Look at it. While it's not the most appetizing thing to look at in the world, I bet your mouth is watering a bit. The fries have the perfect sprinkle of salt, the bun on the burger has delightful little sesame seeds. Man, I love fast food.
Day 2 of the "Hold the Fries Diet" has been rough and it's barely past 2pm. I think I determined that a big weakness for me is the drive thru. I see a Burger King and think "ooh, they have good fries and the tendercrisp sandwich is epic." - who cares if this is a 9:15am? My brain ultimately will focus in on the delicious noms that a particular fast food eatery can provide me with - even if I have to wait until after 11am to get it.
I think my love of the drive thru probably sparked when I started driving at 16, I was the queen of the roads! I was driving everywhere, taking friends with me on road trips and driving by myself long distances as well. I think this is the time when I actually started almost getting excited for my fast food stops. It's as if a trip to Palm Coast, Daytona, or hell, even Orange Park wasn't complete without a stop for some fries or a double cheeseburger. I think it's really just become a habit.
I used to make lots of trips to and from school to visit my boyfriend (now husband) - an hour and a half drive that I would typically take after class or work and leave ASAP so I'd just drive thru somewhere and get a chicken sandwich, burger, nuggets, and always an order of my dear french fries. It became habit so much that if I got to the mid-way point and hadn't stopped to get food, even if I wasn't hungry, I'd stop and get a snack. I probably should have noticed the issue sooner.
This morning, I had to cross town for work. On my way there, I passed a McDonalds, Sonic, Arbys, Wendy's, Penn's, and Burger King. Each and every one of them was subconsciously calling my name and enticing me with promises of deep fried goodness and mayonnaise-y heaven.
Obviously, this is not a good thing. Somehow, I need to figure out a way to keep the fast food gods from knowing my name. A good friend of mine suggested I keep carrot sticks on me for car rides. Sure, that might make me not HUNGRY, but what's it gonna do to keep me from pulling up to the speaker box because my mouth can literally taste the greasy goodness? NADA.
I hate fast food. But I love fast food.
You were SO the queen of the roads at 16! Ah, memories ...
ReplyDeleteI hear ya -- drive thrus have gotten the best of me, too, especially after getting off work from a newspaper at 11 p.m. Taco Bell has always called out to me.
Keeping carrot sticks in the car for long drives is a good idea. Pretzels could work, too -- they're not that bad for you, and they are crunchy and salty like french fries!
If you do stop and order, you could at least try getting a grilled chicken sandwich instead of a crispy chicken, or something similar like that.
One suggestion is to make the rule that you just can't go to drive-thrus anymore. If you really want fast food, you need to park your car, go inside and eat your food sitting down. I know that the goal is obviously to stop eating this kind of food altogether, but as you're just starting it might be easier to focus on the drive-thru habit and force yourself to think whether you really want fries badly enough to spend the time to go in or whether you just want the usual routine of pulling up to the window and driving along munching on something.
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