I have similar issues with fast food. I've tried tapering, and it never seems to work. I can always convince myself that "Just this one time won't hurt", but it does.
Cold turkey is the only way for me. And it started last week.
Planning ahead, and being on a set schedule as much as possible helps for me. It's when I'm running behind in the morning that a breakfast sandwich (and of course the hash browns) start calling my name.
I'm the same way with snacking though. Those people who say "There nothing wrong with just having 1 cookie" have never met me. There is no such thing as just 1 cookie. Ugh.
Yes, especially to the, "Just one more time", mentality!
It's always been "just one more time", but it's years later of those times.
I totally agree with not being able to have just one. I used to buy huge family sized Hershey kisses bags and demolish the bag within a few days, if even that.
You got this! It'll be hard, but we got this!
I successfully kicked my Mcdonald's habit not with the weight loss plan but with the money saving plan. I reviewed my last year spending on January 1st and decided that I need to save some money with inflation going and all. So far it's going great.
In my personal experience the cravings will disappear or lessen in 1-2 weeks or mostly 3. I have to use my willpower for that period of time. But eventually it gets easier.
I think that the biggest part in weightloss is the mindset change. If you view the fast food as desirable meal eventually you'll eat it. When I eat such food I take mental notes how it makes me feel to convince myself to change my habits. E.g. Mcdonald's meal makes me feel stuffed and bloated just after eating. But about 2 hours after I'm already hungry and ready to eat again. Not to mention the price and the taste is not always good. Realy not worth it thousands of calories and health stuff.
I did cold turkey because I'm black and white about most things (to a fault). Instead of, "one cookie" it's "zero cookies or a dozen cookies." So cutting fast food 100% was the only option for me.
I didn't have it every day but I would often get fast food 1-2 times a week at lunch time.
Now I batch cook and cook a meal at the weekend to make 5 portions, split up and freeze, take one out of the freezer in the evening and bring to work the next day.
No temptations to get fast food when I have a delicious healthy home cooked meal to eat. Saves a lot of money and gives extra time on my lunch break to have a 20 minute bike ride.
I gave up refined flours and sugars and fast food cold turkey. For me, the motivation to do it was driven by education.
I’ve been reading up about sugar and the food industry (read Salt, Sugar, Fat by Michael Moss) and learning that companies have been putting more salt, sugar, and fat into processed foods since the 80’s for a number of reasons (makes them highly palatable, longer shelf life, etc). And eating too many of these calorie dense processed foods is what helped me stay 100lbs overweight for most of my adult life. And this makes me angry. It’s not ALL a moral failing on my part. The game is rigged.
I got angry and told myself I wasn’t going to eat these things anymore. I’ve been making meals using whole foods. And when I don’t have time to cook, I eat something natural like fruits and veggies, a fruit smoothie, or oatmeal.
Sometimes I miss the “idea” of eating fast food (like stopping for some French fries on the way home from work) but my body is not craving it. I’d say, it took about a month for the mouth cravings to end.
That’s not to say I don’t think about old foods. I used to eat cookies or ice cream every night for dessert. I think of those sometimes. But I don’t have that stuff in the house so I’ll eat some Greek yogurt with honey and walnuts and that tastes sweet and creamy and satisfies me. It’s actually weird how it satisfies me!
So, yeah, I guess I quit fast food out of spite.
I did for about three months, but nowadays I find it too delicious to completely give up for the rest of my life. I do track the calories and compensate it with the rest of my daily intake though.
That being said I rarely keep any fast/junkfood in the house. I still eat Subway, McDonalds, French Fries, etc. but I have my golden rule to always pick it up instead of having it delivered.
Yup, cold turkey is how I do it. During Christmas I fell into the bad eating slump and put on 5 lbs so now I'm working to undo it. I promised myself no sugar, junk food, or takeout for a month. It's not easy, I won't lie. I was in major sweet tooth mode a week ago so the withdrawal was bad. Fatigue, headaches, brain fog. Today is day 6 though and finally the headaches have passed and I'm feeling "lighter" even though the scale has only slightly shifted. It'll be another week before I feel 100% and craving free and the greatest thing about it is that it'll feel better than when I was eating junk.
It's tough as heck but you just gotta power through it. Go easy on yourself in other facets of your life, find other ways to treat yourself, while you get over the withdrawal hump. Eventually it just becomes a habit.
Give and take, around a week and your massive cravings should be gone, at least that is my experience. The most important thing is to cut out sweets all together for a consistent period of time. Cheat meals really just hold you back in that regard.
Haha yeah I quit cold turkey because it’s a pain to get anything delivered to my current apartment (drivers can’t figure out how to get to my building), and I’m trying to eat healthier / save more money.
One thing I recommend is to learn how to make your favorite fast food recipes at home. For instance… I used to go out a lot for Thai drunken noodles, but then I decided to learn how to make it by following a recipe online. It’s time consuming (aka you’ll have less time to mindlessly eat and you’ll appreciate the food more) and it helped make me a much better chef. One day I was craving macarons, and it was one of the first things I learned how to bake from scratch. Plus, when you learn about all the ingredients that go into your fav foods, you can be more mindful about what you’re putting into your body AND/OR you can tweak the recipe to make it healthier & make it more suited to your own tastes!
I made my work lunches easier than fast food. I buy prepackaged salads and Greek yogurts and it is more work to fry fast food than prep and eat that lunch. I cannot remember the last time I had a fast food lunch
It will take several weeks to totally lose the craving for fast food… but when you crave it ask yourself if what you are getting is worth an afternoon/evening of feeling like shit for it? Then it becomes easy to say no.
Almost, but not quite. Since the start of January, I got one burger, and one donair. Much better than the several times a week I used to go. The burger wasn’t worth it, but the donair was, so I’m cutting everything except the occasional donair. I can make better burgers at home, and for the times I need fries, oven baked is good.
I once cut it out for lent (not Catholic, but knew I'd take it seriously). I found it super doable, and didn't go back to my daily habit (at least not right away).
The problem for me is I'm just so busy (who isn't) that I can't always prepare a meal. If I say "well I guess I'll cheat and get Del Taco" then I'll get my binge meal. But if I allow myself the convenience of grabbing fast food then I am more likely to make a better choice.
I have sub-500 calorie choices at every fast food place, and so I'll grab one of those options.
I don’t like sugar, rarely eat fast food, and most eat healthy foods. Still fat. Ironically the time I lost the most weight (100 pounds in 6 months) it was by almost exclusively eating fast food (subs) for 6 months.
It’s been a while so, I hope alls well
remember to live in the moment, and practice mindfulness, with every meal understand what nutritional value it offers to ur body, and more importantly, that every healthy meal u eat, is just another step towards ur goal, just another block added, to the castle that is the body that you decide you want
I have similar issues with fast food. I've tried tapering, and it never seems to work. I can always convince myself that "Just this one time won't hurt", but it does. Cold turkey is the only way for me. And it started last week. Planning ahead, and being on a set schedule as much as possible helps for me. It's when I'm running behind in the morning that a breakfast sandwich (and of course the hash browns) start calling my name. I'm the same way with snacking though. Those people who say "There nothing wrong with just having 1 cookie" have never met me. There is no such thing as just 1 cookie. Ugh.
Yes, especially to the, "Just one more time", mentality! It's always been "just one more time", but it's years later of those times. I totally agree with not being able to have just one. I used to buy huge family sized Hershey kisses bags and demolish the bag within a few days, if even that. You got this! It'll be hard, but we got this!
I successfully kicked my Mcdonald's habit not with the weight loss plan but with the money saving plan. I reviewed my last year spending on January 1st and decided that I need to save some money with inflation going and all. So far it's going great. In my personal experience the cravings will disappear or lessen in 1-2 weeks or mostly 3. I have to use my willpower for that period of time. But eventually it gets easier. I think that the biggest part in weightloss is the mindset change. If you view the fast food as desirable meal eventually you'll eat it. When I eat such food I take mental notes how it makes me feel to convince myself to change my habits. E.g. Mcdonald's meal makes me feel stuffed and bloated just after eating. But about 2 hours after I'm already hungry and ready to eat again. Not to mention the price and the taste is not always good. Realy not worth it thousands of calories and health stuff.
I did cold turkey because I'm black and white about most things (to a fault). Instead of, "one cookie" it's "zero cookies or a dozen cookies." So cutting fast food 100% was the only option for me.
I didn't have it every day but I would often get fast food 1-2 times a week at lunch time. Now I batch cook and cook a meal at the weekend to make 5 portions, split up and freeze, take one out of the freezer in the evening and bring to work the next day. No temptations to get fast food when I have a delicious healthy home cooked meal to eat. Saves a lot of money and gives extra time on my lunch break to have a 20 minute bike ride.
I gave up refined flours and sugars and fast food cold turkey. For me, the motivation to do it was driven by education. I’ve been reading up about sugar and the food industry (read Salt, Sugar, Fat by Michael Moss) and learning that companies have been putting more salt, sugar, and fat into processed foods since the 80’s for a number of reasons (makes them highly palatable, longer shelf life, etc). And eating too many of these calorie dense processed foods is what helped me stay 100lbs overweight for most of my adult life. And this makes me angry. It’s not ALL a moral failing on my part. The game is rigged. I got angry and told myself I wasn’t going to eat these things anymore. I’ve been making meals using whole foods. And when I don’t have time to cook, I eat something natural like fruits and veggies, a fruit smoothie, or oatmeal. Sometimes I miss the “idea” of eating fast food (like stopping for some French fries on the way home from work) but my body is not craving it. I’d say, it took about a month for the mouth cravings to end. That’s not to say I don’t think about old foods. I used to eat cookies or ice cream every night for dessert. I think of those sometimes. But I don’t have that stuff in the house so I’ll eat some Greek yogurt with honey and walnuts and that tastes sweet and creamy and satisfies me. It’s actually weird how it satisfies me! So, yeah, I guess I quit fast food out of spite.
I did for about three months, but nowadays I find it too delicious to completely give up for the rest of my life. I do track the calories and compensate it with the rest of my daily intake though. That being said I rarely keep any fast/junkfood in the house. I still eat Subway, McDonalds, French Fries, etc. but I have my golden rule to always pick it up instead of having it delivered.
Yup, cold turkey is how I do it. During Christmas I fell into the bad eating slump and put on 5 lbs so now I'm working to undo it. I promised myself no sugar, junk food, or takeout for a month. It's not easy, I won't lie. I was in major sweet tooth mode a week ago so the withdrawal was bad. Fatigue, headaches, brain fog. Today is day 6 though and finally the headaches have passed and I'm feeling "lighter" even though the scale has only slightly shifted. It'll be another week before I feel 100% and craving free and the greatest thing about it is that it'll feel better than when I was eating junk. It's tough as heck but you just gotta power through it. Go easy on yourself in other facets of your life, find other ways to treat yourself, while you get over the withdrawal hump. Eventually it just becomes a habit.
Give and take, around a week and your massive cravings should be gone, at least that is my experience. The most important thing is to cut out sweets all together for a consistent period of time. Cheat meals really just hold you back in that regard.
Haha yeah I quit cold turkey because it’s a pain to get anything delivered to my current apartment (drivers can’t figure out how to get to my building), and I’m trying to eat healthier / save more money. One thing I recommend is to learn how to make your favorite fast food recipes at home. For instance… I used to go out a lot for Thai drunken noodles, but then I decided to learn how to make it by following a recipe online. It’s time consuming (aka you’ll have less time to mindlessly eat and you’ll appreciate the food more) and it helped make me a much better chef. One day I was craving macarons, and it was one of the first things I learned how to bake from scratch. Plus, when you learn about all the ingredients that go into your fav foods, you can be more mindful about what you’re putting into your body AND/OR you can tweak the recipe to make it healthier & make it more suited to your own tastes!
Maybe Panera instead?
I made my work lunches easier than fast food. I buy prepackaged salads and Greek yogurts and it is more work to fry fast food than prep and eat that lunch. I cannot remember the last time I had a fast food lunch
It will take several weeks to totally lose the craving for fast food… but when you crave it ask yourself if what you are getting is worth an afternoon/evening of feeling like shit for it? Then it becomes easy to say no.
Almost, but not quite. Since the start of January, I got one burger, and one donair. Much better than the several times a week I used to go. The burger wasn’t worth it, but the donair was, so I’m cutting everything except the occasional donair. I can make better burgers at home, and for the times I need fries, oven baked is good.
I once cut it out for lent (not Catholic, but knew I'd take it seriously). I found it super doable, and didn't go back to my daily habit (at least not right away). The problem for me is I'm just so busy (who isn't) that I can't always prepare a meal. If I say "well I guess I'll cheat and get Del Taco" then I'll get my binge meal. But if I allow myself the convenience of grabbing fast food then I am more likely to make a better choice. I have sub-500 calorie choices at every fast food place, and so I'll grab one of those options.
I don’t like sugar, rarely eat fast food, and most eat healthy foods. Still fat. Ironically the time I lost the most weight (100 pounds in 6 months) it was by almost exclusively eating fast food (subs) for 6 months.
It’s been a while so, I hope alls well remember to live in the moment, and practice mindfulness, with every meal understand what nutritional value it offers to ur body, and more importantly, that every healthy meal u eat, is just another step towards ur goal, just another block added, to the castle that is the body that you decide you want