So. I began my quest on Snow Day #1 with the request to watch a disgusting food film. My husband quickly queued up a few choice selections on Netflix (gotta love technology) and in a short time we had several to choose from.
Disgusting food film number one? "Supersize Me."
Now, I must be completely honest. I had heard this documentary would make me never want to walk into a McDonald's again, and that simply wasn't true. In fact, I told my husband that, for a disgusting food film, it REALLY made me want some french fries.
Of course, the theory behind this movie is that fast food (McDonald's in particular) can cause all sorts of unhealthy damage to the body, but also to the mind. Morgan Spurlock describes how, several weeks into his experiment, he just feels tired, and run down, and almost depressed, but that when he eats the greasy goodness, it makes him feel better. I didn't need a disgusting food film to tell me that - I've been having that issue for years! I
totally understood what he was saying, and suddenly the first part of my little experiment clicked. I wanted the fries (even while watching him puke them up outside the car window) just because I saw them, and because I could smell them and almost taste their salty goodness. (How backwards is THAT?) The lesson here was that fast food companies spend millions researching how to get people to want their food. And with me (as well as with millions of others), their money had been well spent.
So, mission number one for me would be to constantly remind myself what my first disgusting food film viewing had shown me: that fast food is addicting, and that it's
purposely addictive. Forget the health benefits of not eating that crap (even though the film did a wonderful job of showing how quickly and radically his health deteriorated after just a month of eating it), because I
know all of that. I
know how bad for you that food is - I just don't care enough to give up the yummy, salty, fatty flavors of it all. What I need to do going forward is remind myself how these people spend their time, energy, and money getting me to believe that it's okay to eat fatty, disgusting, non-food items and risk my life just to make money.
Capitalistic bastards.
Watch first disgusting food film and learn something from it... Check.
