Photo credits to Robin Stickel on Pexels
Fast food has easily become one of the guiltiest pleasures there is to offer. I know I struggle with how often I get fast food or take out instead of wanting to cook. It’s just more time efficient, right? Well, while fast food is nice as a treat on road trips, it isn’t so great when eaten every day! We all know fast food isn’t the healthiest option, nor the most cost efficient. Developing better habits with cooking and at-home meals will help decrease the need for fast food while also creating a healthier relationship with food and your health.
A common issue people have with cooking is the time it takes to go grocery shopping and actually making the meals, whether it’s just for you or for your family. Fast food is way easier to get when on the way home from work and after picking up the kids, so it is completely understandable why it’s become such a habit! Yet fast food isn’t nutritious enough to be a common occurrence.
What may help is setting some time once a week to figure out what meals you want to make or eat for the rest of the week, that way you don’t feel tempted to get McDonalds out of convenience. Planning out what you want to eat will allow you to know which foods to get at the grocery store so it isn’t so overwhelming, as well as developing a healthy routine with food for both you and your family. You’ll be able to have a more balanced diet and not be so stressed when it comes to what to make for dinner that evening.
If you want to take it a step further, meal prepping is a wonderful option for creating on-the-go meals, especially lunches. Meal prepping can help develop a consistent diet and meal selection, while also getting used to cooking. This option is more time consuming, however, so it isn’t for everyone! This method is used so cooking is a priority for a couple days out of the week, rather than every day.
Instead of spending hours a day trying to decide what to have for dinner, making dinner, or creating a grocery list, taking one day out of the week to do all the dirty-work will help ease the stress of knowing what you want to eat for that week. Plus, over time, you will begin to feel a lot better by eating healthier and balanced meals, which means fast food won’t be as addicting! Your diet can influence both your physical and mental health, so a healthy body equals a healthier lifestyle. Make sure you are taking care of your other needs, such as sleep and exercise, to decrease those salty cravings.
