Getting in Shape

Trouble cutting out fast food?

So I'm usually do a ton of lurking on here but today I'm taking the plunge and posting!
Anyway, I'm terrible with sticking to a "diet" and in turn feel like I shouldn't even post here. But something that seriously benefitted me and helped me cut out the fast food that I used to know and love was learning about what goes into the fast food we eat and the way the animals are treated, how it affects local farmers, etc, etc, etc.
I'm so not going to get on a bandwagon about eating organic (because no one wants to hear that from me) but since I took the time to watch some movies (like Food Inc) and read about the differences between organic and non organic and everything that goes into it, I just quit fast food cold turkey. I never have a craving, I never even want to stop to get an iced tea from a fast food place. I only eat organic meat and fruits/veggies and it's totally helped me in my weight loss as well as the way I feel over all. Even if you don't intend on switching to organic food, it totally helps with fast food cravings.
So long story short, it sounds weird, but if you need a reason to quit processed foods and fast food, educate yourself on the way that stuff is made and it'll probably help  you quit that stuff.

Re: Trouble cutting out fast food?

  • Great suggestion! I love things like that. I also really like Michael Pollan's books and "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" by Barbara Kingsolver about her quest to eat locally and grow most of her own food for a year.
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  • Great suggestion.  Reading Fast Food Nation (Eric Schlosser) is what did fast food in for me.  I don't think I've eaten any fast food since finishing that book, not because the food is gross (well, it's actually also gross) but because learning about how fast food has changed the American food landscape in so many ways is stomach turning in itself. 

    I also loved Michael Pollen's books, The Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food.
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  • edited August 2010
    Amen sister. I am riiiiiiiiight there with you. I watched a couple specials and I'm dunzo with fast food forever. I eat mostly organic. I say mostly because there are some things on the market that all you have to do is flip over the package and read the ingredients. If you can pronounce all of them even if it's not USDA organic.... I'll buy it.
  • I didn't know Fast Food Nation was a book, I only thought it was a movie. My fiance watched it and I felt like it may be too much for me to watch, I mean I cried during Food Inc and I was told Fast Food Nation is worse so I was a chicken and never watched it. I'm definitely going to read the book, I had no idea there was one!
    Food Inc made me sad for the animals but sad for the American public, like you said KNJ92107, and sad for the farmers.
    I'm going to check out the books everyone suggested!
  • Eh, all I needed to cut out fast food was to think of the money. It wasn't classic fast food like McD's or BK, it was all sorts of stuff. But I was spending $20 a week on groceries, and buying lunch every day at work added $5 a day to that, i.e. it more than doubled my food budget.
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