I'm Stuck in FastFoodVille

Q: I travel a lot for business, and often find myself limited to fast food restaurants. I'm trying to eat healthier, but there aren't many healthy options a lot of the time. What do I do?

A: Eating well is not about perfection. Not only is perfection not required, but the road to eating well soon becomes a downward slope: it gets easier and easier with time.

I know it feels like an uphill battle at first, when your tastebuds are recovering from their addictions to processed foods, but once you get past the initial period of transition - 3 weeks to 3 months, usually, but it varies by person and situation - you'll find that eating bad food begins to feel revolting.

So if you're in FastFoodVille with no other options, relax and use it as an opportunity to learn. You can learn creative ways to put good stuff into your body, or sometimes you can learn that when you put non-food in your body, you function at a lower level for a time.

More than my advice or any book or expert, your own experience will sustain you. When making low quality food choices feels like touching the hot stove, you won't do it anymore. And it won't have anything to do with "willpower."

Sometimes our choices feel very limited. One of my "pastimes" is to check out places where I doubt I can get a healthy meal, and see what I can do - cobbling things together, cajoling chefs, inventing new recipes for them, creative substitutions. Sometimes fast food places may be all you've got.

Do you have suggestions for healthier meals in FastFoodVille? Post them to comments below.