I’m opting out.

I was in high school when I watched Supersize Me. At the time, I ate at McDonalds twice a day, every day. The movie didn’t phase me, and my drive-thru habits continued. ¹

After reading Jillian Michael’s “Master your Metabolism” my grocery list turned into that of a hippie yoga teacher, but drive-thrus were still the norm when I didn’t make time to stop at the grocery store.

My eating habits consisted of fruits, vegetables, and fresh meat mixed with fast food and vending machine “food.”

I realized that my eating habits reached the disgusting level last week during my summer school final exams. I felt queasy and sleep deprived, and my stack of bluebooks was surrounded by cups of vending machine coffee², two bags of pretzels, a bag of generic vending machine salted trail mix, and a box of Mike & Ikes. Sure, I had healthy food at home, but this crap was somehow in front of me.

Sometime between my Professional Responsibility exam and my Wills & Trust exam I decided this had to stop.

That day I decided to ditch the vending machine food and the late night fast food trips.

On Saturday, Jill and I were pulling a marathon work day, and we decided to take a break and fetch lunch. I decided to shake up the new “healthy” diet with a strategically timed trip to Culver’s.³ I figured that a burger wouldn’t shake things up too much…

…and I was wrong.

We get back to work, I eat the burger, and twenty minutes later we hear a loud cranking and gurgling sound.
Jill: “Oh my god, is that your stomach!?”
I give her a pathetic, panicked look and flee to the restroom.

Culver’s was officially axed from the diet.

Today, I axed all the other fast food restaurants. I saw the movie “Food Inc.” and I think it finished the diet change that Jillian Michaels started.

Jillian described how disgusting most food is, but it is one thing to read about how gross food is, and it’s another thing to see it.

The reason why Supersize Me didn’t change my eating habits is because I lost weight on my straight-McDonald’s diet. Supersize Me didn’t disgust me because I knew that fast food was made from poorly treated, hormone pumped animals and chemically engineered potatoes. So what?

Food Inc. answered the “So what?” question.

And the trailer doesn’t do the movie justice.

Let’s just say that I’m grossed out, and opting out.⁴

¹ With a brief interruption freshman year, when my weight dropped over 50lbs…
² Oh the horror.
³ A regional fast food chain whose motto is “Butterburgers and Frozen Custard” …yeah.
⁴ Opting out of the eated the chemically-engineered, pesticide-pumped, shit-smeared, corn-derivative crap.