Daviot Kelly, Staff Reporter 
WINSTON SILL, Freelance Photographer -
Reporter Daviot Kelly bites into a cheeseburger during his four-day sojourn of eating only fast food.
SIMPLY PUT, I love fast food.
Burgers, fries,
chicken, pizza, patties
you name it, I'll eat it.
However, the idea of eating nothing but fast food for as long as $3,000 could last left me feeling a wee bit queasy. I mean, even at the age of 23, I think about the arteries hardening and my cholesterol going through the roof. Furthermore, this would certainly wreck the 'slim and trim' body that I've been (desperately) trying to get.
But, not wanting to seem like I'm not a team player, I set out to eat, er, work.
DAY ONE:
I started off simply -- two Tastee patties and some fruit punch were good enough to kick off the day.
For lunch, I tried Church's Chicken. The two-piece spicy chicken meal with a side order of fries was delightful. So I start thinking, 'this fast food thing isn't so bad'. With that meal satisfying me until evening, I stopped at the Burger King on my way home and wolfed down a double whopper with cheese.
Ahh, I was one satisfied eater.
DAY TWO:
This started off where the first day had ended.
No problem. A nice scrambled egg platter from Burger King (didn't want to repeat a brand but I live close to one) was fine with orange juice.
For lunch, I was off to Wendy's. I felt like a chicken burger so I went for a spicy chicken fillet.
By the time I got to have something for dinner it was after 7:00 p.m. (work can be a pain) so I was really hungry. I decided to go huge with my food -- three pieces of chicken, two medium fries and a medium soda from KFC. For the first time, I felt stuffed and uncomfortable. This fast food thing was not feeling too glamorous.
DAY THREE:
By now my stomach was back to full fitness. There went two more patties, this time from Juici patties (I have a penchant for patties, I must admit) and more juice. Not even I could relish soda this early in the morning.
By noon my stomach began calling so I had to decide where to go for lunch. I settled on McDonald's and a McBurger Supreme -- beef slapped between two burger buns and dripping with mustard -- with fries and a Coke. That was enough for today.
I was slightly perturbed to
find that my waist was getting
a bit heavier or could it have been mind over matter
-- and all that cheese from
practically every meal was beginning to give my sinuses
a hard time. Fortunately, the money was finishing fast.
But I had one meal left for today. So I stopped by Island Grill and was able to put away two pieces of jerk chicken
without much fuss.
DAY FOUR:
This started like the previous three days. I was rather hungry because I was eating two hours after I normally would have had breakfast. So this left me with a stomach ache but I would be fine. Mother's Restaurant has a nice breakfast menu but that seemed a bit too healthy for my purposes at the moment. So, without thinking, I had two more patties and, what the heck, let's have a soda this time.
My stomach didn't agree.
Time to get swanky for lunch so let's hit Pizza Hut. I'm not a big eater (really) so a Personal Pan Pizza would settle the hunger pains, I reckoned. This contained four small slices of cheese and pepperoni delight with breadsticks.
Later that day, I made my first visit to a Subway. I felt like a
kid in a toy store but I finally decided on a turkey breast
sandwich with lettuce and
tomatoes and, ugh, more soda.
There endeth the $3,000.
MY CONCLUSION:
By far, the hardest thing to stomach was the amount of carbonated beverage I guzzled. I could have substituted soda for fruit juices but what's the point of a double hamburger and fruit punch? They just don't go together.
Sometimes it was tedious to try and finish all that food and drink and at times I felt like my throat and stomach were on fire. Imagine if I had $5,000 to spend! Like I said, I love fast food but every day? No thanks!
Not all fast food meals are swimming in heart-clogging grease.
There are healthy alternatives on some fast food outlet menus. During my four-day sojourn in the various fast food outlets, I did notice that there were some healthier alternatives to the French fries and other fried foods I was devouring (gleefully, you can imagine).
I've also come to realise that
I could've made some subtle changes to the meals I bought. For example, I saw that instead of having, let's say a double burger at Wendy's, I could have had the Mandarin Chicken Salad. It also comes with a bottle of spring water. In the same vein, over at Burger King, I might've opted for the Veggie Burger or one of the chicken sandwiches instead of the good old whopper.
Nutritionist Dr. Joy Callender also made a few suggestions -- though not all to my joy.
"I don't really like fries because it is the wrong type of fats and it's deep fried," she said, completely denting my love for them. She suggested trying other side dishes, where available. Addressing my concern about all the sodas, she suggested diet sodas as opposed to juices because some juices have as much calories as regular sodas.
OTHER SIMPLE ADJUSTMENTS YOU CAN MAKE TO YOUR
FAST-FOOD MEALS:
Instead of beef patties, try chicken or vegetable patties every now and then.
If you like cheesesticks with your pizza, take breadsticks sometimes. And why bother with cheese on your pizza at all, try the veggie toppings -- can't hurt.
If you're in the habit of ordering two or three pieces of fried chicken, next time try chicken salad or roast chicken.
Go easy on the mayonnaise or leave it out altogether, the burger will taste just as nice.
