Supersize Me

Over the past 2 weeks, I’ve eaten at Burger King 11 times. Not always a full meal – sometimes just a leftover chicken tender from L’s Kid’s Meal. Sometimes just a Kid’s Meal myself. Sometimes a full “Jedi Meal” (that gets you two extra Star Wars toys). We are frequenting every Burger King we can find in search of the 31 Star Wars toys they have “for a limited time only.” Thank God it’s for a limited time only – or else I’d soon be dead.

Eating all this nasty food reminds me of the documentary “Supersize Me.” If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend you rent it. It’s about a guy who eats nothing but McDonald’s for 30 days. Every meal, every day. The physical changes that occur in this man are astounding. And after just two weeks of eating burgers, fries, chicken sandwiches and sodas, I can already feel the negative effects.

The first week I had lunch at Burger King five days in a row. By the weekend I felt sluggish, grumpy, and nauseous. And very thirsty. Yet strangely enough I craved Burger King. Fast food addiction? I took a three-day “detox” and then cut way down on what I ate when we went there.

Now we’ve got a system. So if you’re interested in collecting toys from any fast-food promotion, listen up. First, visit at a slow time of day. Lunch or dinner rush hour is not the time. Second, you have to go inside the restaurant. Do not drive through. They must pick the nastiest employees to work the drive through – or it’s just a really stressful job trying to get those drive-through orders processed fast enough. I’ve encountered some really rude people who are simply unwilling to help a six year old collect all the toys. Go inside and order one thing first. We now order the Kid’s Meal with four chicken tenders, applesauce and chocolate milk. Relatively harmless, especially if L and I share the food.

Next, ask what toys they have this week. If there are several we don’t have, then I might go ahead and order that big old Jedi Meal. And if we have any duplicate toys, I will ask nicely if I can exchange them for something we don’t yet have. Some Burger Kings have told us they “don’t do that,” while others gladly make the swap. Remember to smile and give them your “I’m just trying to help out my adorable child” look. And be sure your adorable child is standing next to you.

Although I could easily buy the whole set of toys on ebay, avoiding the food and spending less money, there is something so fun about hunting down each toy and watching the collection grow. I must offer kudos to Burger King on this Star Wars promotion. The toys are good quality and lots of fun. And my friend (thanks CS!) just pointed me to BK’s awesome web site game where you can “Challenge Vader” to guess the object you are thinking with only 20 questions. Vader comes out with some great phrases, my favorite being “The Force is not even remotely with you.” If you like Star Wars at all, it’s worth a visit to http://www.sithsense.com/.