It's all for convenience's sake?

I think I made a mistake last night.




I finally gave in and watched "Super Size Me" - because I was able to find it and borrow it from the library, free of charge. Last night, Mike and I put the kids to bed, pulled out the couch (it's a fun sleeper sofa from Ikea), and curled up under some blankets to watch the movie.

I think I kind of wish I hadn't now. I was disgusted by the change in Morgan's health in just one month of eating McDonald's. I mean, I KNOW that no one is meant to eat from the golden arches every meal of every day - but there are a lot of people who do. Not only that, but there are a lot of people who eat only fast food for their meals, or a lot of people that don't MAKE their own meals, but eat just as processed, just as full of fat/salt/sugar meals that come from the frozen food section at the grocery store.

I'm still digesting (pun intended) the movie and I'm sure it will cause many, many blog posts, but for now, I've gotten far enough in my thought process to really want to try to eradicate fast food (for the most part) from our diets. We don't eat there much now anyways - but I do make special stops here and there. I don't want to be feeding that to my kids any more - so I've been trying really hard to avoid it for the past couple of weeks. I was pretty proud of myself for driving by multiple fast food places twice this week and talking myself OUT of stopping because it'd be "easier" and "faster" than going home making dinner or lunch from scratch. Sure, it would have been more convenient to go through the drive through - but I'm really happy that I didn't. Instead, the first night, I made a great dinner of grilled chicken, steamed broccoli and home made dish of whole wheat pasta with a light cheese sauce (as a side dish). Each of the boys ate a great dinner - and I completely controlled the quality of the food they ate. The second time was lunch, and we went home to fresh sandwiches with fresh fruit on the side. Did it take me longer to make? Yep, definitely. BUT - it was higher quality food and they ate it just as well as the greasy nuggets or burgers they would have gotten from McDonald's.

I was shocked at Morgan's change in emotional health during the course of the experiment. I'll blog about that later, but I was thoroughly surprised in his increase of depression and decrease of happiness as he got more and more into the month of McDonald's. I'm still thinking about that - but I'm sure it'll come up in a blog in the near future.

A lot of the pull of McDonald's - or the frozen meals or pizzas, or whatever - is the convenience factor. It's really easy to have a meal ready in just a few minutes if you use those products - or eat at the fast food restaurants. But what's the payoff? What are we trading for that convenience? Our physical and emotional health? I don't know if it's worth it.....


I've been trying really hard to get boxed, prepared foods out of our house. It's more of an experiment just to see if I can actually do it more than anything else. I still have a few (Goldfish crackers are a MUST in a house with a 5 year old, a 4 year old and a 16 month old!), but I'm really trying to shift our focus onto fresh fruits, vegetables, and fresh dairy products. I'll be the first to admit that the biggest stumbling block for me comes when I have to pack a school lunch. There are SO many restrictions on what I can pack (no nuts, no sesame, no garlic, no _______.....) that it does make it really hard to find enough food to pack. Through in a very picky 5 year old - he likes fresh fruit, but it can't brown at all before he gets to it, - and it's nearly impossible without relying on the boxed crackers and snacks that all his friends bring and that he WANTS. I really have a hard time finding things that he'll 1) eat and 2) meet all of the restrictions.

I'm still working through my reaction to the movie, but I know two things for sure now:

1) We're going to really limit our fast food indulgence. I think maybe once a month will be okay, but definitely not more than that. Ideally, I'd like to stop completely, but until more restaurants fit into our budget, I don't think that's possible. We still like to go out to eat as a family as a special night, and I don't see that stopping anytime soon. Until I have more choices for a family of 5 to eat under $25, I don't think we'll be ending our fast food indulgence completely.

2) I'm going to work harder to move us away from convenience foods in general, and work harder at fresh, home made meals and snacks. Summer is a perfect time to do this - the amount of fresh, inexpensive food just multiplies like crazy. I'm going to have a big garden again this year, and I'm going to focus on growing more of our staples (more tomatoes, more lettuce, Baby #1 is really insistent on peas, etc). I'll supplement that with the farm stand down the street, and see what we can make happen and if we can get into the habit of choosing fresh fruits and vegetables on a regular basis.


What do you think? Have you seen the movie?