Coming from an ex-fast food junkie, I know exactly what it's like to try to break unhealthy eating habits. I used to do the fast food shuffle where practically every day I would visit one of my handful of favorite fast food restaurants and eat an unhealthy meal.
My list was pretty extensive but for the most part I would alternate between McDonald's, Carl's Jr., Taco Bell, Burger King, KFC, Wienerschnitzel, pizza delivery, and a local place called Arry's. The funny thing is, still to this day I remember the specific meals I would order from each one of these spots. Since I was a creature of habit, I knew exactly what it took to satisfy my hunger cravings and unfortunately it was nothing healthy.
The problem is, if you are concerned with losing weight and getting into better shape, these are the types of food you need to avoid. Over the past two years as I have been regaining control over my nutrition, I realize how unhealthy my eating habits were and the main reason why I ballooned up to nearly 300 pounds.
But don't take it from me, let's look at the actual facts to see why certain types of meals are never going to help you lose the excess pounds from your body.
For instance, my favorite meal from McDonald's was a double quarter pounder meal with large fries, soda, and a hot fudge sundae for desert. Does that sound innocent to you as if no big deal? These days that meal sounds ridiculously gigantic to me, but it pays remember the unhealthy choices I used to make so the same mistakes are not repeated in the future.
Adding up the calories from that one single meal (if no ketchup or multiple sodas are consumed) you get a total of 1,860. Yikes!
Before we dive into how bad that amount of calories is for one meal, let's look at another example this time from Taco Bell. My favorite meal was the Nachos Bellgrande with 3 soft tacos, a bean burrito, and an XL Mountain Dew. Yes, I unfortunately used to eat all that food in one sitting.
This enormous, meal totals 2,250 which is shockingly far more calories needed for an entire day for most people! How could anything beneficial come from this type of eating?
These are just two examples of the types of meals I used to eat regularly and the main reason why I grew to nearly 300 pounds. These days I strive to consume around 1,800 calories per day and by doing so has helped me lose more than 55+ pounds over the past two years.
If you have similar nutritional tendencies, drill into your mind not to do the fast food shuffle because it will lead you no where but further into the land of obesity making it terribly difficult to get out. Why? Because the body becomes used to being fed that way. The body essentially becomes addicted to this type and amount of food at feeding times.
Since no restraint or healthy eating habits have been established, it becomes relatively easy to continue devouring meal after meal of this magnitude.
If you are anything like I was and are ready to make a definitive change, the first thing you must come to terms with is to not do the fast food shuffle any longer.
That's not to say you can never eat at these places anymore, it just means you need to have a bit of restraint if you do walk through their doors or pull into the drive through. Naturally it would be best to avoid these spots altogether and simply prepare your food at home.
However if you are dead set on eating fast food, but also determined to lose weight, then the choices you make at these places will help determine how successful you will be. Choose wisely because everything they sell (aside from water) has a calorie amount attached with it and their choices are usually packed heavily with calories so beware of what you order.
Gregory L. Gomez, a LAUSD teacher who's also on journey to develop a healthy life in an effort to lose weight and get in shape. Follow his progress on http://HealthyChoicesInLife.com as he strives to lose nearly 100 pounds by eating healthy and maintaining a consistent exercise routine. Get a FREE monthly Healthy Choices Newsletter along with a Healthy Eating eBook just for stopping by at http://healthychoicesinlife.com/healthy-eating.
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