person needs to completely avoid any and all foods they enjoy! Heck, I eat french fries and fried chicken once a week. I eat chips and tacos and all kinds of awesome things. But I cannot eat sweets. Ever. Eating a cupcake, for example, will send me right back into my eating disorder. Some people, like myself, yes, do need to avoid particular foods for life. Once a person in a similar position to me finally absorbs this, and practices abstinence, the exact opposite of what you'd expect happens: you become FREE and HAPPY - not miserable and boxed in.

I want to reiterate that I have no clue where the OP stands on this. But *just in case*...I wanted to bring it up because it might be true - and if that's the case, then all the advice in the world to "just start over tomorrow", "just bring healthy food", "just this, just that"...will never help - in the same way telling a drug addict these things won't. Compulsive overeating is a whole other ball game and requires other rules. But those rules end up setting you free.

I was once a chronic binge/ overeater, I claimed I had and "addiction".

I was wrong. Once I stopped making excuses guess what? I got my crap together and got healthy. I did not have an addiction. I was lazy and I had no self control. I have lost 125lbs and maintained it for a year. When I lose 15 more pounds I will have lost 140lbs. I eat everything in moderation. Overeaters can learn to moderate but they have to stop making excuses.