Things Are Lookin Up

Day six of my new life changing (thank you Oprah) diet plan and I'm feeling ok. Withdrawal had set in and I spent the past two days with a monster headache. As mentioned in my previous post, I am only eating organic meats and dairy, fruits, veggies and whole grains. No more processed foods (for the most part, healthy/organic ones are allowed). Under absolutely no circumstances am I allowed anything with high fructose corn syrup. That my friends, is the devil.

So far I have watched Food Inc., & Super Size Me. One scared me from eating chicken or beef again, and the other just reinforced what I already suspected about the multimillion dollar monster that is the McDonald's corporation.

I have zero regrets about deciding to no longer eat harmful processed foods, though to be honest I imagine its going to be tough; they've been a huge part of my life. Lean Cuisines, those handy 100 calorie snacks, Skinny Cow ice cream and 90 calorie chewy granola bars are just of few of the "regulars" on my old shopping list. Any girl who watches her calories (which I'm sure I can safely say is 90% of the female population in NYC) will have these staples in her pantry. Now that they are no longer allowed in mine, I'm going to have to get a bit creative and work a little harder. When I say work a little harder I mean actually prepare a meal versus peeling back the plastic and nuking it.

Eliminating processed foods from the meals I eat at home isn't as difficult one would expect. There are plenty of organic counterparts to the foods and snacks I used to enjoy. However, the idea of eliminating fast food of any kind for the rest of my life has been a little hard. For the record, I don't eat fast food very often, if ever. When I do, it's a grilled chicken salad from McDonald's. That said, once a year I do like a great burger. Not from a fast food restaurant, but a burger from Piper's Kilt (google it, they are amazing) or even at a local diner, is a wonderful thing.

Then I starting thinking about it, this is New York, there has to be something out there for us. And, there is.

Shake Shack! Yes ladies and gentleman, Shake Shack is the answer to all of your problems. Hungover? Shake Shack. Still drunk? Shake Shack. Not able to eat anything unless its organic, unprocessed or grass-fed? Shake. Shack.

Shake Shack is a New York institution that sells burgers, hot dogs, fries, shakes and some custard creations (much like its West Coast counterpart, In-N-Out Burger). They use grass-fed beef and offer french fries free of harmful artificial trans fats. Plus, they are yummier than any other burger in NYC. I won't be having one anytime soon, but its nice to know quality junk food does exist.

I'm not sure how I got from veggies to burgers; must be my subconscious talking.