Eating fast food regularly is a dangerous habit that can greatly impact your physical and mental health. Thankfully, there are some simple ways you can reduce your bad eating habits and pick healthier alternatives. Explore these tips on how you can reduce the amount of fast food you eat and rework your diet for long-term and short-term health benefits.

1. Use a Healthy Food Delivery Service

The time and effort required to cook lead many people to order fast food, as it's faster and more convenient. There is an alternative option to make healthy home cooking easier: a meal delivery service.

HelloFresh will deliver a range of nutritious meals straight to subscribers' doors. You simply pick the number of meals you want delivered per week, then wait for all the fresh ingredients to arrive at your doorstep.

In the Explore tab, you can filter recipes by their total cooking time to cut your time in the kitchen. You can also filter recipes by their ingredients, providing an easy way to pack more greens into your meals. All ingredients arrive in correctly-sized portions, saving you all the work needed for preparation.

If you're looking for healthier alternatives to ordering junk food, HelloFresh is a perfect solution for creating a varied and nutrient-dense diet with minimal fuss.

Download: HelloFresh for Android | iOS (Free, subscription required)

2. Learn the Nutritional Information of Your Favorite Fast Food Products

Often, people love their favorite fast food products without knowing what goes into them. According to research by Harvard, the average American person consumes 17 teaspoons of added sugar a day, which is significantly over the American Heart Association's guidance (6–9 teaspoons for men and women).

Hidden sugars are just one of several nasty substances found in fast food that many people consume without realizing. If you eat fast food regularly, you may be surprised by how much sugar, saturated fats, and added salt is snuck into your favorite fast food products.

Fast Food Nutrition Facts is a useful online resource that breaks down the nutritional information of menu items seen in the most popular fast food franchises. You can view the nutrition facts of the most famous products (including variations and portion sizes), and the site is updated regularly for new additions. On the site, you’ll also come across blogs with tips on ordering the healthiest options at major franchises.

Learning the true amounts of salt, added sugar, and unhealthy fats that are packed into your favorite fast food products will make you reconsider your food choices and think twice before buying them.

3. Learn the Science Behind Healthy Eating

It’s known that eating well is good for your physical health. But more recently, research is beginning to show how a good diet can also contribute to better mental health.

ZOE Science & Nutrition is an informative podcast based on the latest gut health and nutrition research. The podcast invites leading health experts to discuss the benefits of eating well and maintaining a healthy gut.

Gaining knowledge of the many benefits of eating healthy foods can be a strong motivator to introduce new foods into your diet and cut back on your fast food favorites. Changing your diet is one of the best ways you can look after your mind and body, and improve your overall well-being. Learning the science behind healthy eating will reinforce your motivation for making changes in your diet in the first place.

The show also tackles the impacts of eating unhealthy foods, specifically those found in common fast food outlets. Limiting your fast food consumption isn’t just about improving your body and shape—it’s also worth knowing how it can reduce the risks of a range of diseases, including type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

As you learn about what makes fast food harmful and the benefits you can gain from picking healthier alternatives, you’ll find it much easier to change your diet with purpose.

4. Keep a Food Journal

For people who are out on the go and dealing with busy schedules, tracking how much fast food you’re eating can become a challenge. Keeping a food journal of what you’ve eaten is one of the easiest ways to clarify your weekly consumption of fast food so that you know where you currently stand. Being clear on how often you’re eating fast food also helps you to set and measure dietary goals.

Nutrilio is a well-rounded food journaling app that lets you write down what you’ve eaten for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and any snacks you’ve had throughout the day. Every journal entry includes a text field, a photo-uploading option, and numerous food groups and other attributes to save time.

The Fast Food group adds multiple common unhealthy foods to your entry form and allows you to add custom food options. Another useful feature you can add to your form is the Amount setting, where you can adjust a scale of how much you’ve eaten.

As well as tracking what you’ve eaten, you can also easily set targets in the Goals section. The most useful option is the Limit Fast Food goal. Here you have two options: you can either set a goal for the frequency of fast food you want to consume, or set goals to avoid specific food items such as burgers, fries, or fried foods.

Download: Nutrilio for Android | iOS (Free, subscription available)

5. Use a Habit Tracking App

Even if you have the right goal-setting tools, it can be hard to create diet goals and follow through with them.

Habit Tracker is an app that helps increase your awareness of the food you eat and reduce temptations from tasty treats. It’s also a useful way of measuring your progress as you cut out less healthy foods.

There are several ways of measuring progress in Habit Tracker. One of the simplest ways is to mark days with a simple “yes” or “no” to create a color-coded calendar. This can be done to mark the days you’ve avoided fast food or mark when you’ve broken your habit. The monthly view provides a neat visual outline, with successful days linked together in a green chain. Unsuccessful days are red and break the chain.

Committing to a habit-tracking app with reminders will help you keep momentum as you reduce your fast food intake.

Download: Habit Tracker for Android | iOS (Free, in-app purchases available)

Stop Your Bad Fast Food Habits for Good

These methods will help you cut fast food from your diet and find healthier alternatives to replace it. As you learn why fast food is bad for your health and the nourishing benefits of healthier foods, you’ll be able to reduce your fast food consumption with purpose and begin your new healthy lifestyle.