These journal entries are reprinted from my actual hand-written journal and will be posted on the days I wrote them. Minor edits have been made to conceal identities and protect the innocent.
January 21, 2009
I spent all day on I-35 today driving back to my hometown. When I hit what was roughly the halfway point I pulled through a McDonalds drive through and loaded up.
For some reason, Road trips trigger my cravings for fast food. McDonalds in particular. I rarely ever eat McDonalds anymore. Maybe it’s all the billboards with giant photos of french fries asking me if my Fry Gauge is low. I ate a lot of McDonalds as a kid so my brain and taste buds got wired for this stuff at an early age. Growing up, McDonald’s was a home-cooked meal.
The cashier handed me my order in a bulging but beautiful paper bag:
- Double Cheeseburger Meal – super-sized (or whatever they call it now).
- Filet-o-Fish Sandwich
- 2 Apple Pies
- Large Diet Coke
I pounded this at 70-80 miles per hour. I didn’t even really need to look down to see what I was eating. Salty, delicious goodness. After months of no fast food, I was pretty amazed at the physical “rush†I got from eating it. There was definitely a buzz. But 60 miles later, the buzz had faded and was replaced by regret and an an uncomfortably full feeling.
Any lesson that may have been learned was a moot point by dinner time when I decimated some Taco Bueno for dinner.
Now, it’s night time and I’m at my parents home where I’ll be staying for a month or so while I’m here for a work project. Staying with your parents as an adult is always a complicated mixed bag of emotions. But I just weighed myself and I am much heavier than I have been deluding myself about being. I’m pushing 260 pounds and I feel pretty terrible.
My weight is only one of the elements of my life that I feel are pretty screwed up at the moment. My finances, my career and my relationships are also at the top of the list. But, I feel like getting control of my weight could be a good starting point for all of the rest of it.
It’s going to be extra difficult here, because the options for quality food are very limited. Fast food seems to rule the land. The prevailing concept of going out for dinner seems to be pretty much confined to pizza, mexican food or chicken fried steak. There’s not even a modern grocery store within driving distance – not to mention a Whole Foods.
So, I have some thinking to do.
Fun Fast Food Fact!: The World’s Largest McDonald’s
The McDonald’s you see above – straddling the highway in Vinita, Oklahoma – has longed claimed the title of the world’s largest McDonald’s. This is no longer factually true. The actual “world’s largest McDonald’s” is in Orlando, Florida. Vinita, Oklahoma’s other claim to fame is an annual Calf Fry Festival held every September.
Anyone want to guess what Calf Fries are?
I totally feel your pain! I was raised on fast food, and my life now is so busy it seems to be the best idea. Going on medifast has been a struggle. Just take it a day at a time. You’ll get there!