8 Weeks Not Eating Fast Food

America’s Food Standards

According to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2005, Americans consume too many calories, saturated and trans fats, salt, cholesterol and added sugars. The guidelines suggest that Americans should adjust their daily intake to include more potassium and vitamin E rich foods. They advise individuals to choose more fruits and vegetables while decreasing intake of foods that are low in nutrients but have a high energy level. Examples of these high energy level foods include fried foods.

Why Do We Eat This Stuff?

Availability – In many parts of the country, we are overrun with fast food and junk food options. There are fast food restaurants on every other street corner.

The Price – There’s the ever-present-well-lit-open-24-hours-drive-thru menu at Whataburger. There’s McDonald’s Dollar Menu at 4am – McDouble, fries, 2 pies, and so on . Del Taco’s 2 for $5.00 Deluxe Combo Burrito’s at midnight. There always open and always cheap.

3. The Taste – While some would disagree that fast food tastes good, big chain fast food corporations pay tens of millions of dollars to figure out what taste, texture, and temperature combination will be more than just mildly non-offensive. The food items have to be so taste-filled that an otherwise reasonable person will overlook every detail on where that combination of ingredients came from.

The First Step

Going Cold Turkey
I had to completely gross myself out from eating fast food. So I went online and searched for McDonald’s, Don’t Eat At McDonald’s and of course “Super Size Me” – The Movie. What I found was very disturbing, and it really made me realize how I had come to be 50 pounds overweight. I was ashamed and embarrassed of myself, how could I put all that crap in my body? So I just had to quit Cold Turkey and that was that!

Fast Food = Fat Food

The Truth
As if The movie “Super Size Me” wasn’t bad enough I saw another video about a wellness educator and nutrition consultant Karen Hanrahan. She has kept a McDonald’s hamburger since 1996 to illustrate its non-existent ability to decay. Aside from drying out and bit and having “the oddest smell,” it apparently hasn’t changed much in the past 12 years. That was “super gross”.

If you over-eat on food, you might end up getting cavities. If that is the case, you will probably want to visit a dentist or dental assistant that can help you with controlling the cavities so you can get back on track to eating right.

Eating Healthy

Your Meal Plan
Remember this – in the end weight loss is still about burning more calories than you take in. The advantage to these foods is that they may help you do just that – if you eat them instead of some higher-calorie foods.

Your Goals
Set them and carry through, it’s not easy but if you never do it, you never will. I wrote my story of sticking with it and never giving up. I set my mind on my goals, stuck with it, and ended up loosing 20 pounds this summer!