But Ronald, I don't want another hit. I want to break my addiciton!

Dorkman

Being a fairly heavy set lad, I am taking steps to try and get back on track and get my health back in order. I have been working out fairly regularly, getting to bed at a decent time, all that fun stuff. My one problem is eating.

Yeah, the number one things to get in line before things go well. I know.

I can't seem to break my eating issues. I will constantly sneak in fast food for lunch or dinner and I just can't seem to stop. I want to, but it seems whenver I get that urge it has to be filled. It pisses me off that I used to be heavy into hockey and other sports but now am ballooning and can't really stop it. I can't even do the exercises I want (burpees and more of those BW exercises) because I have messed up my back due to this gut I am sporting.

Any ideas or suggestions on how to get away from this would help. I am at my wits end.

PeregrineFalcon

Start tallying up the money you spend on fast food. Every penny.

Then look at it at the end of the week/month/etc and go "Damn, imagine what I could do with that kind of money." Be it a shiny new electronic toy, new clothes, paying down bills, or bulking up your 401k.

Then imagine being able to do that every week/month/etc.

EggyToast

How are you acquiring this fast food? I know it's lame to say this, but you gotta buy food before you can eat it, and junky fast food doesn't just appear -- you have to seek it out. Whether that's driving to a fast food place or buying giant bags of Doritos at the grocery store, THAT is the change you need. Not actually consuming it. Once it's purchased, you might as well eat it, right?

So like PF points out, look at it from a financial perspective -- if you don't spend the money on it, you can't eat it. Or if you don't engage in the activity that takes you to the fast food joint, you can't spend the money on it.

Richard_Dastardly

The tallying of the money trick helped me quit buying lattes everyday and instead get an espresso machine. It's easy to miss how spending 4 or 5 bones everyday on something can really add up.

Try making your lunch at home and carrying only enough cash as you'll need for other stuff. Bury the credit cards under 6 feet of concrete and hellfire.

Dog

You should seriously start doing that for everything. This is where I make my token plug for mint.com as well.

It's seriously an awesome tool to show you where your money is going. Now, I know that this isn't a thread about saving cash, but like PF said, being able to visualize how much you are spending on fast food (or insert other guilty pleasure here) every month, and then seeing where that money could better be spent is a great thing, and it will actually motivate you to do that.


You can even set up a budget with the tool, so you will get angry text messages and notices and things when you spend more than X on fast food.

witch_ie

I have pretty much the same problem - not that I eat a lot of fast food, but that it's so easy to eat more food than is good for weight loss. Usually after eating more than I should (and I'm talking like having an extra peanut butter and jelly sandwich), I feel bad about it. Discipline is just so hard.

Now, I'm trying out keeping one of those food/exercise diaries. I'm putting in the date, everything I consume with their calorie values (that I look up if they're not on the packaging), how much exercise I did that day, and my weight that morning. I'm hoping it will keep me from wanting to write down those foods that I know I should not be eating. Right now, it's too easy to sneak one of those unhealthly meals/snacks in and then pretend it didn't happen.

Dorkman

robothero wrote: »

You should seriously start doing that for everything. This is where I make my token plug for mint.com as well.

It's seriously an awesome tool to show you where your money is going. Now, I know that this isn't a thread about saving cash, but like PF said, being able to visualize how much you are spending on fast food (or insert other guilty pleasure here) every month, and then seeing where that money could better be spent is a great thing, and it will actually motivate you to do that.


You can even set up a budget with the tool, so you will get angry text messages and notices and things when you spend more than X on fast food.

Can't use mint.com. Canadian and all that jazz.

The sad this is, I make my lunch at home..It just sits in the fridge here as I run off to my burger affair. I guess I will try crunching some numbers tonight and maybe that will scare me. I just don't understand why I break down on nearly a daily basis when I know how crap the stuff us.

Dog

Damn canadians.

I think there are some other applications that will let you do something similar, Quicken and whatnot, but other canucks would know better.


So I'm assuming you're a workin' stiff, not a student or whatnot, right?

Kyougu

For a week, starting keeping tabs of calories. Record everything. Your mind will be blown by how much calories there are in most fast food. You can get over half of your calories for a day in a meal from Mcdonalds.

Dorkman

Kyougu wrote: »

For a week, starting keeping tabs of calories. Record everything. Your mind will be blown by how much calories there are in most fast food. You can get over half of your calories for a day in a meal from Mcdonalds.

Thats the problem, I did for a week...saw I was eating 2000-3000 calories a day..and apparantly that still isnt enough to scare me. I really wish I knew what I was thinking. Yeah.

So I'm assuming you're a workin' stiff, not a student or whatnot, right?

Yep, slaving away for the man. This all could be related due to me being fired from my first occupation out of university (Auditor - working towards my CA). Since I am not sponsored by a CA firm, I can no longer go for that. So I picked up this current contracts administrator job until I figure out what to do next.

Maybe I am just an unstable psychologically.

Dog

Schedule meetings during lunch so you don't have time to "sneak out" and put reminders on your calendar.

Make constant plans with a coworker (who also brings their lunch) to eat lunch together, and let them know whats up. Having another person relying on you and/or busting your balls will keep you to the routine.

Evil Gummy

It sounds like emotional eating, I used to do a similar thing. I wanted badly to control my eating, and then I'd go back and forth each day on whether or not to go to the local coffee shop for a mocha and a muffin.

Part of me did it because there was something about just sitting in a quiet coffee shop with a book and a sweet treat, it was so damn comforting. I finally stopped for good when it clicked one day in my head that after all the work I did (otherwise clean eating, workouts, etc.), this was keeping me from really getting where I wanted.

Do you maybe like the ACT of going out to eat the fast food, do you not like eating at work, or do you just bring the Mcd's back to your break room anyway?

If seeing the calories and money isn't phasing you, it might be something more mental/emotional, or maybe you don't quite feel the drive to change as much as you think you do?

Robos A Go Go

I think you'll be in a better position to kick the habit if, instead of having to choose between McDonald's and no McDonald's, you choose between McDonald's and an alternative you create for yourself. It could be a healthier kind of food, some activity to keep you occupied when you'd otherwise be eating, excetera.

Even better if you can have healthy lunch/dinner with someone else, as the desire to keep your plans with the other person will likely overpower your desire to eat fast food.

EggyToast

Gummy has a good point -- perhaps take your lunch that you bring to work, and then get in the car and drive somewhere -- perhaps a park or local food court. Maybe you're using it as an excuse to get out of the office?

Sir Carcass

If you can't build up the willpower to not go get food, stop bringing money with you to work.

Entriech

Are the lunches that you bring with you exciting? I know part of what occasionally drove my desire to go out and buy food was that what I had brought with me that day wasn't appetizing or was boring.

Dorkman

Not to derail my own thread..but what would make an exciting lunch?

Today was a chicken breast over veggies with some italian dressing spritzed on it for taste. Sorta like a salad, but I usually heat it up.

EggyToast

My wife is on a pretty fun diet. It's all calorie counting, of course, since that's what it comes down to, but she budgets her meals so that she has approximately 200 calories left over after dinner, so she can eat a dessert and a small glass of wine -- two things she greatly enjoys.

Because of her sweet tooth, her diet allows her to still eat things that satisfy her cravings without wrecking the diet. And when her diet is over, she can simply eat more food during the day without having a huge dessert attack -- in other words, her overall diet isn't that different.

For example, when eating fast food, if you order a Whopper Jr with no mayo, it's actually quite reasonable on the calorie front (a smidge under 300 calories). It's similar for the normal whopper -- aboutu 515 calories for a whopper with no mayo.

If you had a whopper for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, you would eat 1600 calories. No fries, mind, and the soda has to be diet (in other words, just order the sandwich, not the meal).

I'm not going to tell you it's healthy food, because it's not, but if you were the kind of person who absolutely had to have a fast food burger occasionally, knowing what you can eat that isn't all that bad is key. It's the difference between being able to stick to a diet, and slowly blimping out. It's no different than knowing which desserts are healthier, which vegetables are healthier, and so on.

Kyougu

Are you treating dieting as something you're going to do till you get to a certain point, or as something long term?

I just ask because for the longest time, I couldn't stick to diets because I would end up breaking it once (eating out, eating junk food, etc), get depressed at my lack of will power, figured it wasn't worth staying on the diet and give up. Or sometimes I would give myself a weekend break from the diet, one that would stretch on for a week, then two weeks, etc.

It wasn't until I told myself I was in it for the long term, that I was building healthy habits, that things clicked. Even if I did have a burger, or a treat, I reminded myself it was just a stumbling block, and that I didn't have to quit because in the long term (long as I kept things up) one or two occasions didn't matter.

Oh, and if you're going to eat out fast food, you could eat "healthier" fast food. Taco Bell, Chick Fil A, and Subway are good options. Small steps can take you far.

taliosfalcon

Well since you say your in canada i'm going to suggest wendys. I've dropped about 100 pounds since january eating there roughly 3 meals a week (i just don't have the time or drive to prepare/bring food with me all the time) You can get a grilled chicken sandwich + side salad for under 500 calories as an example. Kinda like eggy mentioned i've found there's no problem with eating fast food fairly often as long as you don't go for the "giant burger topped with bacon topped with more burger topped with cheese"

geckahn

Anyone can lose weight, it's not hard. All you need is will power. Which most people lack.

The basics? Don't diet. You need a life change. You need to understand how terrible most of the food you eat is for you. How can you do this? not really sure. I'd probably recommend reading The Omnivores Dilemma.

Make all of your own meals. Learn how to cook, and make double portions for dinner so you have another serving for lunch tomorrow. etc. Most of your diet should be composed of vegetables and protein (meat, nuts) with plenty of fruits. Cut way down on carbs - you really only need one serving a day. And it should be something like brown rice or whole grain bread (that is ACTUALLY whole grain - brown bread with the consistency of white bread isn't much better then white bread. What mostly matters here is how long and how much energy it takes your body to breakdown the bread).

And if you need to get some fast food, chipotle or qdoba is your very very good friend. Stop worrying about calories and start worrying about the quality of what goes inside you.

when it comes to weight loss, exercise is literally like 10% of the battle. Food is 90%. I've been the skinniest and best looking I have ever been in my life - single digit BF - while not working out at all. and eating a lot of healthy food.

Jealous Deva

That is a good point, what really kills you with fast food and what makes a 500 calorie meal go to a 1000 calorie+ meal are side items. Dropping fries, chips, and drinking non-diet soda or sweetening your own tea with artificial sweeteners can really knock down your caloric intake.


I go to burger king a fair amount, and have a ritual of ordering a stacker and an apple pie. These are what I consider the core of the meal, the 2 things I really want.

I have the option of:

BK Stacker: 620 calories
Dutch apple pie: 320 calories
+ Water/diet coke

For 940 calories. Which is a lot, but not too bad for one meal, I can be conservative for breakfast and lunch and still be under 2000 calories for the day.

Alternatively, lets see what happens if I get a meal with that:

Large Coke: 390(!) Calories
Large Fries: 580(!) Calories

So I've almost doubled the caloric intake of the meal. In one meal, I've almost met my entire target caloric intake for the whole day. Dropping down to medium only shaves about 200 calories off of that.

Now, as I honestly don't care all that much whether my coke is diet or not, and I don't even like fries that much. If I'm willing to forgo the apple pie, I can even get it down to 620 calories, which is very reasonable for a meal.

geckahn

As an addendum to my advice, if you're really as compulsive as you've made yourself sound, I'd get some therapy from someone with a Phd who has some experience in treating addiction.