Positive Paradoxical Situations (9/30/14)
I love finding positive paradoxical situations. I’m sure you have heard of the movie Super Size Me where an indie filmmaker named Morgan Spurlock put on 25 pounds in a month. He chose to single out McDonald’s as he attacked the nutritional value of fast food nation. I don’t think anyone in history has said that fast food was health food. Fast food is convenient, and for some it’s a guilty pleasure.
My problem with Morgan is he chose to base his movie on an argument that no rational human being would qualify as logical, that being willingly living off of a 5000+ calorie a day diet at a fast food restaurant. There are people whose diet is primarily picked up at the drive through window, but that has more to do with lifestyle and socioeconomic status than conscious dietary decisions. Honestly, to look at his social experiment, it appears like Morgan only wanted to get his five minutes of fame at the expense of someone else.
On the flip side a guy by the name of John Cisna thought Super Size Me was based on such a ridiculous premise that he set out on his own social experiment. In turn John wanted to show that by using a little restraint and common sense you could actually maintain a healthy lifestyle while living on a fast food diet. He even managed to maintain consistency by using the same fast food giant. Where Morgan gained 25 pounds in one month, John lost around 40 pounds in three months. John debunked any notion that Fast food is the enemy that Morgan may have been trying to personify it as. In fact based on what John accomplished it would appear that Morgan’s documentary is more of an attack on society than on McDonald’s.
I heard about John’s story on the internet, and I thought it was a great, but I didn’t know the complete scope of the story until my friend Bob told me about it. You see Bob works for a legacy McDonald’s franchisee locally. This family has been in the burger flipping business for three generations, and to this day they maintain the same values Ray Kroc instilled in the company when he bought it from the McDonald brothers in 1961. When Bob’s bosses heard about John’s story they were so impressed that they invited John down to Florida. They even helped him publish a book on his McDonald’s diet, appropriately titled My McDonald’s Diet.
McDonald’s may not be the healthiest diet on earth, but it is the most convenient way to eat. You can almost stand outside any McDonald’s restaurant and look down the road and see the next golden arch on the horizon. McDonald’s convenience is why I’m so excited about this positive paradoxical situation, where a fast food company actually produces a healthy diet. Going by John’s numbers by the time time I finish my 10 month book tour, while on my McDonald’s Diet, I should end up losing over 40 pounds and find myself at a lean and healthy 190 lbs. Added Bonus: three squares a day from Mickey D’s still costs less than one meal at a sit down restaurant when you add in tip, and for a broke author that’s priceless!
Take the time to find the positive paradoxical situation because they can be worth their weight in gold. For me the McDonald’s diet will result in a savings of at least $10,000 in food costs.
