Fast Food Detox

Alex Smith:

This will be a weekly article chronicling my attempt to quit eating fast food. I decided to make this change early in the month of December and thought it might be a good journey to document and share with the readers of OleToday. To begin I will provide you with a brief background on my life and how my addiction to fast food developed in to what it is today.

I was always an athletic kid. Constantly playing sports, whether it be through school or with friends. I became a one-sport athlete when high school began. The sport of choice for me was Football. The amount of fast food I ate then was relative to the amount of fast food I consume now. The difference is that I burned enough calories through football practice and weight training that I never gained weight or noticed effects from my fast food consumption. Now this is the dilemma for most people who experience the freshman 15 of college life. They no longer have the time or opportunity to burn the amount of calories they did in high school. In my case though, the freshman 15 inflated to the sophomore 60. Now that may be an exaggeration, but in reality I have gained 40 pounds from my graduation in 2007 to today. Yes I do realize that my weight gain likely has more components then just eating fast food. However, I feel fast food is a major contributor to my unhealthy lifestyle. I feel that if I can rid myself of my dependency on fast food, I can then tackle the other aspects of my lifestyle with ease. The motivation behind this experiment is not simply some fatty attempting to go on a diet while tracking his progress online. I want to see how much quitting fast food will affect my life and detail any complications or benefits along the way. I am also aware that Americans continue to balloon in size at a rapid pace, so I’m hoping this can shed light on a topic someone might be considering for their own life.

Just to let you get a feel for how this article will work I will give you a brief outline and then write my first week’s entry. I will start with showing my weight from the previous week, followed by my current weight and then the amount of times I “cheated” on my plan. These 3 stats will then be followed with a summary of how the previous week of avoiding fast food went. I hope you enjoy following me along this journey and I hope I can actually complete this “super-sized” task ahead of me.

Beginning weight: 253
New Weight: N/A
Amount of Time I “Cheated”: 0

Jan. 4th 2010:
Like any addict I decided to overdose on fast food last night (the night before starting this adventure). Did I feel guilty? Hell no! That could potentially be the last french fry, double-double and shake I ever consume.
10:30: Have an interesting debate about deciding what is and is not considered fast food.
10:53: Decide that anything with a drive-thru is off limits.
10:53:50: Establish that I can adjust this rule at any time during this process.
12:13: Realize how intense cravings for fast food can become simply by seeing a restaurant or logo.
12:35: Develop an odd headache I’ve never experienced before.
12:38: Begin to wonder if this fast food addiction thing is more serious then I thought.
5:00: I feel tired and relate this to detoxing from fast food.
5:05: decide to name this article “Fast Food Detox”
5:30: Make mental note to myself that if this is what eating healthy feels like, I’ll take a double chin and diabetes.

Jan 7th 2010:
The past two days have been relatively uneventful. I haven’t traveled much, which means my contact with fast food restaurants was non-existent.
11:00: Decide that not going anywhere is the best solution to avoiding temptation.
11:07: Realize that becoming a hermit to avoid fast food creates a whole new problem I don’t feel like dealing with.
12:00: Make the 12,000th sandwich for myself in the past few days.
12:15: Come to the conclusion that the only non-microwavable meal I know how to make is a sandwich.
12:23: Make mental note that I need to learn how to make different meals in order for this plan to be successful.
3:45: Convince myself that mall food court food should be considered fast food.
4:03: My stomach gets really pissed off at my brain for previously mentioned decision.
5:30: Finally get to eat a meal. I now realize how difficult it is to actually find the time and resources to create a real meal.
5:35: After realizing I have to wait this long every day to eat, I grow a hatred towards myself for deciding to go through with this adventure.

Jan 8th 2010:
So I guess my body isn’t used to being this large. Besides my body resembling that of a tiger attack victim due to stretch marks, I’ve noticed another physical complication of being over weight. After eating a meal I now develop some sort of cough or phlem in my throat.
12:15: I wonder if this after meal cough is some sort of warning that your body is telling you to lose weight, or simply my double chin pushing on my esophagus.
12:17: Decide to do more research on that topic later.
7:23: My brother takes me to HomeTown Buffet for dinner. While I realize the food at Home Town is crap, you do get seated and therefore it is not considered a fast food place to me.
WARNING NEXT ENTRY MAY CONTAIN GROSS INFORMATION. IF YOU ARE SQUIMISH OR SMALL CHILDREN ARE AROUND PLEASE RETURN TO THE HOMEPAGE NOW.

I realize I’ve only been “off” fast food for a week, so the next set of events showed me how bad my fast food addiction really was.

8:15: After only a week, my body is already not used to fried shit.
8:16: My intestines inform me Code Brown is upon us
8:17: Get the horrible sensation when you realize your body has to go #3. (#2 + #1= #3)
8:22: That’s right. My first encounter with somewhat crappy food in a week and it leads to Diarrhea.
8:23: Add Home Town Buffet to my “Cannot Eat” list.

Well my first week was one that didn’t provide any insight in to my progress because there was nothing to compare it to. Hopefully all of the anxiety that goes along with limiting my eating options has some positive side affects. I hope you enjoyed the first article in my attempt to quit fast food.

Want to share your story, offer insight, or just say what’s on your mind? Feel free to email me alexsmith@oletoday.com or simply comment on the article. Until next week,

Alex