How to stop using food delivery apps?

Off Topic: I have mixed feelings on the recent Redditification of "Ask HN:" becoming a forum for almost exclusively self-help style posts.

Like, they're fine in moderation and no one person is being spammy so I have no idea how ask for moderation.

I have the same problem, I'm almost always disappointed and pay way too much, but I keep coming back to the romanticized version of the idea of getting tasty and convenient food without having to plan ahead. I try and remind myself of how unhappy I was with previous orders. Sometimes that works, sometimes it doesn't.

If a service existed that could teleport me a just served restaurant meal at the same price as at the restaurant, with high accuracy and no wait, I'd be all over it. (Pizza hut delivery is actually the closest I've found to that and I order it a couple times a month)

For the health aspect, that takes a different kind of dedication and concentration on eating healthy, which is a imo a bigger commitment that there is lots of information around on.

Edit: I'm assuming you know you could cook yourself and don't like to or find it inconvenient. I'm definitely in that camp, I'm actually good at cooking, but unless I'm on a mission to cook something, I don't really like doing it (or planning groceries) and I do like eating tasty stuff. The concept of a delivery app addresses this well which is why I keep coming back to them.

Don't be a poor and hire yourself a live-in chef?

Easy peasy.

Follow me for more tips on how to live your best life.

Time to learn to cook. Useful tip: most recipes you'll come across online are way overcomplicated. Get a cookbook from a real publisher. Preferably an nth edition of something your ancestors 100 years ago might have used. An actual paper, gets grease spots with age book. That way you know someone actually paid to put someone else's words together and tried the recipes out.

Highlight, like with a highlighter, any recipes you like. Bring those to a community (maybe this one!) and ask for tips on how to improve it once you have some experience.

For the first steps, uninstall the app, make a list of grocery store items that you need, and go to the store

Learn how to cook yourself. Pick some recipe and fucking cook that shit.

Just cook something instead, I guess? Helps to have some food at home ready to be cooked. Go for simple dishes like pancakes or fried eggs if your current skill level is kind of low.

Some things worked for me in various forms:

- Set a budget. It can be whatever you want, but less than you’re spending right now. That way you’ll be able to do a quick mental check for whether you’re spending “too much” (relative to what? The budget.) You’ll go over budget, but at least you’ll have a goal.

- Similarly, when you get your paycheck, immediately (or automatically) transfer more to a savings, retirement, or investment acct. you’ll have less cash on hand for eating out.

- If cooking is a drudgery, you may benefit from better quality cookware, such as knives. Decent knives (not the ones that come in a pack of 10) made chopping that was previously laborious much easier to handle.

- Similarly, cook with others. Turns it into a social activity to prepare meals for the week.

- there are a bunch of companies, such as freshly, which deliver pre made TV dinners. They are designed to be healthier. You could try out a few of those to see if there’s one you like.

- There are services, like Shef, that pair you with someone in the community (sometimes pro chefs) to made food for the week. Also “aunties” that do this from their home.

- Find recipes that are easy to make at home. Don’t use Gordon Ramsay coming videos. Chef John is my favorite, you’ll definitely find a recipe you like and it will be accessible to make.

- Keep snacks around the house. Fruit, nuts, trail mix, popcorn, for cravings.

Good luck!

People often mention that half of exercising is finding something that’s the right fit for you. Or, something that’s easy to start doing and stay consistent with. I’m not expert, but I think home cooking is the same way.

I’d suggest finding simpler tools/techniques/recipes that aren’t straining to make at first but produce a lot of leftovers. Most restaurants use salt and oil to keep things tasty, and you can always add those yourself if you need comfort food.

You have to make it more convenient and faster to cook at home. For me these were a set of Healthy Choice dinners that I enjoy. On the laziest of nights, I can literally chuck the entire thing into the microwave, set it for 5 minutes, and have dinner which is about 5g net carbs. 5 minutes in the microwave beats 30+ minutes waiting for a driver.

Your complaints sound regional. Where I live it’s the same restaurants in the app as on the street with lots of healthy options.

Lots of folks suggesting groceries and cooking, but I prefer the old "go to a restaurant and order and eat." It takes time, but so does cooking, and it's probably cheaper and hotter than delivery.

- Read Salt Fat Acid Heat end to end, you’ll learn how to make anything taste good _to you_

- Buy ready-made or 2 step process meals (eg add thing, put in oven) from the supermarket

- Try protein shakes or smoothies for breakfast or lunch

Have you considered ordering from healthier places? I'm not a big salad guy but I love Buddha bowls.

Also they can be good motivation. Sometimes I wake up around lunch time and as a student (it's always different when working FT) I lack the motivation to get out of bed until I see the delivery driver is ten minutes away. Then I speedrun a shower so I can go downstairs and meet them in the lobby of my high rise.

Delete the app from your phone.

Never install it again.

Switch to Lyft if you have issues with the Uber Eats app…

The next time you reach for your phone to order food, walk into your kitchen to eat the food you have at home.

If you do not have food at home, drive to the nearest grocery store and buy groceries. Do not buy anything premade or from the deli…

If you don’t know how to cook or are just starting out, buy ingredients to make sandwiches.

Problem Solved.

Delete the app from your phone and change the password to a random string then paste it with your eyes shut. Put up as many barriers as possible between you and the service so it is harder to use it.

You could even get a flip phone instead of a smartphone.

Get grocery delivery instead?

one of the issues we always have is trying to figure out what to cook, and if we have everything for it. So we just end up ordering something. We are now trying one of these meal services that give you chef prepped recipes and the items to cook it. That way we have to just choose one and cook it. I have been really happy with it so far.

Edit: I’m in Spain so the service we have won’t work for most people, but I hear good things about hellofresh for example.

Make food yourself?

Learn three or four things you can cook with little effort. Steak and mashed potatoes is gorgeous and dead, dead easy.

Delete the apps from your phone.

Call your bank and ask them to block transactions from these apps.

Yes… the solution is called “use your kitchen”!

Delete the apps and start holding yourself accountable for your decisions