Food for thought

As a child my mother worked three jobs to provide for my siblings and I. my mom was a single parent who worked her butt off to ensure we had everything we needed. Growing up I was always with babysitters or family members because my mom would leave one job and have to go to another one. Fast food was a big part of my childhood because my mom rarely had time to cook a meal, she usually had one day off a week. When I was a child it never crossed my mind that eating out so much could potentially be harmful to my body. I also don’t think my mom knew eating fast food so regularly was bad, because obesity and all the research on fast food wasn’t around back then.

Currently, my thought process on fast food is completely opposite today. With research stating excessive eating of fast food and lack of exercise contributes to multiple life threatening diseases. That played a big part on why I think differently now about fast food. Also, there were other factors that I took into consideration when I processed this information. For example, eating fast food as frequently as a child made me appreciate having a home cooked meal. Since my mom stopped working she cooks meals almost every day of the week. My mom feels that she worked too much when I was a kid and wasn’t able to provide that comfortable, home environment, where she could cook a dinner and the whole family would sit down and eat.

My mom has taken some of the blame as to why I dislike fast food so much. Yes, understanding all of the negative side effects and appreciating home cooked meals played a big role on why I think negatively about fast food. Also, being healthy and staying active is a big part of my life right now. I know when I used to eat fast food as an adult, I felt very lackadaisical and unmotivated to go to the gym. So my health and happiness means much more to me than eating a greasy burger and fries.