As many of you know, I've given up fast food for Lent.
Here's how the start of my second day went. I didn't get out of bed fast enough to feed my children breakfast. Luckily Tyler, 12, was happy with fruit snacks on the run and my daughter Jessie, 8, is served breakfast at school. So that leaves my 1-year-old, Grant. Wanted to get something in his tummy other than a bottle of soy milk, so we paid a visit to the Sonic on Solano to buy him tater tots. I had a Diet Coke, which I have decided to allow myself - I'll get back to that in a second. Being in a drive-up stall, looking at the menu, it was very tempting to grab something for myself. Who would know? But I bought Grant his tator tots and feed them to him and drove him to day care.
Now, here is a question we've been debating at the office: what is fast food? Sure, we know McDonalds and Wendy's and Taco Bell count. But what about Subway? If I rule out Subway, does that mean I have to rule out all the local delis here in town? What about the deli counter at a supermarket? What about Chinese take-out? What about Pizza Hut delivery?
If I stop at a fast food establishment and get myself a quick drink, but nothing to eat, should that be considered a violation?
Comment and tell me what you think.
I had this SAME discussion with my friend who is giving up fast food. We decided that subway does not count because while it's under the fast food label, its considerably different from it's competitors. Obviously you don't want to get the meatball hoagie or pepperoni etc, but if you stick with the regular deli / chicken subs you are fine. Don't get cheese either - it's hard but it goes a long way! But to give up subway doesn't make sense because what is the difference if you made a sub yourself? And its not like the sub is made like another product, such as a fries or an over-processed hamburger.
ReplyDeleteGood luck!!
I would define "fast food" as: low-quality food products sold at an elevated price in order to provide something "convenient" to consumers who really don't care about what they put into their bodies.
ReplyDeleteI, personally, applaud your Lenten discipline. By avoiding fast food, you are being a much better steward of your health - and a good steward of your financial resources. I think that this new discipline would most certainly apply to drinks - particularly "diet" drinks. And BTW - why would you not want to include drinks in your Lenten plans? Just think about spending your hard-earned money to buy a drink that has no nutritional value - and that pulls good minerals from your bones and teeth. The average soft drink has about 1.5 cents worth of ingredients and costs about 2 dollars. That would most certainly fit the definition of "fast food" given above.
If you don't want to gain any sort of nutritional value from those dollars - why not commit yourself to the Lenten discipline of drinking a glass of water when you're thirsty and sending the money you didn't spend on the soft drink to a favorite charity? The same amount of money would be gone from your pocket - but someone would benefit from the time you spent earning the money.
I think any restaurant that has a walk-up counter to place an order is a fast food establishment. The only exception would be the deli at a grocery store. This is because you may have to visit several counters to get specific items on your grocery list.
ReplyDeleteIt depends on why you're giving up the fast food. Health is one reason I'm sure, but you mention in your initial post about the budget issues. If the budget is considered, Subway is out. I recently went to the grocery store and got ham, cheese, lettuce and bread. It cost me 13.42, but I've gotten five lunches out of it so far, and it will stretch one more. That's $2.23 a meal. Subway will cost you more than twice that.
ReplyDeleteI would think subway is out!!! I think any of those like subway, mc donalds, wendy's and places like that are fast food. But the deli at the grocery stores I wouldnt concern that fast food!!
ReplyDeleteGood luck with this Brook, don't know if we could do it!!!
Why were you taking the one year old for tater tots for breakfast?
ReplyDelete