Tackling the No Fast Food Challenge for a Healthier Holiday Season

Max Sturdivant/Dr. Fitness  0:04  
Hello, and welcome to Your Health Moment podcast. I'm your host Max Sturdivant better known as Dr. Fitness. On this podcast, I want to give you the tools to start, continue, and never give up on your journey towards health. Now, whether you struggle with your weight, eating the right food, hydration, exercise, or even time management, you're in the right place, and I'm here for you. Now, let's dive right into this episode. 

Welcome back to Your Health Moment. And how'd you do? Did you eat more than you thought you were going to eat or less than you thought you were going to eat? Were you excited about your holiday eating experience? Or not too impressed? Did you eat lots of healthy foods that you don't normally have this Thanksgiving? Did you choose to have more unhealthy foods than you normally have during the Thanksgiving? 

Well, guess what, we got another big holiday meal coming up Christmas. So if you're disappointed about your performance last time for Thanksgiving, well, this time, you're going to do 10 times better for Christmas. Okay, get some strategies for you. So, first, we're starting with the no junk food challenge. In December, all you need to do to sign up for that is text, your name and your email to 904-236-5858. Just text your name and email to 904-236-5858. And then you can be a part of the challenge. And what the no junk foods challenge is, it's eliminating fast food junk food. So you don't have to worry about your kinda humdrum, everyday Jack junk food for this challenge. But you are going to be concerned about your fast food junk food. So we're talking about the burger places the pizza places that taco places the burger place, I said that no Oh, the Chinese places. So you want to be mindful of the places you go to pick up really quick, fast food. Because those are the fast food, junk food places that you want to cut out just for this challenge, you'll be cutting them out. You know, if you need some help, you will have it, you will be able to text me when you're facing the challenge. You're going to be able to brag when you're doing really well. And there is a competition. So at the end of it, if you do the survey that I will send you, you will have an opportunity to win a gift card. Okay. So I recommend having fun with the challenge. Do the best that you can. And remember, if you don't succeed the first time it's okay. Get right back in challenge and try again, simply text your name and your email to 904-236-5858. And that will help you well. I found this really cool article at pink wind.com. And the article deals with the 10 worst fast food restaurants. The 10 worst. And I was trying to figure out well, I hope none of my favorites are on the list. You know, you know for December, we're giving up for December, we're giving up fast food restaurants. So we're giving up fast food junk food. And I'm trying to figure out if when a My restaurant is on the 10 worst fast food restaurants in the country list. Let's see here. The countdown begins with Jack in the Box. See, I haven't seen too many jack in the box here. But I do remember, you know back in the day when there was that terrible food poisoning in 1993. Boy, the restaurant was one of the first to have the breakout of E Coli in their food. And in that case, several people died. And you know a few 100 I mean, hundreds were sick. So I do actually remember that. But um you know, it's funny you you remember those stories. But if I would have never thought of that if I drove by jacket and box. I was thinking about getting assaulted. I probably would have thought about that. But since then in 19 93 several other restaurants have had the same problem with the E. coli outbreak left in their food you know putting a lot of people at risk. So we're going to just keep on this junk food at the moment so Jack in the Box you know they're the worst on the list so far and come in number second. I love the commercials Little Caesars Little Caesars A Little Caesar. I love those little Caesar commercials. But first many customers. According to this article, right in pink when many customers complain about the quality of the food, specifically the pizza, the dough is often said to be soggy and the sauces bland. I do you know, that's just a little caesars beat. I thought that was like their thing. I always thought they were bland. Um, you know, yeah, I thought that was just part of the whole experience. You know. In addition, people are saying that it has a poor quality of food customers also complain about dirty dining room and restrooms. And the floors are often sticky and the tables have crumbs on. Hey. Yeah, yeah, he did definitely need to do some about that. In the bathrooms. You know, in a restaurant where the tables are usually really nasty and the floor is nasty, you know, oh my God. Don't even think about going up in that bathroom. Whoo. Yeah, problems. So, okay, I see Little Caesar on the list. Oh, next Carl's Jr. Part of the Hardee's chain. You know, aside, people say from the advertising being demeaning, you know what I mean? People are also saying that the prices are kind of high. The menu is really unhealthy. And I think that's the nature of fast food being it's fast junk food. Let's just get him what you get. So I don't understand why someone would go to curls and then complain that the curls triple Western burger was an up to standards.

Anyway, that's just me. Um, so they might be looking for a whole different restaurant. So Carl's Jr. is on the list. And Arby's is on the list. Oh, my God. Look at Harvey's be on the list. Arby's was best known for its roast beef sandwich. Everybody knows about the RB procedure, where you put that horseradish sauce on it Oh, man back in the day. But uh, now I have days where I I did have lightened up on my beef consumption, you know, get a little bit older get into that, but still, they are customers that go there and they complain and leave negative reviews about the quality of the food. And the most common complaints are that the sandwiches are dry and tasteless, and the fries are soggy and salty. You know usually with the soggy they're not salty, because doesn't the salt kind of suck up the excess moisture anyway? When it comes to that, I just have to say a quest to sandwich is dry. That's why they got all those really great sauces. You're supposed to smother it in some of the sixes that's how you handle the drop this Oh, yes. I love it. Oh my god. Wendy's is on the list of the worst fast food restaurants is Wendy's. Now I wonder what why Wendy's is ranked like this. Okay. Well, it says Wendy's has consistently ranked as one of the worst fast food restaurant chains by customer service. Really? They do have an attitude going online. I've heard that on more than one occasion. In addition, recent headlines questions if Wendy's supports modern day slavery on farms with their refusal to join the Fair Food Program. Well, okay about that. I have heard about the Fair Food Program. And the Fair Food Program is how has to do with raising the wages of our farm workers and people that are in the fields to somewhat a living wage. And and they're trying to get big businesses to sign off that you know that really need those Labor's they're doing their job, you know we need them because we need to food but you know you would think companies that are buying large portions of vegetables from different growers would want to encourage them to provide fair labor, or fair labor practices for the people that are that are bringing that food but are growing the food and taking care of it and harvesting it. So yeah, Wendy's, you might want to tighten up on that one, you know what I'm saying and give more of those customer service classes to shift staff. According to this interview, um, oh, next on the list is Sonic. That drive in, really was Sonic Drive In is one of the American fast food chains that is, you know, they're good whip burgers and hot dogs a milkshake is real American food, you know, but the biggest complaints that Sonic gets about their food is that it's overpriced and not very good. So I guess people are saying if you're going to pay a lot, at least make it sound their tastes good. Okay. So when you miss out on both those that's kind of rough. So they choose to go places like McDonald's and Burger King instead of Sonic, because the food is better and cheaper. So yeah, I mean, when it comes to tastier fast food or burgers, yet a genuine it's hard to beat that McDonald's and Burger King. They're there on their job. But I'll tell you for the month of December, during the challenge and give all of the fast food up for an entire month included the law of neighborhood fast food Chinese restaurant you get to fried right from now. Got to give them up to Okay, now just for December, you're only given it up for one month. Okay, December is a month because we've learned from challenges in the past, that people that are able to commit to giving up fast food restaurants for December, lose inches around their waist. Considerable inches. So everyone who committed to the challenge lost approximately two inches from the waist. They didn't do anything different, but stayed away from fast food restaurants. And the next restaurant got carried away there on Sonic is Topo Tae. Now to potay is often lauded as one of the healthier fast food options. Wow, this is true. But their food is also has made a lot of there's been a lot of like I've said they've had to close because of an outbreak of E coli twice. Once in 2015. And once in 2017 their ingredients they use healthier ingredients, vegetables and stuff. But there are some artificial flavors and preservatives in their food. So be you know, that's clearly why they're on the list. And some of their workers have been known to still work and being forced to go to work when they're not feeling well. And in their business model. They tend to really be right over your food and, and touching on your foods with someone not feeling well. could easily make you sick. So Oh, wow. And they had another outbreak in 2018. Oh, goodness. And that restaurant had rodents falling from the ceiling. I'm sure that's just a one off. But I really hope that one's just one off. But I'll tell you to polti has been accused of a lot of things. And so just something to think about next time you go. It gets up to eat. Just think about it. Okay, now Burger King is on the list. Burger King. Yeah, on the list. Now, Burger King is one of the biggest fast food chains in the world. I mean, they're everywhere they have, what? Over 12,000 locations. But of course, that doesn't make them immune to criticism. You know, in our world, the more locations you have, the more criticism you're likely to get just what it is. But when it comes to Burger King, one of the big criticisms is that they microwave all their food, huge criticism, they spend a lot of time they don't have cook really anything in the restaurant, they microwave the food, okay. And that's probably one of the biggest things about it. And some of the things that they use in their meat, you know, some of that smoke stuff heard in the meat, but um, but Burger King has found itself with all kinds of interesting things going on around the world in 2013. They found themselves in hot water, because it was discovered that small traces, of course, DNA is in some of their burgers in the UK. So it wasn't just beef that was in those burgers. I mean, so they had that to kind of deal with, you know, I guess you really do have to be careful what you put in your food right now. Because with DNA man, all the different grind meat that you put in those little grind, meat places, will show up. They can't just put a horse in there and expect someone not to notice. Wow, what Taco Bell makes the list. You know, now it's no secret that fast food isn't the healthiest cuisine. But some fast food restaurants are definitely worse than others regarding their nutritional value, or lack of nutritional value. Let's just say Taco Bell is definitely in the running.

Army. Let's just put it out there. You know, now for Stuart, for starters, Taco Bell has been embroiled in a few scandals over the years, but you can't be big, a big company like Taco Bell and not really caught up in a few kinds of scandals. You know, like, what's that meat? Really in your tacos? You know, so they did a DNA study of the Taco Bell me and found out that the beef was contained less than 35% beef, and beef. So you know, our litigious society, the plaintiffs, they got a class action lawsuit and some lawyer made a bank. So yep, you just can't be blending anything up and putting it in your beef burgers and still calling a beef, even if it's not a burger, even if it's just a taco. So I taco that the FDA, I think this does stamp floer. The, what am I trying to say here? This does make sense. Because I'm trying to think of the organization. So USDA, I think is responsible for the standards of our meat, like beef. So I think the USDA is involved in that. But it's so tricky. between what the USDA does, and the FDA, the Food and Drug Administration, because they both have jurisdiction over different aspects of our food. So you don't know if the FDA is responsible, or the USDA is responsible for those particular standards. And you'd want to hope that it's the USDA because their budget is bigger, and unfortunately, they've cut back so much on the budget of the FDA. They do very little. Um, I mean, when it comes to protecting our food anymore, when you have what, I don't know the exact numbers, but you're reducing are you reducing inspectors. So, to a level that it's virtually impossible for them to adequately expect all the sites that would need to be inspected? Stress tricky. So, and the last restaurant on the list is everyone's favorite McDonald's. So that's probably going to be the toughest one people are going to have to give up this holiday season. So if you are one of the frequent eaters and a McDonald's, just for this month, just for December, pass on your pass on your McDonald treat, and find some real real food to eat. So now McDonald's, perhaps, you know, clearly is like, better known, I think, to know any other restaurant in the world. But it's ranked the worst, because again, when you have so many restaurants, there's gonna be people that are going to criticize you. But they're getting criticized for some really legitimate reasons to, like, you know, the unhealthy ingredients that they're putting in their food, and how those ingredients impact the, the environment negatively. So to get hit up for some of that, but they're the number one list spot on the list. It's really no supply, it's really no surprise that it's kind of McDonald's, it really isn't. They've had reports of the employees serving fruit food that it's fallen on the floor, moldy McFlurry machines, the drink machines crawling with worms, um, you know, so a lot of stuff has been going on, you know, dead rat, and so on solid, Texas. But I honestly believe fast food is really dangerous for us in a lot of ways. I mean, I don't think every restaurant is gonna have dead rats or anything like that in it, because that's like, these are just, they have to be one off. And I'm praying that they're just one offs and just flukes that have happened. But, um, but sometimes they can bring us awareness of like a warning sign that there's some breakdowns in the system. You know, what I mean? Is someone can get away with serving that kind of food for a while, there's a breakdown in the system. And it should make us all a little bit concerned or really a lot a bit concerned. So another reason to give up fast food is you might be surprised that you feel better. Because one of your favorite places may be dealing with some staffing shortages, or some problems that make it difficult for for them to clean their machines the way they're supposed to be clean. And, and you wind up getting sick and not knowing why. So just think about it. Guess what, December is a great opportunity for you to give up. Fast food junk food, okay, just give it up whole month, all you got to do. And if things work like they did for most people last year, you are guaranteed two inches off your waist. Let's see. And that was the average from last year. So just by giving up fast food for the month now. People were eating everything else that they wanted to eat, they just gave up going to fast food spots to grab food. That's it. Other than that they eat everything they wanted to eat no change in their food in their diet, and they still felt better, and got lost inches around their waist still. So let's see how you do once you start to challenge your here's how you start to challenge. Just simply text, your name and your email to 904-236-5850 a text, your name and your email to 904-236-5858 challenge. I will send you a welcome letter with just things that you need to do and what to expect to come in next. Okay, the challenge is free so you don't have to worry about anything like that. So enjoy it. And if you have any questions, or if you have anything that you want to share, if you got a critique you'd like to offer, please fix that to me too. Okay. Remember you check So your name and your email to 904-236-5858 to join the challenge, have a great day. God bless.

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