Goal Met: No Fast/Junk food for 30 days

This one was a bit more of a challenge than I originally anticipated. While I don’t frequent fast food places with any regularity I did hit them up a couple of times a month when I was in a hurry or was leaving work late and needed to grab something for myself on the way home. Tacking on “junk” food also ramped up the difficulty because I do love snacking throughout the day. Given all these factors, I knew that I would need to plan accordingly to counteract some pretty ingrained habits.

I stocked up on healthy snacks like nuts and fruit and in order to not grab a McMuffin on the way to work (a sometimes vice I quite enjoy) I opted to make this 30 days the one where I did intermittent fasting as well. By avoiding breakfast altogether there’s no need to figure out what I needed to replace my weekly stop with.

The first week was the roughest – mostly due to having to reprogram some habits that were pretty ingrained. Late afternoon hunger hit and where I would normally grab some chips or something like that I opted for some cheese or fruit. It just didn’t hit the same though. When I switched to some bread and olive oil with some spices in it that really became my go to snack.. sometimes with a bit of mozzarella or some fruit I think it was the savoriness I was missing which the peppery olive oil seemed to satisfy.

The weeks after because easier as I settled into a routine. The fasting helped by resetting my hunger signals (which has happened all the other time I fasted as well) allowing me to make more reasoned choices instead of just deciding to grab a burger or slice of pizza for lunch I opted for healthy choices instead.

I did, however, have pizza during this but it was pizza I made myself so I knew it was clean and had no chemicals or any additives but towards the end I really was craving a burger and fries.. so at the end of the 30 days I went to Red Robin with my kids and housed a burger and fries with complete abandon.

While my taste buds were happy the rest of my body was like ‘Bruv – what you doing?’ and I regretted not easing my way into a junk food meal – maybe a small burger and fries would have been a better option? I guess we’ll never know…

Regardless I found the month off junk food to be a mixed bag. I thought I’d feel healthier and have more energy but it was about the same which I found really odd. I know that the food is really not great for me so I’ve committed to eating less of it overall but cutting it out entirely? I don’t think that’s really something I’m willing to do as pizza and burgers are my comfort foods and my go-to when I just need something to slam my salt and fat receptors and kick off my dopamine rush.