Operation: No Fried Food began today, June 1. The plan is one month, not one bite of fried food — no fried chicken, french fries, chips, doughnuts, nothing. I think it will be tough but I do feel confident that I can stick with it.
I find it sort of amusing. I grew up eating healthy food, well-rounded meals cooked by Mom pretty much every night of the week. It’s only recently that I have started loading up on fast food and take out. It’s not that I don’t like to or can’t cook or that I find restaurant food so incredibly delicious I can’t resist (most of the time I am disappointed in the meal and am sure I could produce a better tasting dish myself). I think it is a mixture of things. With the combination of working, owning a home, taking care of cats, sports/gyming, and spending time with family and friends, it’s tough to find the time to plan meals for the week and do the shopping on top of it. It’s a weak excuse I know, but that’s why I am focusing on turning things around this month.
As far as eating out is concerned, work itself is a big issue. Sure it’s great to pack your own meal, saving money and calories, but on the other hand, sitting in the breakroom for an hour makes me feel trapped. I really want to get away for that hour, be outside or see different people — anything but sit in the cold, austere breakroom reading the OSHA standards that are glued to the wall.
Aside from my lack of time and unappealing breakroom excuses, eating out is convenient. It’s quick and easy. The biggest problem with eating out though, is that it’s extremely difficult to eat a healthy and well-balanced meal (like Mom used to make). Even if you get the 6 grams of fat sub from Subway, they offer you the meal ($4.23 with tax if you pick the right sub on the right day), which includes a gigantic cup to be filled (and re-filled) with sugary soda and a mini bag of chips which alone contains 15g of fat. It’s no good and too tempting. Sure, there are alternatives like the pre-packaged apples, but who actually remembers to ask for those?
Regardless of all of my excuses: time, getting away, whatever, I plan to stick with it. I’ll work to remember to sub my fries for a salad and chips for pre-sliced apples. Overall I hope to curb my eating-out habits in general and will really work to plan meals each week for lunch and dinner to avoid the out-of-pocket expense of eating out regulary and hopefully notice the benefits in my health as well.
Yesterday, as my last fried meal, I loaded up on an 8-piece nugget combo from Chick-Fil-A. Next time I’ll have to stick with the chargrill sandwich and carrot salad in place of my beloved waffle fries with polynesian sauce…wish me luck!
Remember that time we... 