i'm addicted to fast food and i'm about ready to give up...
BeautyFromPain
Posts: 4,952 Member
my friend passed away 3 weeks ago and as i am stupid began emotionally eating again soon after that and have gained SIX pounds since then! i work in a fast food restaurant and am addicted to the stuff it's so hard to stop eating it!
so close to giving up, i'm never reaching my goal like this
so close to giving up, i'm never reaching my goal like this
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Replies
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Sorry to hear.
I'm a fast food addict too. Thankfully I no longer work at a takeaway shop. All the best to you. You can do it; it's no easy task though!0 -
First and most importantly, *hugs.*
Secondly, these sorts of things happen. People slip up for all sorts of reasons. The important thing is to be able to say, "Oops, that was a mistake. Starting over now," and then let it go.
Thirdly, maybe it would help if you made healthier versions of the food you eat emotionally? For example, instead of chicken nuggets, you can cut up and skinless, boneless chicken breast, dip the pieces in oil, then dip them in cornflake crumbs with spices and bake them. You can do the same thing with a whole cut-up chicken as a healthier alternative to fried chicken. Instead of a hamburger, see if you can get a veal burger, or at least a leaner cut, and then eat without the bun and with a salad. A small frozen yogurt with fruit instead of a milkshake. That sort of thing.0 -
I'm sorry for your loss. I know it's incredibly difficult but try and focus that emotion into working out and bettering yourself instead of allowing yourself to undo all of your hard work. Grieving is a horrible process and you've done the whole emotional eating part of it, but now you can maybe give yourself the chance of putting that energy into something good for yourself, after all, you deserve it
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Lots of ppl eat when they are upset. Knowing your weakness is a positive thing. Take it one minute at a time and know it will get better. My thoughts are with you during your time of loss. We are here for you, just reach out and we will all get you past this.0
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I also worked in fast food once and I would usually eat a side salad. It had cheese on it so I got my fat cravings taken care of. The salad was 77 calories. Sometimes I would eat a kid's sandwich (worked at arbys) on top of that. Those were around 250 calories I think? A sandwich and side salad was a decently sized meal for around 300 calories.
Just do a lot of research into what you can and cannot eat. I know it's hard. The managers and employees would, during a lull in business, gather around where we kept the fries and eat them out of the basket and dip them in a Jamocha shake. LOL. While I'm over on the other side eating my salad. How sad.0 -
sorry to hear about your friend.
try to make "fast food" at home. There's some great recipes at skinnytaste.com my husband loves my hamburgers. It's been my experience that just by making food myself I can cut a significant portion of calories. Instead of 540 cals per burger, mine come in around 400ish leaving room for a healthy side dish.
Also try and find healthier alternatives. I prefer falafel to fries now. Although both are fried, at least the falafel, made with chickpeas have more of a nutritional value to them.0 -
sorry to hear about your friend.
try to make "fast food" at home. There's some great recipes at skinnytaste.com my husband loves my hamburgers. It's been my experience that just by making food myself I can cut a significant portion of calories. Instead of 540 cals per burger, mine come in around 400ish leaving room for a healthy side dish.
Also try and find healthier alternatives. I prefer falafel to fries now. Although both are fried, at least the falafel, made with chickpeas have more of a nutritional value to them.
what are falafels?
and i do bring in my own food from home but when they're offering free food, sometimes it's just too hard to say no.0 -
awww so sorry for your loss. And i use comfort/emotional eat too!! it doesnt help... but if you do seek comfort in that then i say you gym really hard.. burn more.. and once you start burning more you'll want to have less of the take away food.. (you would feel as though you're ruining all th hard work at gym) and also you will crave the bad stuff less.. stay strong! and its all psychological i think.. just look at the food and tell yourself "eww.. thats too heavy and will make me sick" lol it works.. sometimes.. so you make yourself not wana have it.. silly lil ideas but worked for me.. i dont have as much take aways as i used to.. xx0
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I'm not sure I've ever heard anyone describe falafel as a "healthier alternative." Falafel is when you take ground chickpeas plus a whole bunch of spices, then deep-fat fry them. They are very tasty, but rarely in the US.sorry to hear about your friend.
try to make "fast food" at home. There's some great recipes at skinnytaste.com my husband loves my hamburgers. It's been my experience that just by making food myself I can cut a significant portion of calories. Instead of 540 cals per burger, mine come in around 400ish leaving room for a healthy side dish.
Also try and find healthier alternatives. I prefer falafel to fries now. Although both are fried, at least the falafel, made with chickpeas have more of a nutritional value to them.
what are falafels?
and i do bring in my own food from home but when they're offering free food, sometimes it's just too hard to say no.0 -
I'm not sure I've ever heard anyone describe falafel as a "healthier alternative." Falafel is when you take ground chickpeas plus a whole bunch of spices, then deep-fat fry them. They are very tasty, but rarely in the US.sorry to hear about your friend.
try to make "fast food" at home. There's some great recipes at skinnytaste.com my husband loves my hamburgers. It's been my experience that just by making food myself I can cut a significant portion of calories. Instead of 540 cals per burger, mine come in around 400ish leaving room for a healthy side dish.
Also try and find healthier alternatives. I prefer falafel to fries now. Although both are fried, at least the falafel, made with chickpeas have more of a nutritional value to them.
what are falafels?
and i do bring in my own food from home but when they're offering free food, sometimes it's just too hard to say no.
i live in australia haha...0 -
I'm so very sorry for your loss. I'm a very emotionally charged person - which means when my emotions start spiraling out of control (for whatever reason -- and losing a friend IS an emotionally charged situation), I find myself reverting - or trying to revert - back to my old bad habits. Usually it takes me a day or two to really wake up and see what is going on. The fact that you KNOW you are addicted to this food and KNOW that you are emotional right now due to the death of your friend is actually a huge thing. It shows that your mind now knows when things are falling out of your control.
This is the time to grab ahold and get things back on track.
Instead of eating a burger or whatever, have a salad (with a light dressing) or have grilled chicken instead. I'm not sure where you work or what is offered, but I bet there are some somewhat healthier alternatives - you just need to find those. It is going to take some work on your part, but you can do this. No excuses. No justifications. Either you want it or you don't. If you do, it is time to shake off the old habits and create new ones. Will it be easy? Absolutely not. But, it'll be worth it. Trust me.
Good Luck and I'm truly sorry about your friend.0 -
So sorry for your loss .... Ditto to what others said about letting go of what has happened and just starting today with getting back on track.
I don't work at a fast food place but at my work we do have an all-to-available snack machine as well as lots of free leftover food from client lunches. My strategy is to basically snack all day on low cal snacks so I am not tempted by the bad stuff, or at very least can eat it in moderation.
On the weekend I cut up veggies and put them in little sandwich bags. This might be carrots, celery, radishes, raw zuchini, raw yellow summer squash, green or red bell peppers, pea pods, cherry tomatoes raw green beans, whatever. I bring a couple of these bags with me to work each day for me to nibble on. I also bring a piece of fruit and a small low-fat yogurt. If I am working out that night I will bring a 1-oz portion of almonds or other nuts. It's simple, you don't need to heat anything up, and if you feel like you want that fast food just tell yourself that you will eat your veggies and drink a glass of water first -- after that you will probably not be hungry for the fast food or at very least will be able to eat a smaller portion.
Hang in there -- you will get through this!
(And yeah, falafel as a healthy alternative to fries? Nutritious yes but packed with calories! A healthy alternative to a french fry is a carrot stick. :happy:)0 -
I am sorry about your loss.
Don't give up, though. You made a step in the right direction by identifying emotional eating and asking for advice. In the best possible sense, remember that you are still living. It is not right for you to cheat yourself out of a happy life in response to the death of someone important to you. Look into the future (so to speak) and ask yourself whether emotional eating will serve to heal your mourning or prolong it. I suspect, if you continue the emotional eating cycle and "give up" you will find yourself fatter and sadder than ever years from now. It is best for you to find emotional healing ASAP. Unfortunately, the fast food is not the issue. Your sad heart is the issue. Taking control of that and learning how to cope with this loss will be the best thing you can do for yourself. And I know you are doing the best you can. As far as the fast food is concerned, people lose weight by controlling their calories (have you seen the show Supersize vs. Superskinny? Many of the Superskinnies eat junk but their calories are low - in the 1000 to 1800 range). At your stage in life right now, I suggest setting a calorie range and letting yourself fill those calories with the junk food you are craving. It is much better to control calories from junk food while losing weight overall than to completely throw in the towel and eat calorie-overload because you are eating junk. Make sure you take a multivitamin and you should have no problem with malnutrition.0 -
My daughters father passed away in July and I stopped eating for months. I noticed I was gaining weight and that's when a friend pointed me to this site in January. When it calculated 2k calories I thought that was easy so I just tracked what I normally ate for a week to see how I needed to scale back. Yeah... I was eating 900 calories on a good day. Most days was zero. I gained 7 lbs and started forcing myself to eat the whole amount of calories (might as well try it another way right?). Lost weight. Then came my daughters birthday, the first without him, I stopped eating (except for cake. It's my weakness). Then my mother in laws birthday, then Easter. All triggers for me to fall back into old habits. So, in April I lost nothing. This month brings mothers day- another first and on top of that I quit smoking. I ate like a PIG. Who knows how the scale will treat that... I say all this to say, it's ok. We're going to regress and "do bad" at certain times. The important thing is to remember that everyday is a series of choices. My thing is as long as I do my best today, admit when I'm not (tracking EVERY THING) and try again tomorrow, then I'm doing ok. Eventually you will decide to use the scale as a friend and not a reminder of how bad you are doing. She's simply letting you know that it's time to get back on track, even if it's with fast food being tracked for one meal a day.0
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I'm very sorry to hear about your friend.
Just keep at it you're very strong.
As for the six pounds fast food tends to be high in sodium so I'm sure it's just water weight.
I know you've been struggling with working there off and on for a while, maybe you should be looking into another job?
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I'm very sorry to hear about your friend.
Just keep at it you're very strong.
As for the six pounds fast food tends to be high in sodium so I'm sure it's just water weight.
I know you've been struggling with working there off and on for a while, maybe you should be looking into another job?
trust me, i'm trying. canberra is generally just crap on jobs.0
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