Does it just take time?

It's time to give up childish things. Educate yourself. It's not about only eating salad. It's about Healthy foods and portion control. It does get easier.

First let me start out by saying that I love Sonic Drive Thru....OMG the burgers and strawberry limeades are amazing but its also 1500 calories! I started making them at home, the limeade has 35 calories and the burger has about 400 and it tastes great. Try and make the grilled chicken salad at home, most times it will have way less calories and taste better. One thing you can try with your family is to say "Lets have a take out night once a week" and then pick a place you like and try to recreate that AT HOME. I have also noticed that making this stuff at home saves me tons of money (I have a family of 4) I can basically make 4 full meals (16 servings) on the price that I spend eating out.

1. Dont blame your mother. You are making your choices.
2. Chick Fil A's grilled chicken salad is not healthy.
3. I eat fast food now and then. Most people do. But as it seems to be a problem for you, i would implement a fast food ban until you get your mind in the right place.

Honestly, I've been huge on eating out since I was 18 or so. I made it a bad habit and used to spend hundreds of dollars a month on eating out. I have not completely cut it out, but now bring my lunch to work and eat dinner at home. It's really hard to eat healthy eating out. I would cut it out slowly. Maybe eat at home all week and treat yourself to one meal a week eating out.

Watch Food, Inc and Forks Over Knives. If you can still honestly want fast food after that, go for it. lol

I'm trying to completely retrain my way of thinking when it comes to food, going back to childhood. It's ALWAYS been "lets just eat out" or microwave something quick. I feel like I'm never going to get to the point where I can plan out a week of meals at home. I've changed my "normal" drive thru place from Wendy's or McDonald's to Chick-Fil-A, where I 99% of the time will get a grilled chicken salad but I'm thinking this is hurting more than it's helping. I should be able to make that at home but it's my first instinct to just jump in the car and head over to Chick-Fil-A. Other than that the majority of my "diet" meals are microwavable. It's nice to know "ok, this has 300 calories" and just scan the box with my MFP app.

Should I just completely cut out fast food, even the healthier stuff like the salad? Will it ever get easier to make a meal?

How do you do something like change a habit that you've had since childhood?

Start small. If you would normally get a salad from Chick Fil A, get ingredients for a salad you can make at home, and make it. And since you'll probably have more than you need for one salad, keep using them until they're all gone. Then next week, add in another type of meal you can make fresh.

Make a meal plan. Find some recipes that you can handle, and make a list. Then fill them into a calendar. If they don't fill the whole calendar for the week, that's really ok. Just do a few. Then gradually add more. If you have a plan, you won't have to think about it when it's time to eat, so you'll be less likely to take the "easy" route and just go pick up something.

Eventually, you'll get to a point where you have a designated fast food day. You can only get fast food on that day. And then after you've been doing that for a while, cut it back to every other week, then once a month.

A lot of people may disagree with me, but if you completely cut something out...you're gonna end up going way overboard with it the next time you DO get fast food. For example....I had Taco Bell the other day and I got THREE items off the menu lol. And I gained a pound haha! I've since then lost that pound and even one more...but maybe I wouldn't have gone so overboard if I hadn't been thinking 'Oh I've been so good and haven't had Taco Bell is so long, let me just be a pig this time since I don't often do it.'

Try only having one microwave meal a day. Obviously the meal where you have the least amount of time (maybe when you're at work). Try fruits and yogurt for breakfast. A microwave meal for whenever you're at work, and cook something for the other meal.

Mandy.....I KNOW you can cook lol. You're great at it! Matt has been making lots of delicious, healthy stuff for us lately. I don't cook...I could burn water. But for someone like you, a lot of the stuff that Matt's been making seems fairly simple.
Baked chicken...all he does is add some seasoning, maybe a little bit of marinade, then throws it in the oven for 45-60 minutes and bam, there's a delicious dinner. And maybe some veggies as a side. We've also been getting a lot of fish from Sam's club. That's even less in calories and literally only takes like 20 minutes in the over.

If you wanna come over and cook with us one day so Matt can show you a few things, you're welcome to!

Even the "healthy" foods at a restaurant aren't as healthy as you could make it at home.

How is scanning your boxed meal any different from scanning a couple of different items and controlling the serving size? Isn't that just an additional scan or two? It also doesn't take very long to log in and just type boneless skinless chicken breast and get an accurate calorie amount.

I agree that you should cut the fast food out slowly. You can make a good, well balanced meal at home in 20 minutes when it would likely take you at least that long to drive to the fast food place, wait for your food and drive home. Bake a piece of chicken, boil some rice and steam some veggies. Quick, easy and delicious.

You'll get there. It takes time. I was taught growing up that you COOKED dinner, every night, without fail. My Mom was a stay at home Mom until I was 12, and even then she'd be home by 4 to cook dinner. But I was also taught that you had a protein, a veggie and a starch, every meal and you cleaned your plate (regardless of hunger or dessert).

I'm a baker (amateur, not professional), been since a very early age, when I baked bread and pies with my Nana. I decorate cakes semi-professionally. At the beginning of my journey I just had to say "if you can't not eat it, don't make it". So, I only made baked goods (or bought them) when I had a way of getting rid of most of them.

It's all a learning process, and a progression. You'll learn what you can do and what you won't live without...

It does take time but if you're going to cut it fast food out, it's better (in my opinion) to do it cold turkey. Both my husband and I cut it out completely once we started to lose weight. If we HAD to do fast food because of travel, we went to Subway or a local place that does asian rice bowls - they grill everything and we had a list of calories for both. We picked things that were within our calorie goal for the day.

Salads seem like a healthy choice, but the fast food ones can still be loaded with calories - especially the dressing!

It's difficult to switch to cooking at home every night. But there are great recipes out there (and quick too). I know I'd be happy to share some with you if you send me a message.

Good Luck!