Pg. 38 Exercise 2

In today's society, fast food has become somewhat of a norm. It's easy, convenient, and for the price, most would argue that it could hold its own in a taste test. I know that when I was employed at Abercrombie and Fitch, we only had a half hour for a meal break. Not many employees took it upon themselves to make a brown bag lunch, nor did we have a place to store anything outside of a bottled drink. So, as many of the others did, I would indulge myself at a fast food restaurant in the mall, knowing that I would have time to finish my food and that it wouldn't burn a hole in my pocket. But as time went one, I started to notice that it was harder and harder to keep the physical attributes of an Abercrombie associate while continuing to eat at fast food places. So I began to look for alternatives, and found that it is all up to the individual to stay away from high calorie meals. I made a rather drastic decision of becoming a vegetarian. I noticed that many of the places I was eating at offered salads, vegetable entrees, and low fat yogurts or desserts. For the longest time, a number one from McDonalds (the famous big mac) with a large fry and coke suited my hunger more than I could ask for. I never bothered to notice the option of a salad or mixed bowl of fruit only a menu over from the value meals. As I became more contientous of my weight, I began noticing that many of the places I was eating at had other options; options I decided to ignore over and over again. Now, eating a salad from McDonalds can become bland and monotonous after a little while, so I looked for other options. For about the same price, if not cheaper, frozen lean cuisine and Jewel's pasta salad were great alternatives to the Manderin Orange Chicken Salad without the chicken. Without any help from my parents, friends, or even David Zinczenko, I managed to change how I ate for the same amount of money, completely unpersuaded from the fast food industry.

In today's society, fast food has become somewhat of a norm. It's easy, convenient, and for the price, most would argue that it could hold its own in a taste test. I know that when I was employed at Abercrombie and Fitch, we only had a half hour for a meal break. Not many employees took it upon themselves to make a brown bag lunch, nor did we have a place to store anything outside of a bottled drink. So, as many of the others did, I would indulge myself at a fast food restaurant in the mall, knowing that I would have time to finish my food and that it wouldn't burn a hole in my pocket. As the time went on, a little bit of pudge appeared around my stomach and my rather loose fitting jeans became snug in the waste in thighs. I could not come to a conclusion on how this might be happening. Then I saw the correlation between my new employment and the weight increase. Since Abercrombie and Fitch has never had a claim against them about their cologne increasing the fat tissue of ones body, I figured it must be the fast food I was eating that was doing it to me. So right then and there, I vowed to pull away from the corporations that manufactured tasteless burgers and laskluster pizza. Immediately, the results showed that I was right. I went back to my weight, saw an increase in my track abilities, and found working out at the gym much easier. But who's fault was it that I began putting on weight so readily? None other than my own. No one forced me to eat at a fast food restaurant during my breaks, I choose that for myself. When I decided to stop eating there, I lost the weight I had put on. Just because the company made it convenient to eat there doesn't mean the blame should be taken off of myself. All of the lawsuites and complaints made against corporations in the food industry are rediculous. Most places promise a food for cheap that tastes good; for most companies, they deliver a product that is fairly cheap and tastes good. I don't remember a promise of low calorie meals or fat burning options. It must be within ourselves to create a physical appearance we are proud of. If we don't succeed, then we must try another option. That is what America is all about, a place of opportunities and options, and if satisfaction is not granted, then it should be our own motive to make things better that changes it.

In the both essays, I established free will and the betterment of self through our own choices. In the first essay, I show how my choices created an environment free from fast food. In my second essay, I comply with Zinczenko and agree that fast food has the ability to increase calorie intake. I go on to disagree with it being the companies fault and relate back to the idea of free will to make our own choices. Overall, I hold the idea of making your own choices, but the essays are very different. One essay shows the alternatives to fast food and the other put the blame on fast food, but both held a central idea. The arguments are strong in both situations, but hold a different relevance.