Sunday, July 5, 2009

Fast Food - What to Eat?

By Joshua Owen

Fast food is not good for you. Even the healthiest fast food can easily be outdone by preparing some fast and easy meals you can take with you wherever you go. If you do find yourself inside a fast food restaurant, should you eat or not?

Always eat. Never skip a meal. It's better to make a good choice at a fast food restaurant than go without eating. Now that doesn't give you an excuse to pig out on bad foods. Make good choices.

You should always plan ahead. Take the time to think about the next day. Will you be away from home for extended periods of time? If so, prepare some quick and easy meals that you can eat while away from home. Eat a full meal once every 3 hours. Plan accordingly.

When I spend the day away from home, I might take a few plastic shaker bottles with me. I fill them with protein and ground oats (simply stick some quaker oats in a coffee grinder). I then fill a few baggies with walnuts, almonds, and/or peanuts.

I'll also take some baggies full of veggies that I quickly cut up - some broccoli, green peppers, carrots, and cucumbers. Quick and easy meals - just like fast food except much, much better for building muscle and burning fat.

If you failed to plan ahead (try not to), you'll need to make the best decisions when you're ordering fast food. Let's say you're at McDonald's, what are you going to order? The french fries are out. Never order or eat french fries. You don't need them. Never order the fatty hamburgers and the white bread buns. That's about the worse combination that's sure to make you fatter.

A better choice would be a chicken salad with about a half pack of ranch dressing. Eat all the veggies in the salad. Don't take them off or order the salad without them. And always order a water. Never order a Coke or anything else. Drink water!

If you know you're going to be eating fast food and have no other choice, get nutrition facts for that restaurant and make a good choice before you go. Then, you won't be tempted to order anything else. It's actually better to check nutrition facts and make yourself a little list at what you can have from certain fast food restaurants. Make sure what you choose fits your meal plan.

You do not need to eat fast food at all. When you quit eating fast food, I guarantee you'll feel better, look better, and become a healthier person. Fast food actually makes me sick now. Just the taste of all the grease makes me sick. I love eating healthy - tastes better and feels better!

Building muscle and burning fat requires weight lifting and cardiovascular exercise. You need to provide your body with the best fuel possible for those workouts. If you fail to provide your body with great fuel, you'll perform at far lower levels. Eat healthy and you will have high energy levels for pushing yourself in the gym. And that's how you make progress.

I wanted to mention Subway because most people believe it's healthy. I'm sorry, but Jared isn't much healthier than he used to be. Sure, he lost a lot of body weight but he lost lots of muscle in the process. You can already see that he's easily gaining fat back and soon he may be in worse shape than before. Stick to the grilled chicken salad loaded with veggies at Subway. Stay away from most of the other stuff.

Prepare your meals at home. It's easy to make fast and healthy meals at home. For example, I can fix a quick taco salad with lettuce, lean beef, fat free cheese, salsa, and fat free sour cream in less than 5 minutes. It's very easy to make quick, easy, and great tasting meals. All it takes is a little planning. That's it!

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