Happy Hungry Fit.: Fast food is depressing.

According to a 6-month, 9000 person study published in the Journal of Public Health and Nutrition, people who regularly consumed fast food were 51% more likely to develop depression. Even eating small quantities was linked to significantly higher chances of being depressed.

The only two reasons you're eating fast food are 1.) you love it and think it's delicious and 2.) you're pressed for time or you weren't home and needed to eat something, etc. etc.

Reason #1: you love fast food.

Now, it's already been established that fast food is addictive. If you're one of those people who thinks it's disgusting, then good. It is disgusting. If you're not one of those people and you think it's delicious despite how dirty, fattening and poisonous this food is, you're not alone.

Yep, I'm a former addict. I was raised on chicken nuggets. I don't think I ate a meal without ranch until I was 17 20. (not a huge exaggeration.) When my mom was pregnant with me, she always craved Chicken in a Biskit crackers (please tell me you've had these, helloooooo also delicious.) My family always joked that she ate so many of them, I was born addicted to chicken.

For my 16th birthday, my best friend S got me the Party Pack of Dairy Queen's chicken strip basket, 42 strips or something. It also came with buttered white toast and gravy that you dip the toast into. This was my idea of heaven.

I thought of putting a picture of the Chicken Strip Basket here, but that's just torture.

I guess I don't need to go on and on about how much I love/crave/daydream about eating fast food. My point is, staying away from fast food is about self control. It's about discipline. It's about knowing that the stuff's horrible for you, and having the courage not to give into your cravings.

Unfortunately I can't teach you how to have self control, that's something you've got to search for yourself. But, I can tell you that if I can do it, you probably can too. It might take months, maybe years, but the average lifespan is, what, 85 years? You've got time. I've stopped eating fast food, though maybe every 5 or 6 months I break down after a night of drinking and get a kids meal and it doesn't kill me. (Though it does usually give me a stomach ache.) Live a little, I guess.

So besides self-control, let's talk about how you can avoid giving into this awful fast food addiction at all costs.

Reason #2: You "didn't have time."

Meal Prep

Now you can never say, "I didn't have time to make something" or "I wasn't home and I was in a hurry."

The concept of meal prep is simple, but I find a lot of my clients and friends don't even think of this as a possibility. All meal prep entails is cooking a few meals/snacks in one day and packaging them up for easy access throughout the week. Meal prep days will lighten your stress load throughout the week because you're not scrambling to think of/make something to eat, and you're less likely to settle for something quick and easy like fast food or a pre-packaged snack.

Just a few easy meal-prep favorites of mine:

Shredded Chicken- (boiled, salt & pepper. I cube it or shred it after it's cooked and use it for salads all week. It's also delicious with hot sauce, mmmm. Just store it in the fridge or freezer, cooked and bagged in single serving sandwich bags. Defrost in the microwave before eating if you're keeping it in the freezer.)

Quinoa with pasta sauce- My substitute for spaghetti! My Italian blood needs a certain amount of spaghetti sauce per week, I swear to you.

Oat Pancakes, recipe here.

Carrot Sticks- Not baby carrots, I cut up real long organic carrots, stick them in a Ziploc, and eat them raw all week.

Baked Oatmeal Bars (tons of recipes online)

Frozen Veggies (No "prep" involved. Steam them with this in the microwave when you're ready to eat them, it's super easy and quick.)

Cleaned, chopped romaine lettuce. My awesome grandma (Meem) gave me a salad spinner that keeps my salad so fresh. Before I had one of these things, it was very unlikely that I'd make myself salads.