Zen and the Art of One-Upmanship
Jan. 13th, 2008 12:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jakebe
I've heard somewhere that fast food is pretty bad for you, and that there's been a campaign mounted while my back is turned for me to abstain from eating it forever! Well, not quite. :)
Fast food and I have an odd but amiable relationship. When I left home to go for college (egads, was that nine years ago?) I never suspected that I would be saying goodbye to it for so long. Down in St. Mary's County, MD, there's only Perkins and IHOP for dining if you wanted someplace to go. Otherwise there was only the cafeteria. I was on the meal plan for most of my time there, and my last semester I had joined the vegetarian co-op, which meant I cooked most of my meals from a rundown kitchen in the basement of a dorm nearly across the campus from mine. I have very fond memories of making stir-fry and singing "Paranoid Android" at the top of my lungs. :)
College didn't work out for a variety of reasons, and then I found myself in northwest Arkansas for the next seven years. That place, contrary to whatever else you might have heard, is the bacon capital of the world! Even the Chinese food in Razorback country is liberally-seasoned with pork fat. I still can't get over the bacon-fried rice you can get there, to this day. It was in this place that I tried to keep my vegetarian ways. To be fair, Fayetteville is actually quite vegetarian-friendly, as long as you know where to go.
One day I woke up with a craving for chicken that just would not go away. It followed me for a solid week, until my mouth would begin to water at just the mention of the word 'chick'. I'm sure people at work must have thought I was going straight in the worst way. I ran down to Burger King once I couldn't take it any more, devoured an original chicken sandwich, and never looked back.
Since then, the relationship has been decidedly love-hate. I'll always have a fondness for that chicken sandwich that brought me back into the folds of omnivorism, but at the same time I'm fully aware of how awful fast food is for your body, for the economy, and for the environment. I've read Fast Food Nation. I've seen Super Size Me. I've sworn off fast food after both, but always come back. Apparently the knowledge of what I was doing to myself (and helping to do to the rest of the world) wasn't enough to break me of my addiction. Because when you get right down to it, a Whopper tastes way too good to give up that easily.
In California, the fast-food chains are just as ubiquitous as they are in Arkansas. True, some of them operate on better business models and try to be the best at what they do (In and Out), but there's no escaping the fact that you're eating something that's just not good.
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toob has been trying to kick the habit for some time, and I feel a bit of the responsibility for him not being able to because not only did I re-introduce him to it, I've kept it going by the occasional run to Taco Bell and McDonald's. Anyone in a relationship knows how hard it can be to make a change without the support of your partner.
At the same time, I've been feeling the urge to go back to vegetarianism. My reasoning for it is complex, and I'll get into that later. This is something Ryan isn't inclined to support, which is a big reason why I haven't up until now. But a few days ago I made a pact with him: I'll give up fast food if I can give up meat for 40 days. He's amenable, so...there we are. I know what I'm giving up for Lent. :)
After the forty days, I'll see how I feel about going vegetarian full-time. California is *much* more accommodating for that sort of diet than Arkansas (it's cheaper, is the main thing) and it not encourages me to eat out less, it'll encourage me to cook in more, which is something I've been aching to do.
There'll be a lot more talk about vegetarianism and cooking here, I suspect. I'm going to start researching and reading up on it now, because, well, if this is worth doing it's worth doing well.
Fast food and I have an odd but amiable relationship. When I left home to go for college (egads, was that nine years ago?) I never suspected that I would be saying goodbye to it for so long. Down in St. Mary's County, MD, there's only Perkins and IHOP for dining if you wanted someplace to go. Otherwise there was only the cafeteria. I was on the meal plan for most of my time there, and my last semester I had joined the vegetarian co-op, which meant I cooked most of my meals from a rundown kitchen in the basement of a dorm nearly across the campus from mine. I have very fond memories of making stir-fry and singing "Paranoid Android" at the top of my lungs. :)
College didn't work out for a variety of reasons, and then I found myself in northwest Arkansas for the next seven years. That place, contrary to whatever else you might have heard, is the bacon capital of the world! Even the Chinese food in Razorback country is liberally-seasoned with pork fat. I still can't get over the bacon-fried rice you can get there, to this day. It was in this place that I tried to keep my vegetarian ways. To be fair, Fayetteville is actually quite vegetarian-friendly, as long as you know where to go.
One day I woke up with a craving for chicken that just would not go away. It followed me for a solid week, until my mouth would begin to water at just the mention of the word 'chick'. I'm sure people at work must have thought I was going straight in the worst way. I ran down to Burger King once I couldn't take it any more, devoured an original chicken sandwich, and never looked back.
Since then, the relationship has been decidedly love-hate. I'll always have a fondness for that chicken sandwich that brought me back into the folds of omnivorism, but at the same time I'm fully aware of how awful fast food is for your body, for the economy, and for the environment. I've read Fast Food Nation. I've seen Super Size Me. I've sworn off fast food after both, but always come back. Apparently the knowledge of what I was doing to myself (and helping to do to the rest of the world) wasn't enough to break me of my addiction. Because when you get right down to it, a Whopper tastes way too good to give up that easily.
In California, the fast-food chains are just as ubiquitous as they are in Arkansas. True, some of them operate on better business models and try to be the best at what they do (In and Out), but there's no escaping the fact that you're eating something that's just not good.
toob has been trying to kick the habit for some time, and I feel a bit of the responsibility for him not being able to because not only did I re-introduce him to it, I've kept it going by the occasional run to Taco Bell and McDonald's. Anyone in a relationship knows how hard it can be to make a change without the support of your partner.At the same time, I've been feeling the urge to go back to vegetarianism. My reasoning for it is complex, and I'll get into that later. This is something Ryan isn't inclined to support, which is a big reason why I haven't up until now. But a few days ago I made a pact with him: I'll give up fast food if I can give up meat for 40 days. He's amenable, so...there we are. I know what I'm giving up for Lent. :)
After the forty days, I'll see how I feel about going vegetarian full-time. California is *much* more accommodating for that sort of diet than Arkansas (it's cheaper, is the main thing) and it not encourages me to eat out less, it'll encourage me to cook in more, which is something I've been aching to do.
There'll be a lot more talk about vegetarianism and cooking here, I suspect. I'm going to start researching and reading up on it now, because, well, if this is worth doing it's worth doing well.
