Reflection

After doing a project like this, I finally was able to feel  a change in my life. By this, I don't mean I am a different person and I am going to become a healthy freak, but it showed me that I really won't die if i don't eat fast food everyday. I was going from eating fast food literally everyday, to once every two weeks (these are counting my cheats), and it felt great. I liked to believe that "oh it's lunch time, that means we HAVE to get fast food, because it's tasty and fast", but there are SO many other ways of buying food without having to be unhealthy. There were some cons to this project in a little way, as I was not able to go out with my friends most of the time, because I knew I would end up in a fast food restaurant. As well as me being late to school a couple of times  because I was taking too much time to make my lunch in the morning. However, the pros definitely overpowered the cons. In one way, I felt MUCH more healthy, my stomach isn't as large either, and I was able to eat some different foods. I saved an extremely large amount of money, which is a great thing knowing prom is coming up really soon, which means spending somewhere from $500-$700. That was definitely a great thing about it. There are a bunch of other good things about not eating fast food, such as not wasting gas to go all the way to a fast food restaurant, and instead just eat our lunches in the school parking lot. Littering is also a huge con to fast food, and by not eating any fast food, I did not have to worry about that. Another thing i noticed recently, which I thought was quite funny, but a majority of the people (g.12's) had began to make there own lunches. This also may have been due to the nice weather outside, and the fact that people would rather enjoy eating in the school parking lot, rather than waste most of there lunch time driving to a fast food restaurant and not being able to enjoy the nice weather. While doing this project, a majority of the time I couldn't stand not eating fast food as all my friends around me were, but I would have to eat my own lunch, which wasn't as comfortable. I am glad this project is done with, because I wont have do be doing that anymore. HOWEVER, this does not mean I will continue to my old self, and have fast food everyday. What I came up with to prevent me from eating too much fast food was I set a rule for myself. I can only have fast food once a week, and IF I am with friends I can make it to two times a week. Anymore than that, will make me feel uncomfortable. Colin Beavan's, now that i have done this project, in my opinion is an extremely goal oriented guy. And seeing what he has done, which is extremely hard, has influenced me in a way. I mean, if he can do something which is far more harder than what I had done, then why can't I at least reduce it? This will help me in a million ways, as appose of me continuing my fast food ways. In conclusion, the “No Impact Man” project was a great way for me to realize that not eating fast food, or reducing the amount of it is not only good for the environment, but also it's great for me. AWESOME PROJECT

Day 10--- Last post :(

Today may have been the worst day since I've started this project. I thought I would be a super healthy man and decided to eat some greek salad for lunch.It was, hands down, the most disgusting type of food, if that's what you want to call it, ever. Anyways my day started out with some chocolate milk and some brownies, and before going to school my buddy mark decided to get some breakfast at McDonald's, which I didn't have (Worst breakfast). I had some guests over, so we had some Lasagna, and some weird purple macaroni salad, which surprisingly tasted god.. So i'd say that was quite the healthy day i guess. And I'm sad this was the last day of this project, as it was fun in a way that I was being challenged, and honestly challenging yourself with stuff like this once in a while isn't such a bad idea.

Day 9

Today I decided to make some Afghani food, obviously with the help of my mother, which consisted of rice with raisins and carrots, spiced up chicken cooked in the oven, along with salad. First I put a pot of hot water on the stove to let it boil, then poured the rice in a big bowl of water which cleans the rice. Shortly after, I put the bowl of rice inside a filter to clear out the water, and poured the rice in the boiling pot. I let it cook for about 10 minutes, and then put the pot of boiling water and rice in the filter to clear the water out once again. After rinsing it, i inserted the rice in an empty pot and let the rice cook, for 8 minutes, then my mother added some spices, and salt to it. After another 5 minutes, it was ready! The chicken was still in the oven, and I decided to make some salad and add some German dressing on it, which was absolutely tasty. In about 10 minutes, there was the masterpiece. I was never so proud of myself, and now I had leftovers to take for the following day at school!

Day 8

Just as my no fast food streak was going along great, I just had to ruin it once again by an accident. I was in a deep conversation with my friend, when he gave me a McDouble. Halfway through the burger, i realized what I had done. I betrayed myself, so i threw the burger out right away!...Ok that's false, I didn't actually do that. I just finished the rest of the burger, and enjoyed my WATER. At least I didn't have a soft drink! Shortly after I went to the Deli in the mall beside Colonel By and ordered some Chinese noodles, which contained vegetables and other healthy ingredients. Not to mention the delicious taste it had. Why do I not come here more often rather than fast food restaurants? That, I do not know. But I should start doing this more often.

Day 7

Today was an extremely hot day. One of the hottest days in a while, which was no help as I sat in my backyard mesmerizing my neighbours beautiful refreshing pool :(. No school today, meant it was family day, which also meant barbeque! We had some guests over, and decided to barbeque some ground beef, potatoes, and some meat with vegetables. It tasted amazingly delicious along side the ice cold lemonade. It has been about a week or more maybe, since I have had fast food. This means my skin will be more healthy, and especially as the hot weather is here, my cravings for fast food are really diminishing. So this is not too bad after all!

Day 6

So recently I was thinking about how many calories I eat per day, by having all these fast foods. So I decided to do my research, and it didn't look so great. A Junior Chicken accounts for 380 calories, and medium fries come up to 400 calories. Not to mention the drinks, and other small deserts. Basically I am having around 1500 calories per day (minimum) JUST for lunch. This really got me thinking what will happen if I continue this. Yes, fast food once in a while is okay, still not good, but it's better than having it every day. This really is a wake up call for me, and it really got me thinking, and I honestly don't think I will be having fast food more than twice a week maximum for a while at least. Today was a really off day today as I only had dinner, due to the amount of work I had. So nothing too special.

Day 5

The weather has been great as of late. However this doesn't really help me out, as my cravings for dairy cream are at an all time high. Today for spare, a couple of friends decided to go to Dairy Queen to grab some ice cream. This is the disappointing part unfortunately, as I really wasn't thinking of Dairy Queen as being fast food since it doesn't involve any meat or greasy foods. Unfortunately I was wrong, and it does count as fast food. So I am quite a bit disappointed in myself as I was aiming to go on for a while without fast food. However, I'm going to pretend this did not happen so it doesn't bring my motivation down. I'll continue making my own lunches, eat healthy, and most importantly remember next time before I eat something!

Day 4

Today is a Saturday, and I have yet to eat fast food in about 8 days. I was at work till 3pm today, and when I got home I had a chicken breast sandwich which was absolutely delightful. Not only has this project been a great experience for me, but it's also had me feel great as of late. It causes less pimples, and most of all my stomach isn't similar to my fathers! The family is planning on going out for dinner tonight, so I'm assuming this won't count for fast food as we are having sea food. Now that I've been eating healthy, it may be time for me to start attending the gym....Who am I kidding, I have the body of a Greek god, what's the point of working out?

Day 3

Today was an extremely hard day for me. I've never wanted fast food so bad (I may have said this before but I really mean it this time!). My family had brought home, BigMac's, fries, large drinks, and some chicken McNuggets. I mean, what more can one ask for?! So I had not told my parents about this project which included me not eating fast food for a couple of weeks, and there they were offering me an abundant of delicious food. However, when I said I did not want to eat it, they gave me the weirdest looks I've ever seen. My brothers rushed to the table and grabbed my food in excitement. They couldn't believe it! I shortly explained why, and they understood. My mother who felt bad for me, decided to make me a delicious healthy macaroni. As much as it hurt not eating the McDonald's in the beginning, it paid off at the end, as I felt loyal and healthier just by doing that. Day 4 here I come!

Day 2

After having a terrible start to this "No Impact" project, id like to consider today a very successful day. My day consisted of, cereal and an apple for breakfast, tuna sandwich for lunch, and rice for dinner. This would probably be the healthiest I've been all year long. However it wasn't easy bearing all the fast food that was in front of me. As I was eating my sandwich in the school property parking lot, a car full of my friends had just come from McDonald's. This didn't really help my case, however I realized that I made a promise to myself and had to stay strong. Anyways, the sandwich was extremely delicious. So I guess I can't complain!

Day 1

So today was the first day of my project, and let's just say it didn't go so well. Kind of a dissapointment, but i cheated myself and went to KFC. BUT it wasn't my fault, I mean after all it was TOONEY TUESDAY (the best day of the week)... All jokes aside, it was unfortunately an accidental cheat, as I completely forgot about the promise I made to myself. And as soon as i realized this, I had told all my friends that they MUST help me get through this, not just for the summative, but for my grade.12 prom which is coming up in less than a month! Yes, I would much rather prefer to go to prom without a big belly. So what I did as soon as I got home was, approach my mother and told her to make me a tuna sandwich to take for lunch the following school day. Hopefully this works out!

Statement of Intent

The next 3 weeks will be quite the experience for me. Inspired by Colin Beavan's "No Impact Man" project and as a part of an environmental studies course summative,  I will be going from having fast food 2-3 times a day to no fast food at all for 3 WEEKS! Now you may ask, why did I chose to do this and how does this help the environment? Bell rings, class is done, what does that mean? Time to go out for lunch! This tends to be a daily routine since the beginning of grade 12, as a majority of my friends have received there license (since i haven't). The usual choices for places to eat are usually McDonalds, Burger King, KFC, and sometimes if we're in the mood of eating "healthy food" we go to Tim Hortons or Subway. Although recently I have been getting compliments on my "beer belly", so this is one reason I chose to not eat fast food for my No Impact Man project. However the other (main) reason as to why I chose this idea was due to that fact that there are multiple hazards to the environment just by eating fast food, such as tremendous energy intensity to create the food, high amount of packaging waste in the wrappers, bags, containers etc., and CO2 emissions from drive-thrus. So what I will be doing for the next 3 weeks rather than eating fast is, I'll be packing my own lunches, that are packed in a container and will not include any plastic, wrappers, or any other disposable materials. Although I know this won't be an easy task to follow, I will try my best to not eat any fast food, and will be sure to tell my friends to help me throughout the next deadly 3 weeks.