Kick the Fast Food Habit
Fast Food. Oh where do I even begin? Well, let’s start with the health component. Advertisement for high fat and high sugar foods are constantly being thrown at us, and in the midst of increasing portion sizes. Super sizing, value sizing, and all other terms for upsizing from regular servings to jumbo size portions of fries and soda have become the norm for most fast food chains. Even the restaurants that are offering some healthier alternatives to their traditional menu items don’t advertise as well for the healthier menus. Additionally, it’s pretty difficult, mentally, to convince yourself to order the fruit cup with the smell of hot french fries seeping up your nose and on to your brain.
Then there’s the money issue. At one time, I was eating fast food nearly three times a day during the work week and once or twice on weekends. Let’s just say 17 times a week. Some of the meals were relatively cheap. I would say that the lower end meals were about $2.75. This amount can normally get breakfast. But lunch and dinner meals were running be anywhere from 4.50-$6.00, sometimes more. But we’ll use $5.00 for the purpose of this example. That means that I was spending roughly around $74.00 week. To think, I don’t even have kids, but I’m pretty sure that $74.00 per week could feed a family.
Recently, as part of a lifestyle makeover, I’ve had to significantly reduce the number of fast food meals I consume in any given period. It has not been easy, but, aside from a few minor setbacks, I’ve been doing okay with kicking this habit. There are some things that have been helpful for me. They are listed below.
Setting Goals. They can be small goals. For instance, not eating out for a week. If you’re like I was, you eat out everyday. To go a week without fast food is challenging, but not impossible. Maybe you could go a week without it and then reward yourself. Next time go two weeks without and so on. The point is to establish a reverse habit.
Keeping Fast Food-like Foods At Home. Okay. I know that you think this is defeating the purpose, but that may not be so. It depends on how you prepare your foods. For instance, if you love french fries, have them. But use a non-stick spray and bake them. Trust me. This is a much healthier alternative to saturating them in hot oil. The same works for chicken fingers, chicken nuggets and just about anything else that’s normally deep fried. Also, if, like me, you enjoy an occasional burger, knock yourself out. A healthier choice for me has been to use ground turkey instead of beef. Seasoned ground turkey is just as good as a beef patty and nearly four times less fattening. To take it a step further, I add turkey bacon for a delicious bacon cheeseburger. I also find it helpful to put barbecue sauce on my burgers. It curbs the desire for mayonnaise.
Eating Breakfast. I know that we hear this so much that it’s becoming cliche, but after many years of doubting it’s truth, I have finally conceded and admitted to myself that breakfast really is the most important meal of the day. If you work, go to school, whatever, when you get up running in the morning, trying to beat the rush, your body needs fuel to burn. If you don’t have time for a big country breakfast, try a cereal bar and a piece of fruit. Maybe you could put two pieces of toast in the toaster while you collect your things and grab them on your way out. You might find that you’re not starving two hours before lunchtime and you don’t have to eat your lunch at 9 a.m. and buy something else later.
Snacking. I’m not talking about spending $13.00 per day in vending machine merchandise. I mean bringing your own snacks. Yogurt cups. Fruit cups. Granola bars. These are all foods that come in individual serving size. You can grab a snack between meals so that by the time for you to eat a meal again, you’re not so starved that you don’t have time to prepare a healty or balanced meal.
It may seem like a difficult task, but the fast food habit can be broken. You’ll feel all the better for breaking it, too. That being said, good luck on your endeavors!
