Tomorrow is my company Christmas party. I am really looking forward to it, as strange as that may sound. I have never been to the restaurant/club that it's being held at, but I've heard the food and atmosphere are good. It's worth it to go, if for nothing else but the free food, drinks and the comfy ride home in a car paid for by the firm. But I'm lucky enough to also have a lot of coworkers who I really like, so it's always cool to have an opportunity to hang out with them and relax outside of the office. I've got my special outfit all picked out. Since I stopped eating McDonalds cheeseburgers and fries and drinking soda, I have lost enough weight to fit into my sexiest, skinniest pinstripe pants. They're freshly hemmed and ready to go.
On that note, McDonalds seems to be somewhat of a hot topic right now since that movie "Supersize Me" came out, which I haven't yet seen, but I've heard and read enough about it to have a pretty good idea. I was visiting Petebeck's yesterday when a post he'd written about a McDonads actually closing (The shock! The horror!) struck such a nerve that I went off on this crazy rant! (And that's just so out of character for me ;o) I like his site, it's good stuff. Regrettably, he's sick right now, but he's still fun to visit even in his absenteeism! (And I ain't exactly one to talk). So here's my two cents on McDonalds:
It's crazy!Posted by Maria at December 15, 2004 09:06 PM | TrackBackThe closest McDonalds to me is exactly three blocks away. I used to go there at least once a week. You see, I was raised by a hippie health food fanatic for a mom and never got to touch fast food until I was in highschool.
In gradeschool it was always fifty-two grain bread, turkey, lettuce, tomato sandwich, a "fruit leather" (if you don't know what that is, just picture exactly what it sounds like) and a carton of milk while other kids ate ham & kraft singles on wonderbread with a fruit rollup (or Hostess Cupcake! OMG!!!) and slurped down "squeeze-its."
When I moved to NY as an adult, and without my mommy's health conscious eye anywhere near, I started to love McDonalds. Oh those breakfasts. Those nothing-could-replace-that-when-you-have-a-hangover breakfasts. Soooo goood.
And yet, when you really think about what you're eating, SO GROSS!!! What is that? That's not an egg. That's a flat round white and yellow hockey puck sitting atop a god-knows-what-the-fuck-is-in-there-sausage, bedecked by a poor excuse for "cheese" and ultimately encased in what we have come to accept as a muffin, which is really the most processed piece of shit imagineable, not a single component having any nutritional value whatsoever. But those big tatertots are bangin. ;o) Really though. Let's be rational. This is a wonderful opportunity for you to stop eating McDonalds.
Last time I ate it I stopped in for two cheeseburgers and a small fries. It tasted fuckin good. Right down to the little sad "onions" on the burgers. But afterwards I went back to my desk and felt overcome by self loathing and an actual physical feeling of fatigue and queaziness. This is not how you're supposed to feel after you eat. You're supposed to be infused with energy. Recharged. McDonalds does the opposite.
So I decided never to eat McDonalds again. And I replaced my daily intake of coca cola with water. I went from 140 lbs to 130 lbs. almost instantaneously.
When I figure out how to quit smoking a pack of cigarettes and consuming three glasses of beer or wine per day, maybe you can actually congratulate me. Hahaa.
Please excuse the obscenely long post. You must have hit a nerve.
Have fun at your party. Do you think the fast food bug is out of you? I can see where you would go crazy for it, having never had it. But once a week isn't that bad. But the food is just so bad for the body.
Posted by: pam at December 16, 2004 08:54 AMI so agree..and that comes from an ex-McDonald's employee. This kind of stuff isn't bad once in a while..it's not meant for daily consumption though, it's truly horrible. I myself got to the point that I just couldn't eat it anymore and it sickened me to think I ever let my kid eat it. Honestly I wished more fast food places would close down, there's one on every fuckin' corner and that's too much. I know I teased you on the phone about the switching from coke to water but..it's true, you'll drop those pounds just by the slightest change. I haven't eaten fast food since we moved to germany and I truly do not miss it...at all.
Posted by: Sandy at December 16, 2004 09:14 AMp.s. I would like to add that "TACO BELL" does not count. :)
Posted by: Sandy at December 16, 2004 09:16 AMI never ate it more than once a week! UGH. But I've decided that even eating it once a week or once every two weeks is unncessecary and makes me feel physically awful. I seriously only ate it once a week, TOPS, and I still lost significant pounds when I stopped. (Not to mention cutting out the soda. I know to many that is unthinkable, but I don't miss it a bit and I don't think my ass misses the sugar.) I always thought I would never control what I ate. Always been thin and figured I could just eat what I want forever, but I think what I figured out is that it's not about how fat it makes you, it's about how it makes you feel. I'll still eat a burger, but I enjoy a real bacon cheeseburger smothered in cheese a lot more than a McDonalds imitation burger. I enjoy a gooey slice of pizza or fresh waffle cut fries more than I enjoy an order of McDonalds french fries.
So to answer your question Pam, yes, I think the fast food bug is out of me. It's finally become clear that there's no really good reason to keep fast food as a part of the human diet, except perhaps in cases of long distance travel. There are plenty of other perfectly good things to eat.
You know what my favorite thing is at Taco Bell Sandy? Bean burrito with sour cream....mmmmm...and those crunchy tater things dipped in fake cheese. I eat Taco Bell like once or twice a year, but it's the same story with the way it makes me feel physically sluggish. Tasty stuff though.
Posted by: Maria at December 16, 2004 10:12 AMMaria- that was your body telling you to keep it out. I get the same way when we stop for it. I probably have fast food 2 times per year, but I feel like crap after I eat it. And Sandy- Taco bell is not fast food. I waited in line at one some years ago. 15 minutes to be exact. Therefore I do not deem it to be fast. You are safe to contine eating it:)
Posted by: pam at December 16, 2004 10:30 AMNo kidding Pam! I remember thinking that same thing while sitting in the drive thru during my lunchbreak in highschool. "This shit is not fast food! It's so slow I'm going to be late getting back to class." (Yeah right, like I was going back to class! Hehe)
Posted by: Maria at December 16, 2004 10:46 AMI just always have to put Taco Bell in it's own category..I just have too..hahaha. I have a deep love and appreciation for the Bell :)
Posted by: Sandy at December 16, 2004 01:05 PMHopefully now and then, when I'm a septuagenarian, I'll still have and satisfy my gluttonous craving for a good McD’s hashbrown on a Saturday morning. Vivre la fried potato! Still, I understand the wanting a little more food and less pseudo-food smothered in grease.
But much, much more, I like the (novel!) idea of taking Personal Responsibility for one’s diet.
Too often I read or hear of those who would *blame* fast food chains, Kraft Foods, or what have you, for their unhealthy eating habits or physical condition. It’s as though someone tied them to a chair, like in that old WB cartoon, and poured gallons of gravy down their throat. Or like blaming your bartender that you had too much to drink ;)
Its no secretive conspiracy what these folks are selling – anyone can read about it right in the stores themselves! And yet still some would cry, ‘they did this to me!’
So Kudos for deciding on a more wholesome path to svelte! And enjoy the festivities. I doubt Mom would blame you for experimenting with those narcotic McMuffins, but as usual Mom was right from the get-go.
Now if you’ll excuse me my Coke is getting warm and my fries are getting cold…
:) Bon apetite
My parents were health nut hippies too. I remember they'd shop at the co-op. Getting wheat germ on my mac n cheese was considered a treat.
Posted by: Geoffrey at December 16, 2004 05:59 PMOh Geoffrey, that sounds positively dreadful...yuck.
Posted by: pam at December 16, 2004 06:49 PMheh. i think i struck a nerve with a lot of people... :) to expand on my original post, i grew up in a quasi-hippy household too, where my sister and i were limitted on the types of and amounts of 'crappy food' that we could eat. for instance, we always had to have the kind of peanut butter that would seperate out into half oil and half solid -- and you'd have to stir it up before you used it. ick. as soon as i left home i bought a large jar of Skippy Super Chunk and never looked back. and i agree with everyone -- Taco Bell doesn't count...
Maria -- enjoy your companies christmas party!
Posted by: P at December 17, 2004 12:05 PMMcDonalds is your kind of place
French Fries in your face
Hamburgers up your nose
French Fries between your toes...
That's all I remember of the jingle, hope you had a super swell party!
Posted by: Cupie at December 17, 2004 03:55 PM