AIBU to ask, what helped you give up takeaway?

[EndlessUserName]

We have one every week without fail. I'd like to get to once a fortnight but we can never manage it! Money isn't a super issue, but I think it would be healthier to go less often. If you've done it, how did you manage to have less takeaway / none anymore?

Cook at home

By substituting for the same crap but from a supermarket (or very rarely a proper fakeaway).

What do you mean you can never manage to not do it. Do you have enough food in to make meals instead. Past that it’s not About not managing to stop simply you wish to eat them weekly?

Do a big shop and buy the stuff to make them at home?

Pizza based, herbs, spices.

Have you got a slow cooker? DP makes a slow cooker chicken curry that is loads nicer than a takeaway.

I stopped getting takeaway when I saw once in our local takeaway when I did a pick-up the girl making a pizza in the back room picking her nose.
I know that's just one shop but...

Well if you see a takeaway as a treat that you deserve, maybe have a different treat.
Like we sometimes get a fancier than usual dinner to have at home, definitely not our everyday food. It helps if it's easy to cook too.
Could also be habit where you are concerned, like if you do it every Friday.
It depends a bit on your motivation for cutting down, takeaway per se is not an issue but I don't enjoy stodgy food very often anyway.
I have no issue eating out several nights a week but I don't eat junk.

Maybe look at why you're getting takeaway so often. We also have it once/twice a week. This is mainly because it's actually difficult to cook for all of us (me-vegetarian, DH-meat eater, dc-fussy). Today I made enchiladas it had veg, quorn mince, sauce and cheese. Everyone loved it and it only took 30mins start to finish to make. If I could find more dishes like this that we all would eat, my takeaway consumption would go down.

Op What is the reason for the takeaways at the moment?

We don't get them because they're not worth the money. They're nice, but not nice enough that they're worth spending over £20 a week on. Maybe once every 2-3 months on average.

Why do you get them and why can't you stop? Is it habit or pressure from family?

I sometimes get them from my local Japanese but I gave up all the others because they simply weren't really that nice. There would always be something not cooked properly, missing from the order, or simply not very nice at all. I'm not tempted in the slightest any more.

What’s the main reason for getting them? Is it because you genuinely love that specific food? Or because you just don’t want to cook that night?

If you just don’t want to cook then I try and buy some supermarket versions of takeaway food that you just stick in the oven/microwave. Way cheaper and most likely healthier, and the effort involved is minimal

If you genuinely love e.g. Chinese takeaway and you like to cook then you could try to recreate it at home

I do curry in the slow cooker, delicious and not swimming in oil like the takeaway ones. Making your own naan is super easy. With pizzas you can make your own or I buy a cheap supermarket one, add extra mozzarella, mushrooms etc. Maybe what you could do is one week have a take away but the other week try making a new dish you like the look of?

Lockdown! Most of ours closed and we got sick of Domino's.

Our nearest take away is 12 miles away. I haven't had a take away since 6th October 2018

I need the answer to this, once it’s in my head that I fancy a takeaway I can’t get rid of the thought. Then when I’ve had one I crave another the next night and I’m hooked again. They’re addictive! Especially when you were brought up on them so it seems the norm!

Find out how to cook well something you really really like and have that as a treat instead. I always find takeaways are a disappointment and only use them if I'm completely exhausted. Still just as easy to bung some pizza/chips or something in the oven instead.

COVID-19 lockdown

I love a takeaway treat, but I try not to let it spoil the fact I'm reasonably careful not to overeat the rest of the week.

So, rather than have fewer takeaways, I'd rather have a reasonably healthy takeaway (calorie-wise) so something like prawns and vegetables and boiled rice, plus a hot and sour soup, rather than something fried or with peanut sauce or whatever. I like Indian, but again, I have a tomato based sauce with meat and some rice, not the rest of it and no cream sauces. KFC chicken is also not that calorific compared with a Big Mac or some of the pasta choices on menus, and I take off the skin!

I am not thin but I am not fat, I'd rather have these things as treats (which they are to me as I hate cooking so not cooking is the name of the game, I couldn't be arsed with substituting the food then cooking it myself!) but in the least worst way.

Another way would be just to have two a month, that's then halved the takeaway calories (although you have to eat something for that meal, so it's not going to be dramatic unless you get all the trimmings/choose fried or unhealthy food).

We share the cooking now so we only get one if we really want one, rather than because I don't want to cool. We also have less money, a DC to be mindful of his diet/salt and moved further from the city.

COVID-19 - haven’t had one since March as not convinced it’s safe

Going vegan!!

Although pizza hut do a really good vegan pizza. We keep it as a monthly treat.

When we still ate meat we were eating takeaways every week

We moved somewhere with shit takeaways! Worked like a charm!

The only edible takeaway food around here is pizza, which I don't especially like and the rest of the family do like, but wouldn't want to eat every week, so we get it once in a blue moon.

Every time I have one I’m always disappointed with it. I don’t remember the last time I had a takeaway and enjoyed it so I just stopped buying them.

I cook everything from scratch even oven chips and never buy ready meals either...

I have to watch my salt intake (serious heart condition and fluid restricted) I have to always be aware of what I’m eating in terms of e.g. salt content, and there is nothing remotely healthy about takeaway.

Depends what the driver is for having them.

For me it's convenience. I cook in batches and freeze so I always have convenient food should I need it.

Err willpower? It's not exactly hard is it. You manage to cook for yourself every other bight if the week.

Just stop doing it. Buy a treat from the butcher / fishmonger which will cost less and treat yourself to a slap up home cooked meal!