Stop The Junk Food

McDonald’s, Kentucky Fried Chicken, and Pizza Hut. Do the lyrics of this song sound familiar to you? Do you eat fast food four, five, six or even seven or more times a week?

I once fell into this habit. Hectic schedules, traffic and too many places to be at one time are just some of the reasons why we often find ourselves enslaved to the fast food grind.

It’s not your fault. Blame your fast food habit on the big slick corporate marketing machine for poisoning your mind and those of your family members. Have you ever driven down the road with your one- or two-year-old child in the back seat of the car while passing a McDonald’s rest stop with the Golden Arches some 150 feet in the air? It is amazing how your child can’t see out the window but those arches in the sky are always visible and bring a smile to a child’s face. While you’re trying to be more health conscious, you’re being sabotaged at every corner! You can’t control the marketing. You have to control yourself!

The negative effects of excessive fast food intake are numerous and include symptoms like the development of cellulite in all those icky places, loss of energy, increased bad cholesterol levels in your body, weight gain from excessive calories, and even insulin resistance that could lead to diabetes. These bad effects are just the tip of the iceberg. I think the inner physical effects of eating too much fast food are probably worse than the ones we see.

People are motivated to make changes in many different ways. What will motivate you to get off the fast food bandwagon? I just had to strip naked, look in the mirror, and let my loving husband whisper sweet nothings in my ear like, “I thought you are what you eat. Why don’t I see you eat cottage cheese?” Or my personal favorite when we share breakfast together, “Hey woman, do you need some mayonnaise with those Wheaties?”

The biggest problem from my excessive fast food intake was cellulite. It affected the bottom of my butt cheeks, my knees, and my triceps, making them ugly. Fortunately, my husband helped me kick the habit with plain old will power. We simply avoided the fast food heroin and did not succumb to our child’s tantrums for Happy Meals anymore. It’s not easy but it can be done.

So now, my husband cooks while I clean and take out the garbage. It’s a long walk down our driveway but the exercise is good for me. I also have to walk the same long driveway to get the mail before dinner so that’s two walks for me a day.. Don’t worry ladies, he still mows the lawn.

About three weeks ago, I received a “we delivered you were not home” tag from the US Postal Service. The next day, the mailman arrived and brought my package. The mystery package was a special delivery from the cellulite busters at www.celluthin.com . At first I was skeptical that this popular fat-burning cream would help but after three weeks of using the stuff, I became a believer.

Now I have a great body that I can be proud of. Even better, I don’t have to take out the trash anymore.

Fast food exists because we look for short cuts. We even look for short cuts when it comes to success and happiness. So, short cuts to success and happiness have been packaged and repackaged, over and over again, creating a multi-billion dollar industry. Positive thinking is one of the best selling of these products.

Positive thinking DOES facilitate success and happiness. It CAN create opportunities or outcomes that may not have happened otherwise.

How does positive thinking facilitate success and happiness? How can it improve our circumstances? Why do negative thoughts produce negative results? Is it universal forces, energy, quantum physics, spiritual guides or prayers being answered? NO! It is not.

Thoughts can impact our circumstances because a thought (positive or negative) creates an idea and our subconscious stores the idea. The subconscious then causes the conscious mind to notice information related to that idea. Therefore, positive thoughts cause us to notice opportunities to pursue our goals. Negative thoughts cause us to notice problems and sabotage our success and happiness.

Unfortunately, many of us may not be willing to put in the time and effort that is required to obtain the benefits of positive thinking. Instead, we look for, and buy, short cuts. Often, our hunger for instant success and happiness is so great; we consume “positive thinking fast food” products even if the ingredients are unsubstantiated or implausible. Who really knows or really understands metaphysical laws of the universe, quantum physics or non-corporeal beings? When we’re fast food positive thinkers, we don’t stop to think about this. We’re in a hurry; we’re hungry for results.

The main ingredient missing in many positive thinking fast food products is “effort”. Unfortunately, even when “effort” is included as an ingredient, we may pay more attention to the packaging and product distractions thereby wasting our efforts on the filler stuff. This is because the filler stuff is easier (and more fun), than the truly essential ingredient, effort.

Effort involves taking personal responsibility for making things happen and taking an active role. For example, the currently popular “law of attraction” principle appeals to the lazy quality in many of us because it “glosses over” that which is really important; which is – YOU have to take responsibility to look for opportunities and YOU have to take action. Instead, proponents of the “law of attraction” tell us to focus on desiring, asking and feeling; and to rely on some aspect of quantum physics to do the work for us. There is very little mention of “doing”. Accordingly, it is more likely, than not, that anyone that has achieved their goals while applying the principles of the “law of attraction” has been successful because they have also done some “doing”.

My point is that thinking, wanting and visualizing positive things is necessary – but it is not enough. YOU have to take an active role. YOU have to get out of bed in the morning. YOU have to get out of the house. YOU have to look for opportunities. YOU have to be open to the opportunities that YOU see. YOU have to have the courage to act. YOU have to do the work that is required. YOU have to do your best.

In other words, if you really want to benefit from positive thinking, there are no fast food shortcuts. Dreaming about the delicious things you want to eat is great, but you have to shop for the ingredients and then you have to start cooking!

Positive thinking is just one of the foods that promote success and happiness. For a source of many others, read the book “Your Own Devices”: A Life Manual. It is comprehensive, practical, easy to read, entertaining and emphasizes that which is essential and proven. More information is available at: http://www.yourowndevices.ca.

Drive-up restaurants, milkshakes, fries, and time-honored burgers and dripping Coney Island, that’s what makes the American cuisine since the 1950s. This has been America’s characteristic manner of preparing food, fast food, the epitome of the American life. Yet should tradition hinder improvement?

When it comes to health, the answer should be a big NO. When America is at risk of the fast food and obesity outbreak, the consumer should think twice before he takes a huge gulp of his sweet soda.

Fast food and obesity has been a major link that makes the American dinning experience and unfortunately American Health most noteworthy to world specialists. About 60M of the American population is considered obese. Australia only comes second in the fast food craze and obesity maze. Most significantly is that the impending danger of fast food and obesity concern has become a world phenomenon.

The problem of obesity has crept quickly as fast as the spurt of fast foods all throughout the world. Though, we could not blame McDonaldization and Globalization.

What makes fast food so appealing not only to Americans is that it’s not just hot, tasty, and greasy; it’s also constant and convenient. The cheeseburger that you so loved since childhood have never changed a bit; a constancy that is so hard to find in the constantly changing society. Additionally, the fast-paced lifestyle of the current generation only leaves fast food in the high-ladder for convenience. Preparing everything with minimum fuss has just become so valuable. You can also add the joy of indulgence. However, what about the cons?

Primary is over-indulgence. Not only is fast food expensive and isolating; it is also over-eating tolerant. It’s true that it is sometimes a wonderful thing to be able to overcome your guilt to have yourself a treat, yet can you take the guilt of burdening your body with fast food and obesity?

The problem with fast food and obesity is that it has become socially acceptable, even encouraged. Some call it expression, even freedom, equality. You see commercials of all sorts urging you get the latest dessert. You go to the mall and there’s a special line of plus sizes. It all seems purely natural but it doesn’t mean it’s totally right. This isn’t to say that fast food can’t be consumed occasionally, and that fat people should be detested. The point is that these can be avoided, and that there are better choices.

Sure you can look at fast food as just a way of life; but also look at obesity as what it is, a disease, and a serious one, something you wouldn’t want to indulge in.