Fast Food Addiction

[baker23]

Burgers are my favorite food and fast food burgers? OMG *drools*...I grew up on them, and have had so many in my lifetime that in theory, I should be sick of em...But nope.

A few months ago I started slowly easing up on the amount of times I got one a week. I haven't ordered one for over a month now. I still crave them. But I want my body to be healthy more. There is a subway right across the street from wendy's here. Anytime I go with the intention of getting a burger, I pull into the subway parking lot instead =D

[WildThings]

I wish I had a magic recipe for giving up fast food. As a life long fast food junkie it was without a doubt the mist difficult habit to break and I will admit I didn't break it on my own. Back in October I got food poisoning from a popular fast food restaurant and was so sick for several days that it has almost completely curbed my fast food addiction. The idea of other people touching my food turned my stomach and anything remotely greasy for a month after literally made my stomach hurt. After avoiding it for awhile, I got over the irrational fear of people touching my food, but I had finally broken my pattern if fast food meals. Now it seems like the only time I even want it is with pms and even then the desire is easy to push away.

[kylonaa]

I had a serious problem with fast food for a long time to the point of eating it pretty much every day, sometimes twice a day. I always felt guilty afterwards but couldn't stop. Then one day, when I felt ready, I had someone read to me the ingredient list of a mcdonalds "cheeseburger" or "chicken" burger. Let me tell you, its not for the faint of heart. Listening to the junk in them, something finally clicked. I knew I couldn't keep doing that to myself. From then on, when I wanted mcdonalds, I imagined some of those less savory ingredients in my mouth and that was enough to turn me off of it. I gave up McDonalds 14 months ago, but it wasn't until September of last year I gave up the rest of fast food a similar way. I still go to sit down restaurants for dinner out if I really want a burger but have removed the option of eating from any place that has a drive through. For me it had to be all-in... no "special occasions" or "just this once" because that becomes a slippery slope. I think for me the most helpful part was removing it as an option entirely, using negative visualization, and allowing myself a version of the food I really wanted as long as I made it at home or bought it at the grocery store. That, and I had to truly believe that it was bad for me. I thikn that's what took the longest. Hope that helps a little...

[oneshortday]

Right now my current pitfall is that I can pretty easily include it in my calorie counting...which I know is a mistake. I'm weening myself off because going cold turkey seems to make me feel like I'm deprived, which sounds silly to me but that's kinda how it is. Thank you so much for your advice everyone - I'm trying! At least I'm almost 10 pounds down, all things considered.

[linJber]

I'm going to make a comment at the risk of offending. And I'll qualify it with this - it's easy for me to say just give it all up cold turkey because fast food never had a huge pull on me. I'm sure it's a generational thing - I didn't grow up with it. I had my own set of other eating problems, so I'm not trying to point a finger or lay blame.

But all that said, to all of you who say they are addicted - can't you see it's probably one of the biggest reasons we, as a nation, are so severely overweight? We know that eating it makes us fat. Therefore, we know the answer to the problem is to cut it out. Pretty much completely.

I don't put Subway in the same category as fast food burgers and fries. And there are some healthier choices to be made at all the traditional fast food places. But if that's what we had been eating all along, none of us would be in this boat, would we? I guess the totally sarcastic comment would be, "So how's that been working for you so far?" Eliminating fast food is one of the easy things we can do on this road to healthier living.

Lin

[Gabe]

I ate it almost exclusively for a few years. Not just McDonald's, mind you--I'm including things like Noodles & Company and Panera in this equation, as well as local-type places. So it wasn't some massively huge corporate conspiracy to get me to eat their food.

To be honest, a large part of it was simply convenience. I didn't like cooking, and fast food could be had on the way home with a scant 10 minute blip in my commute. And it was consistent; I knew what I liked and knew what I'd be getting. That part of it was great. It was a hit to the wallet, but I didn't really have other expenses, and so could afford to put a large chunk of my income towards fast food.

I think general dissatisfaction had a lot to do with it, too. I didn't like my job or my circumstances; having whatever the **** I wanted to eat whenever I wanted it was a small comfort that I could easily work into my day without a lot of short-term effort or risk. Also, I've always been very particular about what I eat--not so much that I'm picky, but that losing control over it has always made me exceptionally cranky. I don't know why, or where it comes from, but there it is. It was a lot easier to get that kind of control with fast food than it was by learning how to make a bunch of healthy things that I liked.

That didn't really work out so well for me. I mean, we're talking two fast food meals per day. Maybe three if I hit up the cafeteria at work (seeing as I'd usually get a melt and chips). Any non fast food meals were usually at sit down restaurants, at which I made similarly awful choices.

When I made my change, I didn't quite go cold turkey. For me, calories are calories, and calories from McDonalds are the same as calories from home. Sometimes, I'd get a cheeseburger and a small fry. If I managed to miss lunch, I could even swing a McDouble and a medium fry. I've hit Subway a couple of times since then. I still have Panera once every two weeks, but that's limited to a You Pick Two caesar salad and chicken noodle soup combo (no side!). Over time, however, I've done that less and less. Not because fast food has gotten less delicious--it hasn't--but because my desire for consistency and control has led me to want my own usual meals instead of fast food. Weird, I know, but there it is.

I don't think that fast food always needs to be taboo--it's learning to control one's intake of it that's key. However, if it unleashes the inner craving monster in you--which it does for many, just as caramel corn and tortilla chips do for me--then it might be best to entirely avoid it.

[KittyKatFan]

I wish I could be like those people who cut out fast food and now they can't stand the taste/sight/smell of it.

I have stopped eating it, but over the holidays I slipped a bit and tried one of the Wendy's burgers. Mmmmm....tasted so good. Better than I remember.

So I just have to keep away. The only fast food I occasionally eat is the grilled chicken Caesar salad from McDonald's, and I use my own low-cal Caesar dressing instead of the McDonald's dressing.

I do eat Subway quite regularly but want to get away from it. While it is low cal, the bread isn't whole grain and it feels like I'm eating empty calories. The preservatives in the cold cuts probably aren't all that great for me either. I am trying to switch to salads that I make at home. But it's hard to do because I would rather have the Subway.

[Underwater]

I am always short on time, so I eat a plain grilled chicken sandwich from McDonalds with buffalo sauce maybe once a week or so- 400 calories. We also go to Panera and I'll get a chicken caeser salad- 510 calories. I also have a good burrito bowl at Chipotle- 500 calories.

If I had to prepare my own food to consider myself success with weight loss, I wouldn't stand a chance. I hate cooking :P

[synger]

I think it really depends on where you are, and what your plan is. If you've eaten a LOT of fast food, and it connects in your mind with "bad" or "unhealthy" but you did it for years and it also connects with "tasty" and "filling", then there's a lot of mental programming that has to be undone. In that case, getting away from it completely, and avoidance techniques like reading the ingredient list and horror stories can be helpful. The point is to make fast food "forbidden" forever, or at least until you feel like you can control your choices when faced with a McDonald's menu. If a Big Mac is not in your plan, and you KNOW you'll order one anyway when you go to McDonald's, then you are NOT ready to give it a try.

That being said, there are a lot of fast foods that can fit into various plans, and can be a life-saver when you're pressed for time or traveling. I know what I can eat at McD's, Wendy's, and BK, as well as sub and pizza places. Planning ahead of time, looking at their menus online, etc., gives me the information and ammunition I need to make choices that fit my plan when I go to these restaurants.

[astrophe]

Hrm. It's been a long time since I was hooked on it. It was in college because I was a broke college student and it's cheap, filling, accessible, etc. I remember one of my friends would buy up a mess of cheeseburgers when they went on sale Monday for ridiculous cost so he could store them in his dorm fridge and eat the rest of the week!

I went the way you did -- switch to kid sizes first. Then when I was in an apartment rather than dorms I could make my own burgers and oven fries which taste a lot better. It was also easier then (with a car) to keep a stash of frozen food so even when pressed for time I could have that instead. Car-less in a dorm far from a grocery, a lot of kids walked across the street to McD's. There were few alternates at the time from the school cafeteria. Now campus has a grocery onsite so the later waves of students living on campus have it a bit easier.

Mixing it it up with subway, boston market, chinese take out, etc helped too because I got more veg that way but that also came in time when more things built up near school.

I think if you are ready to let it go -- do it.

A.

[sparkles86tn]

You could try eating the healthier options at the restaurants and smaller sizes. Examples: salads, fruit and yogurt parfait, kids meals, subway,etc.

You can look up calorie counts for your favorite restaurants at their websites.
I think a big thing with fast food is the fat and sodium count and the portion sizes.

With that being said, I've been craving Gen Tso's chicken from the local chinese restaurant. LOL! Two people can share the meal, be full, and have leftovers from that. So, if I pick that up, I guess my boyfriend and I will be splitting it.

[gonnabfitmom]

I used to be a BIG fast food junky. I would go every day, multiple times. Breakfast biscuits, cheese burgers, chicken nuggets, chicken tenders, pizza, nachos from taco bell, burritos, fries, mozzerella sticks, you name it. I can't even believe I used to eat like that now.

But when I started my journey in Janurary I just cut it cold turkey and I didn't miss it because I was eating other, healthier but just as delicious items at home. Now, since I've been at this for a while, I can go to a fast food place and get a small grilled chicken sandwich or a yogurt parfait and bypass all the other calorie laden options. But DO NOT DO THIS unless you are *positive* that you can resist the other items. It's too easy to catch yourself in the drive thru intending to get something benign and end up with a double cheeseburger instead.

[gonnabfitmom]

Originally Posted by angelskeep

Hi there! I am not new here, but have been absent for a while and it's time to get back in the swing of things again.

Anyhow, to answer your question, I used to eat an awful lot of fast food. I quit smoking 3 1/2 years ago and for the first few months, I lived on Hot Tamales candy and those steak burger things from Burger King. And it only took a few months to gain 80+ pounds eating that way. YIKES!

I was really worried about how to survive without all those burgers and fries and shakes. For m, the best thing was to just quit completely, except for frosty Friday, which meant a single small Frosty from Wendy's, once a week. My hubs fetched it on his way home from work at 11:30 pm, so I didn't have to deal with anything except the frosty he brought home, no smells, no "cheap deals" to tempt me, no "just this once". I went very far out of my way to make sure I had lots of other options available 24 X 7 because I needed to make healthy food as easy to get to as fast food, or what I now call "crap and garbage". It was really hard at first, but after a while, I didn't really mind anymore. We went for a fast food burger after about 4 months of calorie counting and exercise it it was GROSS! Salty, greasy and felt like a lump of goo sitting in my stomach. Funny how the palate can change over time. If you can just take it minute by minute, or even second by second, eventually you will get past it. You can make a lot of the stuff at home and do it in a low calorie but very flavorful version. Baked sweet potato "fries" instead of deep fried russets. I have a meat grinder attachment for my Kitchen Aid mixer, and I grind my own boneless/skinless chicken breast for burgers so they are totally low fat. All of my friendsds who are skinny and don't have to diet come over for dinner and never know if they are having "diet" food or regular unless I tell them.

Gosh, my first moment back here and already I'm pounding away at the keyboard.

Long story short...I was there and I made it through by staying completely away from the fast food places and replacing them with made at home version with lots of flavor but not fat, sugar, salt. Spices and veg. If you're interested in recipes to get you started, let me know and I can copy/paste them from my files.

Barb

I second the homemade baked sweet potato fries. They are delicious! I eat them all the time with my veggie burgers. Great suggestion.

[Trazey34]

I thought I was addicted to it (McDonald's most specifically) but it turned out I was just lazy as f**k LOL and addicted to the easy-peasy behaviour. I quit cold turkey one day, and never looked back. I never say never, as in "i'm never eating fast food again" so very rarely I'll get a sandwich (usually chicken, and no fries) and think "you do not control ME, sandwich!" ha, talking to food is bad right???

[synger]

Originally Posted by Trazey34

I never say never, as in "i'm never eating fast food again" so very rarely I'll get a sandwich (usually chicken, and no fries) and think "you do not control ME, sandwich!" ha, talking to food is bad right???

Talking to food is just fine...





... so long as the food doesn't answer back.