It turns out that I haven’t been to a fast food restaurant in a little bit over 12 years.

No, I’m not “lovin’ it” at all.

There are some caveats to that statement, though. First, I do go to Dunkin’ Donuts for bagels with cream cheese and I do go to Chipotle for tacos. In the last 12 years I have gone to places like Baja Fresh (until it almost killed me) and sub shops like Quiznos and Jersey Mike’s. More than those places, though, I frequent local delis, pizzerias, and sub shops because I like helping small business owners with the few bucks that I allocate to eating out each month. I also go to local restaurants including the chain restaurants like Ruby Tuesday’s and the Brick House Tavern and Tap.

In the last 12 years, though, I haven’t had any McDonald’s, Burger King, Taco Bell, Wendy’s, or any of that type of fast food. For some reason after my junior year of college (back in 2002), I made the decision to stop eating fast food. I distinctly remember driving by the local McDonald’s and thinking about how the burgers that they serve weren’t really burgers at all. Rather, they were mashed together meat parts formed to look like a burger. It made me sick just thinking about it – and this was before all of the stories and books came out about how eating that fake food is substantially worse for you than our society originally thought.

It was around that same time that I stopped drinking soda, too. I used to love drinking Diet Coke and eventually started drinking Diet Sprite (this was just before it became known as Diet Sprite Zero, which is the same formula as Diet Sprite). And then I just randomly stopped drinking the stuff altogether. I didn’t really miss drinking soda since I’m one of the rare people who loves drinking water regularly. Although, just like I have caveats to the comment above about not eating fast food, my one caveat here is that after my gallbladder surgery in July 2005, my doctor did suggest that I drink a little bit of a carbonated beverage each day for a few weeks so the bubbles would float around my stomach and help things move around. With that recommendation, for about a month after my gallbladder was removed I probably drank a shot glass worth of Diet Sprite Zero each day. It wasn’t much at all and most people don’t consider Diet Sprite Zero to be a real soda since it’s essentially carbonated lemon water, but that’s a different discussion.

Over the last dozen years, I have never missed fast food or soda. I have, though, from time to time (once every 3 to 4 years) wondered whether or not it would make a difference if I started consuming this not-quite-real-food again. In the 12 years that I stopped eating this garbage my weight has remained relatively the same give or take 5 pounds, I became diabetic and am on a ridiculous number of medications to control it, and my gallbladder had to be removed. When you experience these negative medical results years after you stop consuming garbage, it does make one wonder what’s the point of it all.

I understand why I should continue to stay away from fast food. There are both ethical reasons (the way that the animals are treated before they’re processed into food) and biological reasons (let’s face it – most of that “food” is really just comprised of chemicals) to stay away from that stuff. However, when it comes to Diet Sprite Zero – I have to believe that drinking that stuff won’t hurt me any more than not drinking it has hurt me (i.e. my becoming diabetic, not losing much weight, and losing my gallbladder).

That is a question that I’ll continue to ponder since I really don’t have a craving for soda and thus I have no real reason to act to find a final answer. I suppose it doesn’t really matter whether it would hurt or harm me. In fact, I might go another 12 years without drinking any soda before I find out.

Aside from discovering organic food, I try to make my own breakfast, lunch, and dinner when I have a chance. On that note, I make a pretty delicious oatmeal and berry breakfast. The pictures below detail my making an oatmeal and berry breakfast a few weeks ago. Incidentally, the oatmeal used here is Bob’s Red Mill organic rolled oats mixed with two tablespoons each of Bob’s Red Mill organic ground flaxseed meal and Bob’s Red Mill organic wheat germ. I like Bob’s Red Mill products. The berries are also organic from the produce section of the local Wegmans grocery store.

This isn’t a step-by-step guide to how to make my delicious oatmeal and berry breakfast, but I thought I would take some pictures and show everyone what I do every once in a while to make this delicious meal. The picture above shows the berries mixed together in a large bowl. I just leave them in the bowl until I’m ready to pour the cooked oatmeal on top. In addition to the blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries that you see above, sometimes throw in sliced strawberries, too.

I actually went out and bought this small sauce pot because I didn’t want to make my oatmeal in the small T-Fal pots that I have in my kitchen. I hate when that T-Fal stuff starts to chip and get mixed in with the food. Gross. So I went to Wegmans and purchased that little stainless steel pot that you see in the picture above. Inside that pot is one cup of water (filtered through the PUR filter on my sink faucet), a half a cup of Bob’s Red Mill organic rolled oats, two tablespoons of Bob’s Red Mill organic ground flaxseed meal, two tablespoons of Bob’s Red Mill organic wheat germ, a teaspoon of organic cinnamon (I’ve been using Simply Organic cinnamon and it has a very good taste), and a few twists of freshly crushed sea salt from the container (nothing more than a teaspoon). Once the water boils, I pour the rest of the ingredients in at one time and then bring the temperature down to mid or low.

After the oatmeal is done cooking, I dump it on top of the berries (picture down below), but I’m a huge stickler for keeping a clean kitchen! So once the oatmeal is poured and, on occasion, scraped out of the stainless steel pot, the pot goes right into the sink with hot water in it!

And you’re wasting your time if you don’t put some dish soap in with that hot water. As you eat your breakfast, the hot water and dish soap will eat into any bit of the oatmeal that is clinging to your stainless steel pot like its life depending on it (which, in some ways, I guess it does).

You’re supposed to clean everything! Can you tell how anal I am about keeping a clean kitchen (especially when you cook breakfast)? Here you see my measuring cup and the measuring spoons that I use to measure out my ingredients.

Ahhh… then you have the coup de grâce of the entire effort. This is what the delicious finished product looks like after the berries are mixed into the oatmeal. I’m telling you – if you like berries, oatmeal, and cinnamon, then this is what you want to eat in the morning. Trust me.

Oh, and I usually drink a nice glass of organic milk with my oatmeal and berries. I like Organic Valley’s fat free milk. Very tasty.

And there you have it! This is what I try to eat at least once per week or more often if I have the time to make it. It’s energizing, healthy, and most importantly – it’s delicious!