If you’re 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 the 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 some other ways to keep your willpower intact when you do go to places that have tempting 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. Think not of the image, but 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-throughs - 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 throughs 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.

In this day and age, convenience has become our friend. With busy lives and careers that take up a good chunk of our days, fast food restaurants are seen as an easy way to get dinner on the table.

Who has time to slave over a hot stove making a meal for the family when you work an 8-10 hour day? Although the convenience of fast food restaurants is definitely appealing, they’re not the best choices for nutritious meals. Let’s explore some facts about the fast food meals you might order for your family’s dinner:

McDonald’s - Juicy hamburgers with a side of fries sound delicious. But if you take a regular Double Quarter Pound Cheeseburger with a side of medium sized fries, you’ll see that you’re consuming approximately 60g of fat and 1,100 calories total for the fries and the cheeseburger (not to mention whatever you wash it down with). If you’re on a 2,000 calorie diet, you would have met over half of that with only one meal.

Kentucky Fried Chicken - Their chicken is a popular choice for a quick and easy meal. But one original recipe chicken breast is approximately 21g of fat and 360 calories. If you have 2 chicken breasts from one of their popular family bucket meals, you’re looking at 42g of fat and 720 calories. This doesn’t include any side dishes that might come with the meal, such as mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, or potato wedges.

Pizza Hut Pizza – It’s so easy to come home exhausted and fall prey to the convenience of pizza delivery. A Large Pepperoni pan pizza has about 14g of total fat and 270 total calories per slice.

If you eat 2 slices of that pizza, you will have consumed around 28g of fat and about 540 calories total. Add extra cheese or other toppings and you’ll cost yourself even more fat and calories.

Subway – You think you’re eating healthy, but it depends on what menu item you choose. A 6” Chicken Parmesan sandwich is approximately 18g of fat and around 500 calories. This doesn’t include any sides. If you add more sauce to your sandwich, you’ll need to figure more calories into the equation.

It’s best to steer clear of fast food eateries, but if you’re forced to go to one for convenience, try to scout out the menu ahead of time on the Internet to find out what menu options they have that won’t blow your diet plan for the entire day.