The Great Failed Salad Experiment
this entry brought to you by sleater-kinney, "the fox"
When I'd first heard of Super Size Me, it seemed like such a great idea, because it was something I myself had thought of doing many times. I've always wanted to try to eat nothing but food from one place, not neccesarily because I liked the food, but for personal curiousity. In the name of science! While I was working for Sears for that year and a half, I ate Taco Bell every single day. During my two and a half years at Target, I ate Jack in the Box every single day for lunch. It was neccesarily because I liked the food that much or that I was trying to kill myself, but honestly, even if I brought food from home it would cost more to fill me up than two jumbo jacks. So I always wanted to see what would happen if I ate nothing but Jack in the Box for every meal for a month.
After hearing about Super Size Me, I became very gung-ho about doing something like this. I decided eating something healthy would probably be a better idea than something like Jack in the Box, so I decided on salad. Not neccesarily to be a vegetarian, because you could have a chicken sald, or a ham salad, but it always had to be a salad no matter what. Michelle works at a grocery store, and Jack in the Box sold salads, we could do this. Michelle, our roommate Matt, and myself agreed and were enthusiastic. This was going to be great. And if not, at least it would be interesting.
Honestly, I don't know how vegetarians do it. And it really has nothing, for me, to do with the diet itself. Yes, it turned my poop weird. And yes, I was dying... dying for a burger about two weeks in. Michelle was actually the first to start breaking down and planning on ways to cheat. "What if I have a burger and a salad?" No, you have to have a salad, period. You can have sides, but the main course has to be salad. "What if I eat a burger, then 1 hour later a salad for lunch?" This surprised me. I thought out of all of us, I would be the first to break down. Michelle eventually quit and ate whatever she wanted rigtht around the two and a half week mark, and her quitting meant the beginning of the end for me. Yes, I really wanted a burger. But I could last the whole month. But when your wife gives in, it's hard to keep your will power up.
Especially when all the salad inconveniences were totally destroying my will to do this.
1) Salad is expensive. And I don't just mean the pre-cut salad-in-a-bag, of course that's expensive. But one head of lettuce lasted one day per each of us. And then toppings. And dressing. And other veggies. And lunch at Jack in the Box. And whole chickens to strip, and yadda yadda yadda. It doesn't seem expensive, but when you try it, it is. Especially when you consider...
2) The food goes bad. Quickly. So you can't buy more than you'll eat in three days. So not only is that shit expensive, but you're going 3 or 4 times a week.
3) Even if your food never, ever went rotten, refridgerator space becomes an issue really quickly. Think about it. 3 heads of lettuce a day. Bushells of tomatoes. Packages of every veggie and fruit topping you can imagine. Before you know it, your fridge is totally full. And three days later it's empty, and you're off to the store again.
What killed it for me was the vegetarian lifestyle that came with it, even if I wasn't eating strictly vegetarian. Believe it or not, I like grocery shopping, I like planning what I'm going to eat for the month. But I also like shopping big once a month, then filler shopping around the two week mark. I don't actually like shopping every other day, spending around 80 dollars a week.
And yeah, the poop thing was annoying.
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with love from CRS @ 5:48 PM
Tuesday, August 16, 2005
When I'd first heard of Super Size Me, it seemed like such a great idea, because it was something I myself had thought of doing many times. I've always wanted to try to eat nothing but food from one place, not neccesarily because I liked the food, but for personal curiousity. In the name of science! While I was working for Sears for that year and a half, I ate Taco Bell every single day. During my two and a half years at Target, I ate Jack in the Box every single day for lunch. It was neccesarily because I liked the food that much or that I was trying to kill myself, but honestly, even if I brought food from home it would cost more to fill me up than two jumbo jacks. So I always wanted to see what would happen if I ate nothing but Jack in the Box for every meal for a month.
After hearing about Super Size Me, I became very gung-ho about doing something like this. I decided eating something healthy would probably be a better idea than something like Jack in the Box, so I decided on salad. Not neccesarily to be a vegetarian, because you could have a chicken sald, or a ham salad, but it always had to be a salad no matter what. Michelle works at a grocery store, and Jack in the Box sold salads, we could do this. Michelle, our roommate Matt, and myself agreed and were enthusiastic. This was going to be great. And if not, at least it would be interesting.
Honestly, I don't know how vegetarians do it. And it really has nothing, for me, to do with the diet itself. Yes, it turned my poop weird. And yes, I was dying... dying for a burger about two weeks in. Michelle was actually the first to start breaking down and planning on ways to cheat. "What if I have a burger and a salad?" No, you have to have a salad, period. You can have sides, but the main course has to be salad. "What if I eat a burger, then 1 hour later a salad for lunch?" This surprised me. I thought out of all of us, I would be the first to break down. Michelle eventually quit and ate whatever she wanted rigtht around the two and a half week mark, and her quitting meant the beginning of the end for me. Yes, I really wanted a burger. But I could last the whole month. But when your wife gives in, it's hard to keep your will power up.
Especially when all the salad inconveniences were totally destroying my will to do this.
1) Salad is expensive. And I don't just mean the pre-cut salad-in-a-bag, of course that's expensive. But one head of lettuce lasted one day per each of us. And then toppings. And dressing. And other veggies. And lunch at Jack in the Box. And whole chickens to strip, and yadda yadda yadda. It doesn't seem expensive, but when you try it, it is. Especially when you consider...
2) The food goes bad. Quickly. So you can't buy more than you'll eat in three days. So not only is that shit expensive, but you're going 3 or 4 times a week.
3) Even if your food never, ever went rotten, refridgerator space becomes an issue really quickly. Think about it. 3 heads of lettuce a day. Bushells of tomatoes. Packages of every veggie and fruit topping you can imagine. Before you know it, your fridge is totally full. And three days later it's empty, and you're off to the store again.
What killed it for me was the vegetarian lifestyle that came with it, even if I wasn't eating strictly vegetarian. Believe it or not, I like grocery shopping, I like planning what I'm going to eat for the month. But I also like shopping big once a month, then filler shopping around the two week mark. I don't actually like shopping every other day, spending around 80 dollars a week.
And yeah, the poop thing was annoying.
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