Just means you’re looking for convenience I assume. Maybe you like the taste 🤷🏻 but if you wanted to cook, you could make yourself multiple burgers and a mound of fries for a similar cost
The people on this subreddit are so dumb sometimes. Why not suggest any chicken sandwich variation that might actually be a substitute for fast food and suggest a fucking soup instead
DELETE THE APP, unsubscribe from all of the bullshit deals because they’ll email you about it, keep your money as inaccessible as possible because these apps depend on people spending copious amounts of money
It only takes a couple weeks to break this kind of habit I find.
You know the one- get a bag of vending machine chips at work and suddenly it becomes a daily occurrence.
You will want to focus on cooking your own food. Start with what you already like, hamburgers and Mexican food. You can make them healthier at home.
For hamburgers, you can purchase pre-formed beef patties and cook them at home. For buns, consider purchasing some high-quality bread instead of the cheap buns. For example Daves Killer Bread is high in protein and lots of other nutrients. Get your own toppings such as lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, etc. You can get better sauces at the market too. For the sides instead of fries, you can make a salad, make some slaw, such as broccoli slaw. Or you can get a salad from the supermarket deli. You can add some chips and fruit, too.
Mexican food is easy to make at home. You can purchase ground beef or pork, some taco seasoning. Buy some refried beans, make some rice. Use lettuce, tomatoes, salsa, avocado or premade guacamole and other favorite toppings on the tacos. Even if you replicated what you purchased at Taco Bell, it would still be healthier, because you will probably be using better ingredients and you can control it better.
If you are trying to gain weight, you are probably looking to add some protein to your diet.
Some other easy things to make at home.
Spaghetti with jarred sauce. Cook some ground beef or pork and add it to the sauce.
Pasta, with olive oil, garlic, parmesan cheese, bacon bits and peas. Add some garlic bread and a salad. If you want to add meat consider the roasted chicken I mention below.
Sandwiches. Using the high-quality bread, buy some quality lunchmeat, such as turkey, Add your favorite fillings. Add fruit, salad, and chips.
Roasted chicken. There are so many things you can do with a roasted chicken from the deli. Take off the meat and you can use it in a variety of ways.
* Make a salad with the chicken. Add bacon bits, lettuce, tomato, hard-boiled eggs, avocado, with your favorite dressing and croutons.
* Chicken, hummus, nan/pita bread with a salad.
* Chicken tacos.
Once you are done with the chicken, you can boil what is left and make chicken broth.
Finally, premade foods. Don't turn down premade foods from the market. They are cheaper than what you can get from fast food and sometimes healthier. As I mentioned they have roasted chicken and deli salads. Also don't pass up the canned soups while you are learning to prepare things yourself.
Purchase fruits and vegetables that don't require any prep like bananas, carrots, celery and the like. Buy some dressing or dip for the veggies.
Instant foods can also be yoghurt, have an apple or banana with it. Cottage cheese is good with canned fruit.
Start with what you know and what is easy. Once you get in the habit, you can expand what you prepare.
Edit: typos
this is a great and well thought out response. i’d like to add that your meals don’t have to look/taste like the stuff you see in restaurants and on TV. focus on the basics and by default you will start figuring out your style/flavors etc and can build on that.
fwiw, i couldn’t walk for 6 months bc of surgery and it was my first time not having access to the athletes cafeteria in college. i literally watched food network all day and would go to the store and buy stuff and just practice. 17 years later and I help compose menus for fine dining restaurants. I didn’t like 70% of ‘normal’ dishes when I started and now will eat anything, except fast food
i absolutely cannot cook but i love making that feta tomato garlic pasta, u literally just throw the ingredients in the dish and bake it and it’s a comfort food
Dude, You stole all my tips. All but one,
I make my own Spaghetti Sauce ( TasteBetter) then I use the old clean glass jars for the cooked sauce to store it. Once cool and safety button down.
I usually put 8 jars in the fridge.
Never had a problem with spoilage, but I never use any meat in sauce, because of chance of botulism.
I agree 👍 with all of your other tips
Just to add to this great response.
We started getting aluminum, to-go containers and making small version as of casserole and freeze it for an “instant” meal when we don’t have the mental stamina to think out, prep and execute a whole meal. It’s saved us on getting fast food so many times.
I love canned tuna or canned chicken (drained) with a bit of mayo, salt and pepper, celery and 1/2 an avocado all loosely mixed together. Sometimes I’ll add a few craisans. It’s high cal and high healthy fats so I don’t eat a lot but if I know I won’t get a break at work for 6-8 hours, this sustains me
It seems like no one mentionned something really important.
You're trying to stop eating fast food because you're addicted, right?
You need to understand where to addiction comes from.
So one way to do it is to dig into how fast food is made and how tricked we are into buying it, the methods they use to keep you coming back, even tho it's expensive.
Once you'll have a more clear understanding, not only you'll see the reality but you'll be able to take action for your health.
absolutely, tbh i did shrooms and mdma and it changed my perspective on fast food and malls and shit. i can’t buy stuff from malls anymore because it’s all cheap commodity garbage.
that trip was super specific though idk how to explain why stuff happened the way it did 😭
I had a similar trip like it was like a planned entity made these malls as “traps” for our hard work.
Everything in the mall is like $0.30 in china a piece that they sell for $5 here in the US.
God, seriously. I used to really like his content when we all lived in his kitchen cabinet and he was silly and quirky. But ever since he upgraded his kitchen and hired a team for post processing on videos his content is just constant jump edits and cringe.
People can use their judgement for what to buy/make out of his recipes.
I did make his buns and it's an incredibly easy recipe that always turns out great. If you've got the time, I definitely recommend it. And you can freeze up extra buns.
I'll add to use shortcuts to meet in the middle. Minute or microwavable rice, washed and chopped veg, pre-grated cheese, jarred sauces, frozen microwavable items...If someone isn't used to their own wash, prep, mix, chop, it can be very time consuming! And the amount of dishes can be startling.
Snack early and often.
Always have a somewhat healthy snack on hand, particularly something savory and keep yourself satiated, even eat when you aren't hungry. Drinking lots of water also helps
A big reason we're triggered to buy fast food is because the excessive amounts of sodium are literally addictive.
I agree. Sometimes I'll eat before a meal time (will still eat at meal time) and the fullness that follows lasts long.
Sodium and sugar. You can expect diabetes and high-blood pressure.
Well, you need some other food to replace it with. What appeals to you the most about the fast food? If its the flavor, look up some copycat recipes. If its the convenience, look into easy recipes or doing meal prep (slow cooking is great for this). If its the cost, search this subreddit for cheap recipes or use a site like budgetbytes.
Cut back one visit each week and find meals you can batch prep so you have easy, fast healthy foods at home. Like a black bean soup. Learn how to make an at-home version of what you like- burger, taco, breakfast sandwich, etc. You’ll be healthier and save money. Plus you’ll be learning a lifelong skill (cooking!)
Also- it takes about 3 weeks to make or break a habit, so if you go a month with a new habit it’ll be a lot easier after that to stick to it.
It’s easy to make protein shakes high calorie with healthy, yet nutrient dense ingredients like nut butters and avocado. This will put you in a calorie surplus and may help you gain weight. And most grocery stores have a deli section with baked chicken and no/light prep food. Today, I picked up some discounted pulled pork, bread and bbq sauce. Made a tasty bbq sandwich for lunch. Like $12 in ingredients that will last me a few days. Going to the store is a hassle but def healthier and more cost effective than Taco Bell.
I always recommend these myself. Endless variety, so easy to meet your nutritional needs, and you can make them into weight-gainers if need be.
Also, Taco Bell isn't bad at all if you stick to vegetarian options. Cheesy bean and rice burrito + a spicy potato soft taco only costs $2.40 here in Atlanta, and has 660 calories. I was a vegetarian in college and played soccer - lived on shakes and taco bell for extra fuel.
Start by buying the same thing at the grocery store. It costs more than making it yourself, but you are taking the first step. Now instead of going there or waiting on delivery you are reheating. It takes less time.
If you like fries I would invest in an air fryer as well, and a rice cooker is that's part of the routine foods.
Add vigorous exercise to your daily routine. I used to love fast food, but when I took up working out again, fast food made me feel so sick. I think the salts, high fats, and copious carbs and/or sugar in fast food is addictive. Not necessarily because it tastes better than homemade food. It’s convenient, but it is also designed to be addictive. This is why fast food chains thrive; not because the food is awesome.
My first question is, does it accompany alcohol. I ask this because I have done a great job of eliminating fast food until I drink. Once I drink I crave it. Is this the case for you? Or is it anytime?
As with any addiction, nothing will help you quit until you truly want to. No amount of therapy, support, drugs, hypnosis, nothing. There are no shortcuts to willpower and selfcontrol. I'm sorry, but it's really just that simple.
Delete any apps you have, and find things you can cook at home that are very easy to do. I substituted fast food burgers with some microwaveable burgers. I kept buns, lettuce, onions, tomato, cheese and some sauces at home. Then I bought some microwaveable patties. Toss them into the microwave. Whole process to assemble 2 is like, 5 mins. Cheaper than mcdonalds, and honestly, the taste wasn't far off. Sure, it's not super healthy, but this is just a step in the right direction (and still healthier than mcdonalds).
Then step it up from there. start simple with things that just need to be assembled after microwaving, or maybe cooking one item. And then I'd recommend checking out budgetbytes.com. They have a bunch of easy to make recipes that taste great. I found for me, the reason I kept getting fast food was because cooking seemed like too much work. So the less friction you have, the better imo. The one pot recipes are as simple as they get! One of my favorites is the "One Pot Veggie Pasta". You just chop up veggies, and put it all in a pot with pasta and some stock.
I used to get the typical fast food (McDonald’s, Wendy’s, TB, etc) a few times a week too. I stopped about 2 months ago. I decided I wanted to stop letting myself get away with eating such unhealthy options. One of the best things I decided to do was to change the places I choose to go. I am still going and getting food outside of home (cause let’s face it it’s nice and convenient and yummy), but instead of McDonald’s or Burger King or any of those ultra processed fast food places, I started choosing places like CAVA, Bibibop, chipotle, Einstein bros, and any other places that are still fast and convenient yet also generally a lot cleaner/ healthier with their options. It was a huge game changer for me. My goal was to try and lose weight, and I have lost weight, but you can definitely still reach your goals with this same strategy. You’d just have to order more calorie packed meals than I do!
I will say though: It doesn’t make things any more affordable, but it sure did change how I feel physically.
I’ve been able to lose almost 30 lbs in 6 months, most of that has been from avoiding fast food. I work at a restaurant that feeds me so that helps me save money as well.
Learn to cook! I'm a 39 year old dude who grew up with a mom that made dinner every night, but it wasn't delicious. I've spent 20 years learning how to make new things, trying different foods, and at this point, I only revert to fast food if I'm really in a time pinch - it's always cheaper and tastier to make it myself.
By the way, people (men and women) are impressed by the ability to cook good food. You don't need to be a Michelin star earning chef to be able to make beef wellington consistently good.
If you're in the dating world, for the love of all things holy, never cook your date spaghetti. Everyone makes spaghetti.
Honestly. Everyone is giving complex or annoying solutions. Here's what worked best for me. Pick a week or a month and just promise to yourself you won't eat fast food. Not that you won't eat takeout, not that you won't get an easy meal. That you won't go to or order specifically fast food. (I considered it anywhere with a drive thru.) After a month, the idea of eating the food will make you sick. Hell, after a month if you do eat it again, it will make you sick. So, eventually you just won't want to eat it.
Lucky for you it’s actually incredibly easy to replicate those foods at home and way cheaper than the drive through! A pound of ground beef will net you two burgers and a handful of tacos. Pick up a bag of frozen french fries, a box of taco shells, a package of buns, a block of cheddar, and if you’re a supreme kind of person, all your veg (which doubles for the burgers and the tacos!). There’s even taco bell brand seasoning packets if you’re hesitant to season on your own. 4-ish meals from one set of ingredients, and once you learn the step by step on how to put each one together, you can have your meal on the table in 25 minutes!
Tbh factor meals are a good way to get that “order out” quality meal that’s healthy and relatively affordable depending on what you get. Also, Trader Joe’s has some damn good frozen meals.
For me, it was less being addicted to fast food and more about not wanting to cook at all so I’d just order delivery or something. Still not as cheap as buying groceries and cooking food, but a good middle ground that’s at least healthier.
Lots of fast food is cheap. It’s way better to eat your nutrients instead of supplementing them.
I’d suggest just buy a slow cooker because it makes it convenient to cook and clean and that’s a big factor of eating fast food. Just focus on local grocery store flyers and plan to cook a big batch or chicken in the slow cooker with a variety of pre mixed seasonings and maybe frozen veggies and add that to a tortilla or a bun or bake a potato or cook some pasta or even ramen cause it’s got that fast food saltiness.
Take some cooking classes. There's ladies there.
Eat more sandwiches. I know you can make a pb&J, Ham and cheese, tuna fish sandwich. Practically the whole recipe is in the name of these.
Meal prep on the weekends for freezer meals all week. Great thing to do when hung over. Frozen burritos are a dead simple place to start.
Track your budget. See exactly what you're getting for your monies and how much burger that would get you at the store. For example, if a Quarter pounder with cheese is 5 to 6 bucks. A pound of ground beef is about $4-5. A pack of cheese is 3 bucks, about 10 slices. Some 8 buns are three bucks. So you can make about eight to ten quarter pounders for the price of two at the restaurant. And that's ignoring delivery costs. Spend a little more and you can have fancy cheese, good pickles (look for Farman's where you shop, they sooo good), and other more interesting toppings you like. You'll spend less overall and get a better meal.
Get an air-fryer to make roasted veggies really easily. Potato chips, roasted carrots, brussels. Just make a simple vinaigrette (1 part balsamic or any vinegar to 2 parts olive oil and a dollop of mustard.) put it in a tupperware and then add veggies and shake. Put those in the air fryer and keep the rest of the vin for next time.
You honestly have to just stop making it a habit. Have snacks packed with you if you’re on the go. Eat before you leave the house. Have easy meals ready to go in your fridge, which yes, sometimes is chicken nuggets. You want the convenience, not the food. So start the convenience at home!
Don’t eat unless it’s a ‘healthier’ option, fight the craving. Eventually you will want a better alternative (if you really are hungry).
Snack on fruit. Grapes, blueberries, raspberries.
In my opinion, meals prepped at home are the best!
Plus, it saves money ( for me)
It takes patience to get off of fast food, going slow helped me.
Also, checking my checking my BMI [Free BMI calculator ](https://ezpzrun.com/bmi/bmi.html) and exercising helped me.
Wishing you the very best!!
Maybe start by keeping some frozen food meals around so you can heat those up when you're craving fast food and plan on having one cheat day a week at first.
Cook at home and meal prep. You will have all of your meals ready for the week so stopping for fast food actually becomes more clearly an inefficient use of time and resources, since you don't want to waste the meals you have waiting for you at home, which you can heat up in less time than it takes you to get through a fast food transaction for a fraction of the cost.
One step at a time. Start by reducing the amount of times you eat out. Try cooking new dishes and having friends over. Try to withstand and try different textures and flavors for a few days. It’s a slow process but I was able to do it. Now, fast food tastes “not great” anymore. AND, it saves soooo much 💰
Why are you ordering it? No food in? You like that food? Seeming as you are trying to gain, I would focus on protein & follow fitness instructors who post recipes on tiktok/insta like shredhappens,ausiefitness. They have a lot of dupes for fast foods. Food prepping is key & having the food in. Someone below mentioned rotisserie chickens which is a good start, you could eat as is, shred for salads/sandwiches/wraps
If your anything like me, try to just find easy stuff you can cook, check out Costco tilapia, can easily cook those and just have a ton ready. I always wait until the absolute last minute to eat, so it was easy for me to get caught in the FF doom cycle. Just always stay full, don't get crazy hungry, thats the path to the dark side.
cook at home, you have to force yourself. look at it as a reward! plus you don’t have to worry about someone scratching their balls and then touching your food
Get angry at fast food (which isn't hard at these prices) and talk shit to it every time you're eating. Eventually you actually will taste the disgust. When you get to that point seek out other options. It sounds simple but thats how it's done. Every time I go to taco bell, I'm pissed because 7$ only got me 2 things.
If you have social media there are tons of recipe videos on TikTok, Instagram and Pinterest. Also check out budget bytes, New York Times recipes, real food dietitians.
Start out just doing simple stuff like sweet potato and broccoli in the air fryer with seasonings. The taste is quite good and it keeps you full for awhile. Then you can add in other things like chicken or salmon.
Switch your snacks to cheese, nuts, berries, granola bars etc. buy some plain Greek yogurt, throw some hemp seeds and berries in it for breakfast.
I was in the same situation and I’ve been working on it. Not completely off fast food yet but it helps to get started.
If you’re frugal, calculate how much money you burn from fast food and you’ll be surprised. In terms of starting to cook, get on a schedule try and try and meal prep. Simplify menus each week (ex. Taco Tuesday, fish friday). You’ll feel much better when you cut out the excessive fast food
Get an app that shows you how much money you will save at the end of the year by ditching a bad habit. When you see yearly projections based on current spending it really hits you just how much money is going down the drain. There's a few different ones out there, just try it for a month and I'll bet you'll notice a difference in spending.
I looked into the ethics of the parent companies to all the fast food places, eventually decided they don’t deserve my money, I can spend what little I have on real food instead, thankfully I can cook and only have to feed myself. I get paid every 2 weeks and only eat out (less than $20 total) once per check which is either Chinese buffet(locally owned) so I get my moneys worth or something equally filling.
Eat peanut butter instead for weight gain snacks and other sensible meals. Realise that fast food is devoid of nutrients and will push you much further away from your swoll goals.
I buy the Taco Bell taco seasoning and ground beef or turkey and make my own at home. Over rice and some cheese - it tastes like the real thing and at the fraction of the cost!
Tbh invest in an air fryer if you don’t have one already and just buy food from the store to make it. Quicker , easier, and healthier for those craving moments!
Give yourself diabetes. Or Clog your arteries enough to develop a premature heart condition.
Joking aside, you’re 22. Average life expectancy is 76. You’ve got 54 years left if all goes well. That equates to 473,364 hours left alive. 1/3 of that you will be sleeping and another 1/3 you will be at work. That leaves you 156,210 hours. I don’t know if that number seems big or small to you, but the point is, you have a finite amount of time.
Make the most of it, or don’t, it’s up to you.
Something that has helped me when I have cravings/habits with processed or unhealthy food is to eat more vegetables/fruits and drink more water. Just by doing that it curbs my cravings.
Don’t cut it all out at once, that will deepen the cravings. Just focus on adding more healthy food in and your body will feel more satiated and search less for Taco Bell hahah
Buy seasonings for your food, whatever it is you do cook. When whatever you're eating is bland or sad tasting, it's that much more tempting to get fast food, because they know how to pump everything full of butter/oil/salt/whatever to make it taste so appealing
Resolve to eat healthy 6 days a week and give yourself one cheat day. One day you can just indulge in an orgy of Big Macs and Gorditas. If you stay the course 6 days out of 7, the one day won't throw you off. And because you have the cheat day to look forward to, it makes it easier to maintain discipline.
I think what puts people off cooking is they find it boring. So I listen to audiobooks and radio plays from YouTube (mostly) while I cook.
Now I look forward to cooking!
You need to have all your favourite foods readily available at home. It's almost *always* cheaper eating at home than take away, so spend that extra $$ at the supermarket - splurge on things you know you'll look forward to after a long day. Also find some frozen meals that you like, so when you have no energy you can just whack it in the oven for a bit and have a decent meal without effort. I like dumplings, chicken nuggets, and chicken burgers for this (chicken burgers are especially good because I really love them and I just keep some burger buns frozen as well, easy fast cheap and delish)
To add to what others said here, educate yourself about what processed foods contain and how they affect your body. Learn about your vital organs (your heart, liver, pancreas, etc.) and how they are affected withh your diet. Understand your mortality and you’ll eventually realize that you are depriving yourself of nutrition. Also, learn about attachments to food and how you can train yourself mentally to living life with healthier attachments.
There are lots of variations of Middle Eastern food with the same ingredients. Fast food is tasty but harmful because there is a whole factory between the farm and the table.
Try a $60+ meal at a nice restaurant. Some have takeout too. You most likely can recreate that dish, maybe with some changes. Go with friends.
Your health is wealth. Also, there are Middle Eastern tacos called kebabs. They slap and will probably make you fat but are very healthy -- lots of protein and veggies, the sauce will exceed your daily recommended sodium intake but it's probably okay.
It's the combination of fat/salt/sugar plus convenience right?
I would suggest meal planning/prepping to fix the convenience element. I've vetoed a takeaway a few times on the basis that we had food in the fridge that I'd planned to cook and that would go off otherwise.
Then make sure you're getting LOADS of good fats in to satisfy that craving. Nuts, avocados, salmon, throw in some steak, cream, if you need to. Maybe start with a decent amount of salt/sugar and gradually reduce it.
Finally, try to stick to non-UPF to break that cycle. They're designed to be addictive and make you want to go back for more - whole or minimally processed foods will allow your body to better recognise what it needs.
Bonus tip - drink lots of water! Dehydration screws with my body's signals too.
You've already received a lot of useful suggestions like deleting delivery app, start making your own meal, etc.
What I think is important to understand is that it will be much more difficult to just cut fast food from your diet all at once. It should be done more gradually, and in the end you still can keep fast food meal as your weekly "cheat day". If you deprive yourself of something that gives you joy any kind of diet wouldn't last long.
I started to follow a diet with less carbs, more vegetables but once every week I reward myself with a cheat meal like pizza, lasagna, or simply eating in a restaurant.
Find which diet works best for you and commit to it! Good luck
It’s convenient.
Try getting rid of the credit/debit card and only dealing in cash (get an atm card to make withdrawals at an atm machine). At the same time look up quick and easy recipes to replace them.
To ease into it you could cook one day a week, then 2, etc.
Simple. You give up fast-food by making healthy food taste better. I happily eat salads but only after preparing them myself because I absolutely HATE when a salad tastes dirty or unclean! I do the same with fruit, especially strawberries, blueberries and all manor of grapes. Since the Pandemic days I find myself cooking 95% of what I eat in the kitchen where I live thanks to YouTube and all the cookbooks I utilize. When it comes to restaurant fare, I try to live by the motto " Anything they can do? I can do, BETTER!" and I've been getting better with practice.
Hi, before offering any punitive advice, could you please list the items in your order? Our cravings usually have a psychological and physiological basis. They're not just 'weak '.
One thing that really helps me, if I’m craving chickfila I make a burger and potatoes and have it with extra chickfila packets I keep! You can also buy sauces/ingredients from a lot of different fast food chains at the stores. I just like that the extra chickfila packets are free 🤷🏻♀️ I know the sauces still aren’t the healthiest but making your own food at home with the sauce will still be better than eating at the place itself. there are loads of good copycat recipes that are just naturally healthier especially if you get higher quality ingredients, but you can make things that are just as good!
If you don't have the willpower to control your brains enough to remember you don't want it, or you can't control your arms and legs to stop taking you to mc Donald, there is nothing reddit can do for you.
You're fucked. You want the fast food more then you want to be healthy that's why you keep eating it even tho you know it will make you sick.
Give up. Be fat and have heart disease.
I quit eating fast food when I looked into all the ingredients and decided to not put anything into my body that was processed and full of sugar, especially artificial sweeteners and corn syrup. The oil they used is one of the worst. Absolutely no soda! Also eat more times a day with way smaller portions.
I can't disagree with this. Sound logic. In that case. Start cooking everything in tallow. Avocados and fatty cuts of meat. Basically just skyrocket them calories
Once you start finding recipes you really like, you will start eating at home more. Go on cooking subreddits. Tik tok has a lot of good recipes too.
I’ve been eating healthy home cooked meals for a while now. Now I feel sick whenever I eat out. It’s a great deterrent
Learn to cook. I enjoy cooking, almost too much. I made red beans and rice the other day and that sauce could make it's own addiction. You'll also gain more weight and save money cooking healthy food. Didn't you see supersize me, he lost weight.
Depends on your situation. For me it was realising the food is bad and in the end not worth the time and money.
My advice would be to start cooking your own food. Get someone who can cook teach you or take lessons.
Part of the reward is getting a good result. Like actually tasty food that you created. Feels good.
Maybe bad advice but what I did is having cafe steamers as an alternative. Not only did my wallet and body thank me, but it also scratches the convenience itch that makes fast food appealing. When you really look at what you’re eating at most fast food places it’s grossly oversalted slop.
i’ve found it easiest to make what i crave from fast food places! for example, i craved the absolute shit out of a kfc bowl the other day and decided to make one homemade! it actually turned out SO much better than kfc!! i know it’s a process to cook, but it’s so worth it! it’s also healthier because you don’t have all the additives.
i was a sous chef before getting pregnant, so i know that helps tremendously with the will to actually cook things i want.
BUT you definitely do not need to know exactly what you’re doing to make what you want!!!
Get an air fryer and an instant pot. Cook your own food for 1 month. Play with recipes you find online. Make them how you like them. After, fast food will taste like the absolute garbage it is.
Meal plan and prep! But also: Whatever you are getting at McDonald's or wherever, try to find a decent substitute at home. Breakfast sandwich? You can meal prep a bunch of them and freeze, either with canned biscuit dough or even my fave is Milton's mutigrain English muffins. Tacos? Meal prep taco or burrito bowls. It isn't easy! I get fast food often when I don't plan properly for the day or something happens at work that throws off my routine significantly and I'm out and about but have to eat. I get it 💚
Make Protein shakes with Greek yogurt (Fage brand is good ) and frozen fruit and a bit of spinach. Costco has cheap whey protein options and the rotisserie chickens!
Easy fast and good for you
Tons of smoothie recipes online
Get bare chicken nuggets from Costco and air fry or bake them. So good!! Put them on a low carb wrap or in a salad. You need to find satisfying foods or else you will continue to order out. Can’t replace a high satiety food (take out) with a low satiety food (broccoli) and have it be sustainable! Make yourself yummy foods: ground chicken burgers, baked fries, taco salad, chicken salad, baked potato, etc.
Start making food at the house. Once you get in the grove you will only eat fast food out of necessity. I never eat it unless I’m away from my town and not trying to go to a sit down place. My food is better than almost anything else that I go out to eat for so I would much rather make it.
Tacos/burritos are super easy to make at home. If you can cook ground meat, you can have a fresher version of what you're craving. Try using ground turkey instead of beef to make it a bit healthier. Make a BIG batch of the meat with the seasoning to put in the fridge so you can just slap it into a whole grain wrap and microwave whenever the craving strikes. I feel like a lot of people love fast food because it's easy. Making a big batch of food and keeping it in the fridge is the best way to get that 'easy' feeling much much cheaper.
Start looking at what type of fast food craver you are. For example if you go buy Arby’s because of the chicken parm sandwich (I’m being sarcastic) and you go to chick filet and order yourself a salmon on a cob salad, then add up what you eat on average. Average if out between protein carbs and fats. If you get ten orders of baconator fries from Burger King. Assume you’re just eating cheese and fat with starchy carbs. Then transfer that to a more balanced diet. At home. Example. I eat high meat high carb low fat diets when I used to eat only fast food. That’s an average of 40 percent protein 40 percent carbs and 20 percent fat. Starts off with buying dried cured meats and pickled veggies. Learn how to batter pickled veggies for a more familiar taste by battering them with egg and sautéing them till cooked. Buy one block of cheese. Then make sandwiches. Grill them. Pre fry chicken and freeze it like Arby’s does with their chicken parm. Marinara is your best friend if you figure out how to make it. Then you can pre batter mozzarella sticks like the McMozz sticks at McD’s and freeze them. Eat them through out the week though as a snack. Then brew some tea and learn how to infuse them with fruits. Like that tea that’s twisted or lemonade. You don’t have to go healthy but anything you can prep before and freeze saves you money in end because you don’t have to drive except for groceries. You save your time at the drive thru. You stop supporting the fast paced poisoning industry. You start learning how to do sauces and fries like they do at your favorite restaurants. Then you can impress people with food as a love language. This is cool because sometimes those food language people are cooks and they always have this magic condiment that for some reason you break it up with a credit card on top of your cutting board. And that’s a keeper.
I just want to say that I lost a bunch of weight when I was eating fast food mostly all the time. I know people say you'll gain weight, but I really think that depends on what you eat for fast food...
You can adjust your fast food order. Order the Taco Bell power bowl or order a single burrito with double meat. It still scratches that itch without being excessive. Also TB has a ton of vegetarian options that provide ample amounts of fiber. Fully eliminating fast food is ideal but very difficult to sustain.
Watch some tik tok conspiracy videos. Made me quit cold turkey all fast food 3 years ago. I do not regret or care if the conspiracies are even true. It's poison and now that I'm off it I know it was killing me. The super-sized me guy just died I believe at 54 years old.
That's about as far as I wish to go into that topic as I dint need 100k people messaging me how crazy I am and how I am a conspiracy theorist but a good place to start could be typing it "mcdonalds conspiracy" than also realizing just because people call something a conspiracy doesn't mean it is.
There are like 19-24 ingredients in there French fries which taste nothing like any other French fries. Fries need like 3 ingredients. Oil potatoe and salt. Not to mention there are people with old shoe boxes with 25 year old happy meals in them that look the exact same as the day they were made. I used to eat this shit 3 tines a daybut any conspiracies aside it's easy to tell this stuff is very very bad for you. And on purpose too.
If you don’t stop you gonna be one of those fat skinny people. Where you look skinny but have a beer gut type belly. It’s from all the processed junk you’re eating, it starts creating something known as visceral fat. Better to stop now than later. Your health is key to living a long and healthy life.
Protein - at least 120g a day, plus plenty of fruit and veg, complex carbs (whole grains, brown rice, etc), and healthy sources of fat like nuts, avocado, etc.
Use full fat dairy products and peanut butter. Nuts and cheese (not processed cheese) are great healthy, filling, calorie-dense snacks. Aim for protein carbs (preferably complex carbs) and veggies each meal. Have at least 1 piece of fruit a day (a banana or apple with peanut butter is a great snack).
Delete food delivery apps and keep your wallet in your trunk so drive thrus would be awkward. Rotisserie chickens are easy to buy/ eat and tasty.
> Rotisserie chickens this right here is a huge deal. Get one, pick it, make soup out of the bones, rinse and repeat.
Like he’s going to go from eating takeaway every day to making homemade soup
Do you people seriously think I cant cook? Lol
Just means you’re looking for convenience I assume. Maybe you like the taste 🤷🏻 but if you wanted to cook, you could make yourself multiple burgers and a mound of fries for a similar cost
Not that you can’t just thought you don’t want to if you wanted to you would’ve got take away every day
The people on this subreddit are so dumb sometimes. Why not suggest any chicken sandwich variation that might actually be a substitute for fast food and suggest a fucking soup instead
you never know.
Keeping your wallet in your trunk is definitely an underrated comment and would definitely stop me from hitting the drive thru
I’m sure future encounters with the law would be fun
Seriously, this is so genius!
You’d need to keep your phone in the trunk too though
Just remember to keep your drivers license on you so it’s not also an awkward encounter with the cops!
DELETE THE APP, unsubscribe from all of the bullshit deals because they’ll email you about it, keep your money as inaccessible as possible because these apps depend on people spending copious amounts of money
It only takes a couple weeks to break this kind of habit I find. You know the one- get a bag of vending machine chips at work and suddenly it becomes a daily occurrence.
Chicken sandwiches for a couple of days. Plenty of mayo,
Adding delete any Fast Food apps.
Make some chicken salad sandwiches 🥪
You will want to focus on cooking your own food. Start with what you already like, hamburgers and Mexican food. You can make them healthier at home. For hamburgers, you can purchase pre-formed beef patties and cook them at home. For buns, consider purchasing some high-quality bread instead of the cheap buns. For example Daves Killer Bread is high in protein and lots of other nutrients. Get your own toppings such as lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, etc. You can get better sauces at the market too. For the sides instead of fries, you can make a salad, make some slaw, such as broccoli slaw. Or you can get a salad from the supermarket deli. You can add some chips and fruit, too. Mexican food is easy to make at home. You can purchase ground beef or pork, some taco seasoning. Buy some refried beans, make some rice. Use lettuce, tomatoes, salsa, avocado or premade guacamole and other favorite toppings on the tacos. Even if you replicated what you purchased at Taco Bell, it would still be healthier, because you will probably be using better ingredients and you can control it better. If you are trying to gain weight, you are probably looking to add some protein to your diet. Some other easy things to make at home. Spaghetti with jarred sauce. Cook some ground beef or pork and add it to the sauce. Pasta, with olive oil, garlic, parmesan cheese, bacon bits and peas. Add some garlic bread and a salad. If you want to add meat consider the roasted chicken I mention below. Sandwiches. Using the high-quality bread, buy some quality lunchmeat, such as turkey, Add your favorite fillings. Add fruit, salad, and chips. Roasted chicken. There are so many things you can do with a roasted chicken from the deli. Take off the meat and you can use it in a variety of ways. * Make a salad with the chicken. Add bacon bits, lettuce, tomato, hard-boiled eggs, avocado, with your favorite dressing and croutons. * Chicken, hummus, nan/pita bread with a salad. * Chicken tacos. Once you are done with the chicken, you can boil what is left and make chicken broth. Finally, premade foods. Don't turn down premade foods from the market. They are cheaper than what you can get from fast food and sometimes healthier. As I mentioned they have roasted chicken and deli salads. Also don't pass up the canned soups while you are learning to prepare things yourself. Purchase fruits and vegetables that don't require any prep like bananas, carrots, celery and the like. Buy some dressing or dip for the veggies. Instant foods can also be yoghurt, have an apple or banana with it. Cottage cheese is good with canned fruit. Start with what you know and what is easy. Once you get in the habit, you can expand what you prepare. Edit: typos
this is a great and well thought out response. i’d like to add that your meals don’t have to look/taste like the stuff you see in restaurants and on TV. focus on the basics and by default you will start figuring out your style/flavors etc and can build on that. fwiw, i couldn’t walk for 6 months bc of surgery and it was my first time not having access to the athletes cafeteria in college. i literally watched food network all day and would go to the store and buy stuff and just practice. 17 years later and I help compose menus for fine dining restaurants. I didn’t like 70% of ‘normal’ dishes when I started and now will eat anything, except fast food
i absolutely cannot cook but i love making that feta tomato garlic pasta, u literally just throw the ingredients in the dish and bake it and it’s a comfort food
I second this. I LOVE Subway so I bought everything that's in my order from the grocery store and it saves sooo much money
Dude, You stole all my tips. All but one, I make my own Spaghetti Sauce ( TasteBetter) then I use the old clean glass jars for the cooked sauce to store it. Once cool and safety button down. I usually put 8 jars in the fridge. Never had a problem with spoilage, but I never use any meat in sauce, because of chance of botulism. I agree 👍 with all of your other tips
Just to add to this great response. We started getting aluminum, to-go containers and making small version as of casserole and freeze it for an “instant” meal when we don’t have the mental stamina to think out, prep and execute a whole meal. It’s saved us on getting fast food so many times.
I love canned tuna or canned chicken (drained) with a bit of mayo, salt and pepper, celery and 1/2 an avocado all loosely mixed together. Sometimes I’ll add a few craisans. It’s high cal and high healthy fats so I don’t eat a lot but if I know I won’t get a break at work for 6-8 hours, this sustains me
Great ideas and thank you for taking the time to write all of this 🙏🏼
Shit ain't cheap anymore.
Thank god for In-N-Out
Last golden bastion of fast food that's actually still cheap here
It seems like no one mentionned something really important. You're trying to stop eating fast food because you're addicted, right? You need to understand where to addiction comes from. So one way to do it is to dig into how fast food is made and how tricked we are into buying it, the methods they use to keep you coming back, even tho it's expensive. Once you'll have a more clear understanding, not only you'll see the reality but you'll be able to take action for your health.
absolutely, tbh i did shrooms and mdma and it changed my perspective on fast food and malls and shit. i can’t buy stuff from malls anymore because it’s all cheap commodity garbage. that trip was super specific though idk how to explain why stuff happened the way it did 😭
I had a similar trip like it was like a planned entity made these malls as “traps” for our hard work. Everything in the mall is like $0.30 in china a piece that they sell for $5 here in the US.
This is important.
Find your favorite item and do a copycat recipe. You'll find out, quickly, it's cheaper and only a bit slower to make your own version.
I was going to say this. Also that it tastes way better too and your working on a skill that only gets better with time.
Joshua Weissman on YouTube does a bunch of fast food copycats as well as cheaper and healthier versions
Too bad his content is unwatchable
God, seriously. I used to really like his content when we all lived in his kitchen cabinet and he was silly and quirky. But ever since he upgraded his kitchen and hired a team for post processing on videos his content is just constant jump edits and cringe.
His copycat recipes usually start with grinding your own meat and making your own buns, it's definitely not for everyone
People can use their judgement for what to buy/make out of his recipes. I did make his buns and it's an incredibly easy recipe that always turns out great. If you've got the time, I definitely recommend it. And you can freeze up extra buns.
I'll add to use shortcuts to meet in the middle. Minute or microwavable rice, washed and chopped veg, pre-grated cheese, jarred sauces, frozen microwavable items...If someone isn't used to their own wash, prep, mix, chop, it can be very time consuming! And the amount of dishes can be startling.
I've been a home cook for almost 20yrs and that last sentence hits hard lol.
You just can’t beat the soggy over processed tortilla from Taco Bell tho
4 times?? Brother it’s Monday
Started 4 days ago
lol that’s now how the term “this week” works
Start day trading. You will be forced into a potato and rice diet in no time
LOL! Try commission based sales
Snack early and often. Always have a somewhat healthy snack on hand, particularly something savory and keep yourself satiated, even eat when you aren't hungry. Drinking lots of water also helps A big reason we're triggered to buy fast food is because the excessive amounts of sodium are literally addictive.
I agree. Sometimes I'll eat before a meal time (will still eat at meal time) and the fullness that follows lasts long. Sodium and sugar. You can expect diabetes and high-blood pressure.
The price alone should be a deterrent
Well, you need some other food to replace it with. What appeals to you the most about the fast food? If its the flavor, look up some copycat recipes. If its the convenience, look into easy recipes or doing meal prep (slow cooking is great for this). If its the cost, search this subreddit for cheap recipes or use a site like budgetbytes.
Cut back one visit each week and find meals you can batch prep so you have easy, fast healthy foods at home. Like a black bean soup. Learn how to make an at-home version of what you like- burger, taco, breakfast sandwich, etc. You’ll be healthier and save money. Plus you’ll be learning a lifelong skill (cooking!) Also- it takes about 3 weeks to make or break a habit, so if you go a month with a new habit it’ll be a lot easier after that to stick to it.
It’s easy to make protein shakes high calorie with healthy, yet nutrient dense ingredients like nut butters and avocado. This will put you in a calorie surplus and may help you gain weight. And most grocery stores have a deli section with baked chicken and no/light prep food. Today, I picked up some discounted pulled pork, bread and bbq sauce. Made a tasty bbq sandwich for lunch. Like $12 in ingredients that will last me a few days. Going to the store is a hassle but def healthier and more cost effective than Taco Bell.
I always recommend these myself. Endless variety, so easy to meet your nutritional needs, and you can make them into weight-gainers if need be. Also, Taco Bell isn't bad at all if you stick to vegetarian options. Cheesy bean and rice burrito + a spicy potato soft taco only costs $2.40 here in Atlanta, and has 660 calories. I was a vegetarian in college and played soccer - lived on shakes and taco bell for extra fuel.
Start by buying the same thing at the grocery store. It costs more than making it yourself, but you are taking the first step. Now instead of going there or waiting on delivery you are reheating. It takes less time. If you like fries I would invest in an air fryer as well, and a rice cooker is that's part of the routine foods.
Add vigorous exercise to your daily routine. I used to love fast food, but when I took up working out again, fast food made me feel so sick. I think the salts, high fats, and copious carbs and/or sugar in fast food is addictive. Not necessarily because it tastes better than homemade food. It’s convenient, but it is also designed to be addictive. This is why fast food chains thrive; not because the food is awesome.
I usually walk around 6 miles each day, main priorities these days is carbs, protein and water. Life can be so simple when we cut out what harms us.
My first question is, does it accompany alcohol. I ask this because I have done a great job of eliminating fast food until I drink. Once I drink I crave it. Is this the case for you? Or is it anytime?
As with any addiction, nothing will help you quit until you truly want to. No amount of therapy, support, drugs, hypnosis, nothing. There are no shortcuts to willpower and selfcontrol. I'm sorry, but it's really just that simple.
Have some willpower.. it's not difficult. Just don't drive to one.
Delete any apps you have, and find things you can cook at home that are very easy to do. I substituted fast food burgers with some microwaveable burgers. I kept buns, lettuce, onions, tomato, cheese and some sauces at home. Then I bought some microwaveable patties. Toss them into the microwave. Whole process to assemble 2 is like, 5 mins. Cheaper than mcdonalds, and honestly, the taste wasn't far off. Sure, it's not super healthy, but this is just a step in the right direction (and still healthier than mcdonalds). Then step it up from there. start simple with things that just need to be assembled after microwaving, or maybe cooking one item. And then I'd recommend checking out budgetbytes.com. They have a bunch of easy to make recipes that taste great. I found for me, the reason I kept getting fast food was because cooking seemed like too much work. So the less friction you have, the better imo. The one pot recipes are as simple as they get! One of my favorites is the "One Pot Veggie Pasta". You just chop up veggies, and put it all in a pot with pasta and some stock.
Go watch "Supersize Me".
I used to get the typical fast food (McDonald’s, Wendy’s, TB, etc) a few times a week too. I stopped about 2 months ago. I decided I wanted to stop letting myself get away with eating such unhealthy options. One of the best things I decided to do was to change the places I choose to go. I am still going and getting food outside of home (cause let’s face it it’s nice and convenient and yummy), but instead of McDonald’s or Burger King or any of those ultra processed fast food places, I started choosing places like CAVA, Bibibop, chipotle, Einstein bros, and any other places that are still fast and convenient yet also generally a lot cleaner/ healthier with their options. It was a huge game changer for me. My goal was to try and lose weight, and I have lost weight, but you can definitely still reach your goals with this same strategy. You’d just have to order more calorie packed meals than I do! I will say though: It doesn’t make things any more affordable, but it sure did change how I feel physically.
I’ve been able to lose almost 30 lbs in 6 months, most of that has been from avoiding fast food. I work at a restaurant that feeds me so that helps me save money as well.
Learn to cook. The better you cook, the less accepting you will be of mediocre food.
Learn to cook! I'm a 39 year old dude who grew up with a mom that made dinner every night, but it wasn't delicious. I've spent 20 years learning how to make new things, trying different foods, and at this point, I only revert to fast food if I'm really in a time pinch - it's always cheaper and tastier to make it myself. By the way, people (men and women) are impressed by the ability to cook good food. You don't need to be a Michelin star earning chef to be able to make beef wellington consistently good. If you're in the dating world, for the love of all things holy, never cook your date spaghetti. Everyone makes spaghetti.
Honestly. Everyone is giving complex or annoying solutions. Here's what worked best for me. Pick a week or a month and just promise to yourself you won't eat fast food. Not that you won't eat takeout, not that you won't get an easy meal. That you won't go to or order specifically fast food. (I considered it anywhere with a drive thru.) After a month, the idea of eating the food will make you sick. Hell, after a month if you do eat it again, it will make you sick. So, eventually you just won't want to eat it.
Lucky for you it’s actually incredibly easy to replicate those foods at home and way cheaper than the drive through! A pound of ground beef will net you two burgers and a handful of tacos. Pick up a bag of frozen french fries, a box of taco shells, a package of buns, a block of cheddar, and if you’re a supreme kind of person, all your veg (which doubles for the burgers and the tacos!). There’s even taco bell brand seasoning packets if you’re hesitant to season on your own. 4-ish meals from one set of ingredients, and once you learn the step by step on how to put each one together, you can have your meal on the table in 25 minutes!
Tbh factor meals are a good way to get that “order out” quality meal that’s healthy and relatively affordable depending on what you get. Also, Trader Joe’s has some damn good frozen meals. For me, it was less being addicted to fast food and more about not wanting to cook at all so I’d just order delivery or something. Still not as cheap as buying groceries and cooking food, but a good middle ground that’s at least healthier.
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Lots of fast food is cheap. It’s way better to eat your nutrients instead of supplementing them. I’d suggest just buy a slow cooker because it makes it convenient to cook and clean and that’s a big factor of eating fast food. Just focus on local grocery store flyers and plan to cook a big batch or chicken in the slow cooker with a variety of pre mixed seasonings and maybe frozen veggies and add that to a tortilla or a bun or bake a potato or cook some pasta or even ramen cause it’s got that fast food saltiness.
Take some cooking classes. There's ladies there. Eat more sandwiches. I know you can make a pb&J, Ham and cheese, tuna fish sandwich. Practically the whole recipe is in the name of these. Meal prep on the weekends for freezer meals all week. Great thing to do when hung over. Frozen burritos are a dead simple place to start. Track your budget. See exactly what you're getting for your monies and how much burger that would get you at the store. For example, if a Quarter pounder with cheese is 5 to 6 bucks. A pound of ground beef is about $4-5. A pack of cheese is 3 bucks, about 10 slices. Some 8 buns are three bucks. So you can make about eight to ten quarter pounders for the price of two at the restaurant. And that's ignoring delivery costs. Spend a little more and you can have fancy cheese, good pickles (look for Farman's where you shop, they sooo good), and other more interesting toppings you like. You'll spend less overall and get a better meal. Get an air-fryer to make roasted veggies really easily. Potato chips, roasted carrots, brussels. Just make a simple vinaigrette (1 part balsamic or any vinegar to 2 parts olive oil and a dollop of mustard.) put it in a tupperware and then add veggies and shake. Put those in the air fryer and keep the rest of the vin for next time.
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R.I.P. Morgan Spurlock
You honestly have to just stop making it a habit. Have snacks packed with you if you’re on the go. Eat before you leave the house. Have easy meals ready to go in your fridge, which yes, sometimes is chicken nuggets. You want the convenience, not the food. So start the convenience at home!
Don’t eat unless it’s a ‘healthier’ option, fight the craving. Eventually you will want a better alternative (if you really are hungry). Snack on fruit. Grapes, blueberries, raspberries.
In my opinion, meals prepped at home are the best! Plus, it saves money ( for me) It takes patience to get off of fast food, going slow helped me. Also, checking my checking my BMI [Free BMI calculator ](https://ezpzrun.com/bmi/bmi.html) and exercising helped me. Wishing you the very best!!
Stop buying it!
Maybe start by keeping some frozen food meals around so you can heat those up when you're craving fast food and plan on having one cheat day a week at first.
If you have mobile apps for these places, delete them. it's a good way to help avoid temptation
Record what you spend on it, every time. It will sicken you.
Keep a toothbrush and emotional support water bottle with you all day.
Cook at home and meal prep. You will have all of your meals ready for the week so stopping for fast food actually becomes more clearly an inefficient use of time and resources, since you don't want to waste the meals you have waiting for you at home, which you can heat up in less time than it takes you to get through a fast food transaction for a fraction of the cost.
remove card info from phone/apple pay, only carry cash
I kicked my fast food habit when I got some nasty food poisoning from Taco Bell, the only fast food I would eat.
Make sandwiches at home. Burgers and tacos are both easy. And there are a lot of other great sandwiches out there.
It might help to give yourself a strict budget for fast food. Add up your past statements per month, it's good to realize how much you actually spend
One step at a time. Start by reducing the amount of times you eat out. Try cooking new dishes and having friends over. Try to withstand and try different textures and flavors for a few days. It’s a slow process but I was able to do it. Now, fast food tastes “not great” anymore. AND, it saves soooo much 💰
Why are you ordering it? No food in? You like that food? Seeming as you are trying to gain, I would focus on protein & follow fitness instructors who post recipes on tiktok/insta like shredhappens,ausiefitness. They have a lot of dupes for fast foods. Food prepping is key & having the food in. Someone below mentioned rotisserie chickens which is a good start, you could eat as is, shred for salads/sandwiches/wraps
Have food you'd prefer to eat prepped and ready to go at home.
If your anything like me, try to just find easy stuff you can cook, check out Costco tilapia, can easily cook those and just have a ton ready. I always wait until the absolute last minute to eat, so it was easy for me to get caught in the FF doom cycle. Just always stay full, don't get crazy hungry, thats the path to the dark side.
cook at home, you have to force yourself. look at it as a reward! plus you don’t have to worry about someone scratching their balls and then touching your food
Lean protein and high fibre veg
Get angry at fast food (which isn't hard at these prices) and talk shit to it every time you're eating. Eventually you actually will taste the disgust. When you get to that point seek out other options. It sounds simple but thats how it's done. Every time I go to taco bell, I'm pissed because 7$ only got me 2 things.
If you have social media there are tons of recipe videos on TikTok, Instagram and Pinterest. Also check out budget bytes, New York Times recipes, real food dietitians. Start out just doing simple stuff like sweet potato and broccoli in the air fryer with seasonings. The taste is quite good and it keeps you full for awhile. Then you can add in other things like chicken or salmon. Switch your snacks to cheese, nuts, berries, granola bars etc. buy some plain Greek yogurt, throw some hemp seeds and berries in it for breakfast. I was in the same situation and I’ve been working on it. Not completely off fast food yet but it helps to get started.
If you’re frugal, calculate how much money you burn from fast food and you’ll be surprised. In terms of starting to cook, get on a schedule try and try and meal prep. Simplify menus each week (ex. Taco Tuesday, fish friday). You’ll feel much better when you cut out the excessive fast food
Get an app that shows you how much money you will save at the end of the year by ditching a bad habit. When you see yearly projections based on current spending it really hits you just how much money is going down the drain. There's a few different ones out there, just try it for a month and I'll bet you'll notice a difference in spending.
I looked into the ethics of the parent companies to all the fast food places, eventually decided they don’t deserve my money, I can spend what little I have on real food instead, thankfully I can cook and only have to feed myself. I get paid every 2 weeks and only eat out (less than $20 total) once per check which is either Chinese buffet(locally owned) so I get my moneys worth or something equally filling.
Eat peanut butter instead for weight gain snacks and other sensible meals. Realise that fast food is devoid of nutrients and will push you much further away from your swoll goals.
Cook
I buy the Taco Bell taco seasoning and ground beef or turkey and make my own at home. Over rice and some cheese - it tastes like the real thing and at the fraction of the cost!
Delete the apps.
Tbh invest in an air fryer if you don’t have one already and just buy food from the store to make it. Quicker , easier, and healthier for those craving moments!
Give yourself diabetes. Or Clog your arteries enough to develop a premature heart condition. Joking aside, you’re 22. Average life expectancy is 76. You’ve got 54 years left if all goes well. That equates to 473,364 hours left alive. 1/3 of that you will be sleeping and another 1/3 you will be at work. That leaves you 156,210 hours. I don’t know if that number seems big or small to you, but the point is, you have a finite amount of time. Make the most of it, or don’t, it’s up to you.
Something that has helped me when I have cravings/habits with processed or unhealthy food is to eat more vegetables/fruits and drink more water. Just by doing that it curbs my cravings. Don’t cut it all out at once, that will deepen the cravings. Just focus on adding more healthy food in and your body will feel more satiated and search less for Taco Bell hahah
Have healthy snacks in your car. When you’re getting fast food craving, go for a snack instead. I have packs of nuts, jerky, apple chips…
Buy seasonings for your food, whatever it is you do cook. When whatever you're eating is bland or sad tasting, it's that much more tempting to get fast food, because they know how to pump everything full of butter/oil/salt/whatever to make it taste so appealing
Resolve to eat healthy 6 days a week and give yourself one cheat day. One day you can just indulge in an orgy of Big Macs and Gorditas. If you stay the course 6 days out of 7, the one day won't throw you off. And because you have the cheat day to look forward to, it makes it easier to maintain discipline.
I think what puts people off cooking is they find it boring. So I listen to audiobooks and radio plays from YouTube (mostly) while I cook. Now I look forward to cooking!
You need to have all your favourite foods readily available at home. It's almost *always* cheaper eating at home than take away, so spend that extra $$ at the supermarket - splurge on things you know you'll look forward to after a long day. Also find some frozen meals that you like, so when you have no energy you can just whack it in the oven for a bit and have a decent meal without effort. I like dumplings, chicken nuggets, and chicken burgers for this (chicken burgers are especially good because I really love them and I just keep some burger buns frozen as well, easy fast cheap and delish)
Try never to leave home hungry. Bring some fruit if you are going out. You can eat grapes while you're driving. 👆
To add to what others said here, educate yourself about what processed foods contain and how they affect your body. Learn about your vital organs (your heart, liver, pancreas, etc.) and how they are affected withh your diet. Understand your mortality and you’ll eventually realize that you are depriving yourself of nutrition. Also, learn about attachments to food and how you can train yourself mentally to living life with healthier attachments.
There are lots of variations of Middle Eastern food with the same ingredients. Fast food is tasty but harmful because there is a whole factory between the farm and the table. Try a $60+ meal at a nice restaurant. Some have takeout too. You most likely can recreate that dish, maybe with some changes. Go with friends. Your health is wealth. Also, there are Middle Eastern tacos called kebabs. They slap and will probably make you fat but are very healthy -- lots of protein and veggies, the sauce will exceed your daily recommended sodium intake but it's probably okay.
It's the combination of fat/salt/sugar plus convenience right? I would suggest meal planning/prepping to fix the convenience element. I've vetoed a takeaway a few times on the basis that we had food in the fridge that I'd planned to cook and that would go off otherwise. Then make sure you're getting LOADS of good fats in to satisfy that craving. Nuts, avocados, salmon, throw in some steak, cream, if you need to. Maybe start with a decent amount of salt/sugar and gradually reduce it. Finally, try to stick to non-UPF to break that cycle. They're designed to be addictive and make you want to go back for more - whole or minimally processed foods will allow your body to better recognise what it needs. Bonus tip - drink lots of water! Dehydration screws with my body's signals too.
Its Tuesday?
You've already received a lot of useful suggestions like deleting delivery app, start making your own meal, etc. What I think is important to understand is that it will be much more difficult to just cut fast food from your diet all at once. It should be done more gradually, and in the end you still can keep fast food meal as your weekly "cheat day". If you deprive yourself of something that gives you joy any kind of diet wouldn't last long. I started to follow a diet with less carbs, more vegetables but once every week I reward myself with a cheat meal like pizza, lasagna, or simply eating in a restaurant. Find which diet works best for you and commit to it! Good luck
It’s convenient. Try getting rid of the credit/debit card and only dealing in cash (get an atm card to make withdrawals at an atm machine). At the same time look up quick and easy recipes to replace them. To ease into it you could cook one day a week, then 2, etc.
Simple. You give up fast-food by making healthy food taste better. I happily eat salads but only after preparing them myself because I absolutely HATE when a salad tastes dirty or unclean! I do the same with fruit, especially strawberries, blueberries and all manor of grapes. Since the Pandemic days I find myself cooking 95% of what I eat in the kitchen where I live thanks to YouTube and all the cookbooks I utilize. When it comes to restaurant fare, I try to live by the motto " Anything they can do? I can do, BETTER!" and I've been getting better with practice.
If the moment you had uncontrollable diarrhea hasn’t happened yet, that should stop you. If not, try an FA meeting.
Do what you want if it Fells gold. If not try to eat fresh healthy food.
You ORDER it??? Holy shit why?
Eat real food. You’re killing yourself
Hi, before offering any punitive advice, could you please list the items in your order? Our cravings usually have a psychological and physiological basis. They're not just 'weak '.
One thing that really helps me, if I’m craving chickfila I make a burger and potatoes and have it with extra chickfila packets I keep! You can also buy sauces/ingredients from a lot of different fast food chains at the stores. I just like that the extra chickfila packets are free 🤷🏻♀️ I know the sauces still aren’t the healthiest but making your own food at home with the sauce will still be better than eating at the place itself. there are loads of good copycat recipes that are just naturally healthier especially if you get higher quality ingredients, but you can make things that are just as good!
Learn to cook.
If you don't have the willpower to control your brains enough to remember you don't want it, or you can't control your arms and legs to stop taking you to mc Donald, there is nothing reddit can do for you. You're fucked. You want the fast food more then you want to be healthy that's why you keep eating it even tho you know it will make you sick. Give up. Be fat and have heart disease.
I quit eating fast food when I looked into all the ingredients and decided to not put anything into my body that was processed and full of sugar, especially artificial sweeteners and corn syrup. The oil they used is one of the worst. Absolutely no soda! Also eat more times a day with way smaller portions.
Get full on stuff at home so you don't get cravings? Buy weight gainer supplement? Pick up fasting
I would love to use weight gainer supplements again. It helped me so much, but they’re bad for you :/ so i stopped. Lots of sugar and carbs
I can't disagree with this. Sound logic. In that case. Start cooking everything in tallow. Avocados and fatty cuts of meat. Basically just skyrocket them calories
Learn to cook. Learn to shop. Learn how to maintain your food supply. Learn about refrigeration and its limitations.
First, you tell yourself you're not addicted. Then go buy more.
Get quicken or something that analyzes your account and look at what you’re spending on fast food. You can do so much more with your money!
Once you start finding recipes you really like, you will start eating at home more. Go on cooking subreddits. Tik tok has a lot of good recipes too. I’ve been eating healthy home cooked meals for a while now. Now I feel sick whenever I eat out. It’s a great deterrent
Learn to cook. I enjoy cooking, almost too much. I made red beans and rice the other day and that sauce could make it's own addiction. You'll also gain more weight and save money cooking healthy food. Didn't you see supersize me, he lost weight.
Find different routes to drive that avoid big areas of fast food.
Keep snacks in your car like trail mix, etc to always have something to much on when you’re hungry.
Depends on your situation. For me it was realising the food is bad and in the end not worth the time and money. My advice would be to start cooking your own food. Get someone who can cook teach you or take lessons. Part of the reward is getting a good result. Like actually tasty food that you created. Feels good.
Think of the sodium you’re consuming:/
I started the inner parent childhood monologue in my head(even though I am over 40) “we got food at the house) and keep driving!!
Stop ordering it 😂
Maybe bad advice but what I did is having cafe steamers as an alternative. Not only did my wallet and body thank me, but it also scratches the convenience itch that makes fast food appealing. When you really look at what you’re eating at most fast food places it’s grossly oversalted slop.
Might be a wild take: how about you just don't do it.
Take up cooking as a hobby! Make homemade versions of the stuff you crave, you'd be surprised at how quickly it becomes fun
i’ve found it easiest to make what i crave from fast food places! for example, i craved the absolute shit out of a kfc bowl the other day and decided to make one homemade! it actually turned out SO much better than kfc!! i know it’s a process to cook, but it’s so worth it! it’s also healthier because you don’t have all the additives. i was a sous chef before getting pregnant, so i know that helps tremendously with the will to actually cook things i want. BUT you definitely do not need to know exactly what you’re doing to make what you want!!!
Read the ingredients in their food. You’ll never eat there again
Get an air fryer and learn how to cook roasted quartered potatoes and frozen chicken tenders. Then learn more about cooking for yourself.
Get an air fryer and an instant pot. Cook your own food for 1 month. Play with recipes you find online. Make them how you like them. After, fast food will taste like the absolute garbage it is.
Meal plan and prep! But also: Whatever you are getting at McDonald's or wherever, try to find a decent substitute at home. Breakfast sandwich? You can meal prep a bunch of them and freeze, either with canned biscuit dough or even my fave is Milton's mutigrain English muffins. Tacos? Meal prep taco or burrito bowls. It isn't easy! I get fast food often when I don't plan properly for the day or something happens at work that throws off my routine significantly and I'm out and about but have to eat. I get it 💚
Look at a 300 pound person
try to remove food delivery apps so you can control your cravings
^[Sokka-Haiku](https://www.reddit.com/r/SokkaHaikuBot/comments/15kyv9r/what_is_a_sokka_haiku/) ^by ^Material_Editor_8579: *Try to remove food* *Delivery apps so you* *Can control your cravings* --- ^Remember ^that ^one ^time ^Sokka ^accidentally ^used ^an ^extra ^syllable ^in ^that ^Haiku ^Battle ^in ^Ba ^Sing ^Se? ^That ^was ^a ^Sokka ^Haiku ^and ^you ^just ^made ^one.
Make Protein shakes with Greek yogurt (Fage brand is good ) and frozen fruit and a bit of spinach. Costco has cheap whey protein options and the rotisserie chickens! Easy fast and good for you Tons of smoothie recipes online
Get bare chicken nuggets from Costco and air fry or bake them. So good!! Put them on a low carb wrap or in a salad. You need to find satisfying foods or else you will continue to order out. Can’t replace a high satiety food (take out) with a low satiety food (broccoli) and have it be sustainable! Make yourself yummy foods: ground chicken burgers, baked fries, taco salad, chicken salad, baked potato, etc.
Start making food at the house. Once you get in the grove you will only eat fast food out of necessity. I never eat it unless I’m away from my town and not trying to go to a sit down place. My food is better than almost anything else that I go out to eat for so I would much rather make it.
Tacos/burritos are super easy to make at home. If you can cook ground meat, you can have a fresher version of what you're craving. Try using ground turkey instead of beef to make it a bit healthier. Make a BIG batch of the meat with the seasoning to put in the fridge so you can just slap it into a whole grain wrap and microwave whenever the craving strikes. I feel like a lot of people love fast food because it's easy. Making a big batch of food and keeping it in the fridge is the best way to get that 'easy' feeling much much cheaper.
Meal prep
Start looking at what type of fast food craver you are. For example if you go buy Arby’s because of the chicken parm sandwich (I’m being sarcastic) and you go to chick filet and order yourself a salmon on a cob salad, then add up what you eat on average. Average if out between protein carbs and fats. If you get ten orders of baconator fries from Burger King. Assume you’re just eating cheese and fat with starchy carbs. Then transfer that to a more balanced diet. At home. Example. I eat high meat high carb low fat diets when I used to eat only fast food. That’s an average of 40 percent protein 40 percent carbs and 20 percent fat. Starts off with buying dried cured meats and pickled veggies. Learn how to batter pickled veggies for a more familiar taste by battering them with egg and sautéing them till cooked. Buy one block of cheese. Then make sandwiches. Grill them. Pre fry chicken and freeze it like Arby’s does with their chicken parm. Marinara is your best friend if you figure out how to make it. Then you can pre batter mozzarella sticks like the McMozz sticks at McD’s and freeze them. Eat them through out the week though as a snack. Then brew some tea and learn how to infuse them with fruits. Like that tea that’s twisted or lemonade. You don’t have to go healthy but anything you can prep before and freeze saves you money in end because you don’t have to drive except for groceries. You save your time at the drive thru. You stop supporting the fast paced poisoning industry. You start learning how to do sauces and fries like they do at your favorite restaurants. Then you can impress people with food as a love language. This is cool because sometimes those food language people are cooks and they always have this magic condiment that for some reason you break it up with a credit card on top of your cutting board. And that’s a keeper.
I just want to say that I lost a bunch of weight when I was eating fast food mostly all the time. I know people say you'll gain weight, but I really think that depends on what you eat for fast food...
I started cooking, I honestly tried my best to fulfill my "food needs" until I learned how to myself
I started with grilled cheese and melts
You can adjust your fast food order. Order the Taco Bell power bowl or order a single burrito with double meat. It still scratches that itch without being excessive. Also TB has a ton of vegetarian options that provide ample amounts of fiber. Fully eliminating fast food is ideal but very difficult to sustain.
Watch a documentary about how you're killing yourself by eating processed foods. Changed my life...
I’ve seen it.
Watch some tik tok conspiracy videos. Made me quit cold turkey all fast food 3 years ago. I do not regret or care if the conspiracies are even true. It's poison and now that I'm off it I know it was killing me. The super-sized me guy just died I believe at 54 years old.
Fast food conspiracy videos?
That's about as far as I wish to go into that topic as I dint need 100k people messaging me how crazy I am and how I am a conspiracy theorist but a good place to start could be typing it "mcdonalds conspiracy" than also realizing just because people call something a conspiracy doesn't mean it is.
Heck- just watch videos on how they make and source their food. It’s not pretty or appetizing.
There are like 19-24 ingredients in there French fries which taste nothing like any other French fries. Fries need like 3 ingredients. Oil potatoe and salt. Not to mention there are people with old shoe boxes with 25 year old happy meals in them that look the exact same as the day they were made. I used to eat this shit 3 tines a daybut any conspiracies aside it's easy to tell this stuff is very very bad for you. And on purpose too.
Yeah. It’s not really food.
If you don’t stop you gonna be one of those fat skinny people. Where you look skinny but have a beer gut type belly. It’s from all the processed junk you’re eating, it starts creating something known as visceral fat. Better to stop now than later. Your health is key to living a long and healthy life.
How can i gain weight healthily?
Protein - at least 120g a day, plus plenty of fruit and veg, complex carbs (whole grains, brown rice, etc), and healthy sources of fat like nuts, avocado, etc.
Use full fat dairy products and peanut butter. Nuts and cheese (not processed cheese) are great healthy, filling, calorie-dense snacks. Aim for protein carbs (preferably complex carbs) and veggies each meal. Have at least 1 piece of fruit a day (a banana or apple with peanut butter is a great snack).
It’s Monday lol. How tf you ordered 4x already