Go 30 Days Without Burgers or Fries

My 30 days on this goal is up. I’ll mark it complete for now. My longer term goal is to not restart eating burgers or fries on any regular basis. Eating those things once a month or less will be okay but not all the time as I was doing before. I will keep my eye on this one and if the habit comes back I will add it back to my active list.

Usually this isn’t too difficult but today was a challenge. I stayed strong though.

So far this is going okay. It hasn’t been too great an effort to go without burgers or fries this time. I think I will make it through the 30 days okay. My lifestyle hasn’t changed that much though so I’m a little worried about when I’m finished with this goal and want to go on to no fried foods. That one will be harder. For now though I’m doing okay.

I find I’m having to think about my choices more. So far I’ve been successful in staying away from the burgers and fries. I made a “healthy choices” index card a few days ago for Little Coney. It’s time to make some more of those cards so I have some healthier choices without thinking so hard.

my husband wanted to go to a local eatery on the water that has good burgers and fish and chips. I was a little worried because of this goal. But I vowed to look at the menu closely for choices that would work. It’s hard to make good choices when you’re standing in front of the counter and someone behind the counter is wanting you to hurry and make up your mind so they can take your order. Maybe some don’t feel pressured by that, but I do.

I settled on a grilled chicken sandwich. I wanted a side but knew the fries were a no no so I ordered the garden salad. Wow, I was pleasantly surprised to find they made one of the best garden salads I’ve had in a long time! Certainly not anything I would expect to get at a fast food place. It was fresh and delicious. The lettuce was crisp and yummy and so were the chopped tomatoes, fresh sliced mushrooms and cucumbers. I usually don’t care for green peppers but they actually tasted good in this salad.

Walter got a garden burger and found it was not only a garden patty substituting for the burger, but it also was loaded with fresh tomatoes, mushrooms cucumbers and tomatoes on top of the patty.

Once I had taken a couple bites and was starting to feel less hungry I took a calm slow look at the menu board. I noted several healthy options between the obvious bad-for-me items. Their sandwich selections included turkey, tuna, chicken and the garden patty. Put any of those together with the garden salad, say “no mayo” and you have a healthy but delicious dinner.

I’m making an index card with these healthy options listed. Hopefully next time we go there I will look at the card and make a decision about what I want before I get there and feel pressured to order something unhealthy.

By the way we have gone to this place many times over the last 20 years and I never really paid attention to these healthy options before. I can see this goal will involve an exercise in mindfulness.