Fast Food in Review

Today is final exam day for my math classes. I am in fact sitting at the front of the room while the little darlings work in concentration on their final exams. This post is not about that though..it is about what I did and re-discovered on my drive into work.

I wrote the exams last night (really an update of old ones). I Took and edited the exams this morning and did some other paperwork. As usual I was in a rush to get out the door for work but today I was really hungry for lunch. I am usually good with my coffee and vitamins for breakfast well into the late afternoon or dinner even. So what does a really hungry girl in a rush do? Why fast food of course.

I used to be a fast food queen. Most days would find me in one drive-up window or another grabbing breakfast, lunch or dinner. Sometimes I would drive up to more than one window in a day. I could grab food and get it down my gullet while driving to my next appointment, home from work, too work or over the mountain on my long commute for professional development classes. Well..the band at first forced a change here. At first I had to cut back (Way back) on my meals. I switched to a kids meal from my old two cheeseburger meal. I drank my drink first instead of simultaneously wolfing down fries and gulping diet coke with burger chasers. Then the fries..they had to go. I just could not eat them. I got so excited about their mere presence in my hand that in two bites they would be swallowed. Finally the burger had to go. My band was too tight (I thought). I couldn't eat burgers or fries anymore. I switched to chicken nuggets or fish.

Well this gradual loss of all things fast food was VERY painful at times. I cried, I salivated, I even had a small unfill at one point. Eventually I gave them up entirely and then slowly after I learned to chew better, listen more and eat more slowly I got some of it back. For some time I have been able to have a few fries or 1/2 a hamburger with half a bun.

Something happened along the way though. This shift in eating from all things fast to high quality fresh things at sit down restaurants (not in the drivers seat) changed my palette. I drove through Jack in the Box today for the first time in a long time to slam a quick meal (I know I should have just gone hungry). I now know how to eat my fast food successfully but...here is the funny thing. It tastes like CRAP! I had curly fries and a fish sandwich. The first two fries tasted good. the 3rd and fourth not so much. I swapped to my fish. I grabbed the fish without the bun with my teeth while driving and blech...Not good. I took two more fishy bites and chucked it back in the bag. Fast food is crap. It is greasy, it doesn't taste very good...When did that happen? I loved my burgers and fries..I mean LOVED them.

quite a while ago I wrote a break up letter to McDonalds. I was really bugged by the loss of my fast food at that point. Today I feel like fast food is like an ex boyfriend or ex-husband. I remember the good times but I really don't want to go there again.

Maybe if I try really hard I can do the same with some of my other bad habits....

xxxooo