A few years ago, on New Year’s Eve, my family watched Super Size Me. My dad always makes it a point to ask everyone at dinner what their resolution is for the year and if you don’t come up with something he will be glad to assign you one. After the documentary, as you may see where this is going, my dad thought it would be great if my whole family made it our resolution to go the whole year without fast food. After watching Morgan Spurlock eat nothing but McDonald’s for a month, it’s not surprising how appealing the idea was. Operation: No Fast Food was a go.
One year later and I was the only one to have made it (my dad will argue that his one trip to Del Taco doesn’t count though). It was a bit difficult at first, but my family generally didn’t eat out at fast food that much to begin with. It only got tricky when we were on a few road trips and fast food is sometimes the only choice you have, but we always managed to find something.
One year and six months later and I ate my first McDonald’s hamburger since eliminating fast food. I ate about a third and couldn’t finish the rest. Something about greasy, over-processed meat just wasn’t appetizing anymore.
To this day I’m glad to say that I still don’t really eat fast food. I don’t necessarily avoid it, but it just isn’t as appealing anymore and I don’t really think about. Except for now because writing this post is making me hungry. At McDonald’s, I’m fine with eating the chicken and breakfast, but the burgers still kind of get to me. Other fast food places don’t bother me as much.
I’d be interested to see how much cutting fast food out of my diet has impacted my health, if any. I’ll admit I’m not the healthiest eater around, but it has to help some. Just imagine the impact if more Americans were to limit the amount of fast food they consume? It’s embarrassing to see how much of an effect fast food has on our country and culture compared to others such as Europe and Australia. Sadly, it’s noticeable.
Therefore, I challenge anyone who may be reading this to go out there and challenge yourself to do what I did! You may be thankful someday that you did, but you won’t know until you try.
A Renaissance Girl 