Bizarre story of me quitting Fast Food and soda

A story about my father

I have a lot of respect for my dad.

Before he became a father, he just a man. And the man really wanted to marry a woman and she made a simple request:

"I'll marry you under the condition that you quit smoking."

He managed to do it! This was during the 80s and 90s by the way, so he had to do it cold turkey. Every time I asked how he quit, he said to me "I just stopped." Which is insane to me and others. The methods of quitting smoking today are accessible, from specialize chewing gum to a non-nicotine stick that just provides fruit flavors. How my father did it in the past is impressive.

Even now, he still doesn't smoke, it's great. But he still drink alcohol. Thankfully I never seen him slurring words, go on a rage, or sleep on the floor.

But because of my father, I have vowed to never smoke and drink (alcohol) for my entire life. It's important that I able to support my family back whenever they need help. What good does it do when I'm drunk or smell like ash tray? It's important for me to lead by example as well.

The soda problem

Gosh ... I think as a kid, I used to drink more than 3 cans of soda per day. I don't know why I'd think that is a good idea. And I would drink almost any kind of soda too.

However, around in my early 20s, I drank my last Fanta, and put myself in a test to stop drinking soda. Thankfully I didn't suffer strong withdrawal symptoms so I was able to move on without any severe headache.

Bad alternatives

Here is the thing. Awhile I think I'm doing good avoiding soda, I didn't bother researching on what is a better alternatives to drink, other than water of course.

This means I was drinking high calorie Arizona mango juice and a lot of Vitamin Water. Both still containing high fructose corn syrup, or something similar. Even if I were to drink the zero calorie versions, it still will have artificial ingredients that'll hurt me long term.

So really, I'm back to square one. I am not making good progress.

Fast Food and addiction

So awhile I never know how it feels to be addicted to smoking and alcohol, I can at least share my experiences with fast food.

There are times I'm picky and choosey about which fast food I like to eat and not eat. Oddly I avoid McDonald's for a long time because of my childhood memory of my kids' meal having pink colored burger patty ... it was gross.

But something evil has happened. Around early 2010s, I was invited to a wedding. My family and I needed to eat something at the halfway point awhile traveling. They really wanted to eat McDonald's. I told them that I'll have nothing but a drink. They fought over the fact how awkward it is for me to not want to eat just because it's McDonald's. I gave up and went with what ever is on the menu.

Once I ate ... I was hooked.

It's absolutely creepy. The fact the corporation is able to manufacture food that can keep consumers addicted to their products is insane. Just that first bite, and I'm in, that's all it took.

After the wedding, during my workdays ... I could not stop going to McDonald's. I go there almost daily. It doesn't help how they've improved the way they serve customers with kiosks. The dopamine whenever I eat any of the food ...

Also once I got depressed, I got back into drinking soda again.

The bizarre moment

It was the middle of September 2019. My shift ends and I exit my workplace. I go walking towards my car and conveniently see McDonald's in my view. As I get close to my car, I did something odd.

I look at McDonald's. Then I look at my car. My head turns down as I look at my hand holding car keys. After my eye balls looking at the ground. Finally, I turn my head up and looked at the sky. I said:

"Let's just go home."

And that I did. For the first week I would say "huh, I'm really not wanting to eat anything from these places ... alright." Then two weeks, "guess I really don't want to eat anymore ..." Finally "wow I can't believe it's been a whole month of not eating fast food."

Oddly, without thinking about it, I also quit drinking soda at the same I quit fast food.

It took about six months for the cravings to finally kick back in. And that, is where the battle truly began.

I had to do whatever I can to stop looking at these business establishments. I had to imagine them as boring banks. Thankfully I never got any fast food ads in my mobile devices (it was anime mobile games instead.)

There are times my mouth would get watery whenever I think about my favorite sandwich I get from McDonald's or other places. But I kept pushing back. It was a mental war within my brain.

Unfortunate part about all of this

This story I've shared so far is hard to believe but I don't know how I can even explain "how" and "why."

Much like my father quitting smoking without needing any assistance or using methods, the way I quit Fast Food and soda is just ... odd.

It wasn't a video, a self-help book, or even a person telling me. I just stopped. I had to figure out why though ... why did I quit?

The reason why I want to find out is to reach out to others who want to ask me: "Wait, you quit eating Fast Food?! How did you do it?! What is your secret?!"

The only thing I can find reason why

So far, the only thing I can find why I quit, is exhaustion. I guess I dislike the idea of taking additional time of ordering food, waiting for the food, eating it, and get home late. Never mind the potential issues of things being delayed such as food taking awhile to be cooked.

Let's come from a different angle, because I don't want to quit on this

Alright, what if I told you I take service very seriously?

Okay, well, for starters, I hate the idea of food delivery services (mobile apps and phone calls). Why? Because I have functional legs. I can walk, ride a bike, or even drive over there. I've never used a service like this in my entire life and it'll stay like that. Because if I ever do, it means I've given up what makes me human to the world.

I also hate drive-thrus. It's another part that screams "lazy" to me. I actually like to play "the red car game." The game is simple, track where the red car is. So I see the red car at the end of the line, I go inside and order a take-out, get the food and walk out, and see where the red car is. And what you know, the person in the red car is finally able to give orders awhile I'm already walking towards my car, ready to leave. Drive-thrus are an absolute joke to me. (It works when it comes to coffee places at least. Most customers just order drinks 90% of the time.)

I'll never forget how much of a fool I am when I have no choice but to use a drive-thru. Dine-in is closed at the McDonald's so I have no choice but to go drive-thru ... and this is where I would decent to madness. After 30 to 60 minutes, I would keep asking myself "what am I doing?!" "Why the fuck am I wasting time eating unhealthy food when I could of taken the time to cook at home?!" "Am I really fucking stupid to do all of this?!" ... Yes it really took a hour, it's embarrassing.

And there are other issues as well such as people not understanding what I've ordered, food is dried, soda is diluted, places being under staffed etc.

The only advice I can at least provide

So over time, I've collected a series of questions that I think would be good enough for any person to at least understand that eating at these places is no longer good.

Forget about just focusing on the health, service is major factor too.

It's already obvious that Fast Food is not good for our health, but if we can focus on other areas too, it'll give enough reason to no longer bother giving these places our money.

Here are the questions you have to ask yourself:

Who knows I'll add more to this later. The whole point is to keep these series of questions in your mind. And hopefully as time passes on, you'll know what to do.

Other subjects like coupons and mobile apps

Well, coupons are certainly a classic trap to get customers to keep coming back. I'm very guilty of using them in the past.

Mobile apps? Never used them. Sure I remember using Chipotle website multiple times but I never downloaded their app. God, I haven't eat in that place in a long time, their food is bland.

But that will not stop me from being fascinated on how much money is being shoved into these apps. Not surprised that McDonald's putting millions to even billions to keep customers addicted to the apps with coupons and rewards system.

Heck people joke about personalized menus at the drive-thru by allowing these businesses to read the licence plate from the back of the cars and then it'll load up the menu to cater the customer specific needs. Same thing on the mobile app, your "favorites" tab or something.

It's insane how much money these customers waste using these food delivery apps. Because I never used any of these, I must be saving a lot of money. Awhile these customers are too dependent on it, they'll keep using it to the point they'll even use "buy-now-pay-later" method ...

My final thoughts

I'll never forget when I had to wait for 30 minutes to get my Chipotle order even though I've ordered in advance and I was first in line in the pick-up drive-thru.

I'll also never forget when the lady thought it would be okay to serve me burnt meatballs in Subway (seriously they were pitch black). She even said "I don't see anything wrong with this," two times in a row.

Finally, it was the KFC/TacoBell combo location, they got my order and it was never finished. Someone must of cleared it on the monitor by accident. So ... I've been standing there waiting for 5 minutes until the gentleman asked me "what order are you waiting for?" He had to read my receipt in order to complete the order.

There is one thing I didn't want to touch on, and that is "English as second language." If you are having a hard time from both ends, just be patient. Keep learning and teaching. Don't be upset. Keep going.

Well, I guess it's time for me to gulp up some good old water from my Nalgene water bottle.