Fast food fast

I'm more of a feasting rather than a fasting kind of guy. And until recently I was also a McFeast kind of guy. So the story goes, one night after church a few of us decided to head to McDonald's for a late dinner. This coincided with the end of Ramadan (an important occasion in Lidcombe) and amongst the crowd, the chaos, and the confusion I was mistakenly given two large burger meals. Knowing that were I to return the second burger and chips the OH&S policy meant it would be discarded by staff, my non-existent ethical framework kicked in and I decided to eat both. Two sorry meals later I vowed to give up McDonald's for a thousand days.

Feeling happy with the success of the venture, a hundred days into the fast Sarah and I decided to begin a new thousand day fast expanded to include all takeaway food and soft drink. This would mean we ate healthier and more importantly cheaper than we had been.

Apart from the obvious question of 'why deny yourself such pleasure?', the most common response we get from people is "Well, what can you eat?" This is followed by a barrage of questions trying to pin down our position - What about pizza? Can you eat chinese? Does fish and chips count? Isn't Subway healthy? Everyone is fascinated by where we are drawing the line.

Many of the people who read this blog are also familiar with my friend and blogger of all things interesting (and more!) Nathan a.k.a. The Pharasaical Faster. I was impressed to hear of Nathan's new financial year resolution to give up fast food and soft drink. I was less impressed when I discovered on visiting Nathan in Townsville that "It's really only the major chains." Which meant burgers from takeaway shops were still in. He also "decided pizza doesn't count" and "There's only one Oporto in Townsville, so it's not really a major chain."

The last thing I wanted was to have my resolutions ridiculed in the way that I did Nathan's. But people were right; we did need to decide our line. So here it is.

1. Anything made at home is kosher. E.g. Frozen fish and chips, homemade burgers.

2. When eating out it is acceptable only to eat food that is served on a plate during the regular dine-in experience. E.g. Pizza chains are out, but local gourmet pizza is in, KFC is out but Thai is in.

I initially wanted to simplify it to "anything served on a plate" but my Dad told me I just needed to always carry a plate with me.

What do you think? Will it work?