How to Avoid Temptations When Ordering Takeout

How many times have you given into temptations when ordering takeout food? Come on, be honest now. If you are the average person on a diet, then you’ve experienced times where you fall off the diet wagon and succumb to the many temptations in your daily life. It’s all too easy to be tempted by advertisements of juicy hamburgers so perfectly put together and just waiting for you to order them.

Unfortunately, those ads can sabotage us when we’re trying to stick to our diets. One effective advertisement and you can cost yourself too many calories or fat for the day, but more important is the mental damage it does when you decide to give up your whole diet just because you had one bad day.

It may seem like the only answer to this situation is to stay away from fast food and not watch television commercials for the rest of your life, but that’s not realistic. There are other ways to avoid being tempted by images of diet-killing foods.

What you see isn’t really what you get - Keep this in mind. How often have we seen the image of the perfectly thick hamburger and ordered it – only to find that what you get is a smashed up mess? The temptation is in the perfection. Let go of the image and focus on what it will really look like when you get it. Most of the temptation will be gone.

Get it your way - Don’t be afraid to ask for what you want or don’t want. If you decide you need a burger, then order it with no cheese or mayo as an open-faced sandwich. A regular hamburger can satisfy your hunger and will have less fat.

Use drive-thrus - Many times, you plan ahead what you’re going to order, but then you’re hit with large, tempting images on the menus inside the restaurant. Drive through menus have some images, but not as many – and it’s easier to divert your eyes away from the board if you already know what you want to order.

Drive-thrus are also helpful when the smell of the fries boiling in oil tempts you to order the biggest size available. When you go through the drive through, the smell isn’t as apparent as it is inside.

Deliveries - If a restaurant delivers, use it to your advantage. You can plan what you want and order it without having to go to the establishment to see all of the tempting pictures on the wall. If they don’t deliver, ask someone else to go get your food for you.

Sometimes paying a little extra money to someone for doing you a favor can keep you from falling off the diet wagon. Let’s face it, temptations are out there and are noticed more readily by those who are on a diet. Take steps to prepare yourself for those situations ahead of time.