People want to help. I mean, in general, unless your friends and family are really unsupportive assholes, people do applaud your actions when it comes to trying to be healthier in life. They may not agree with what you are doing, but if they are cool people, they will support it. Case in point, my stepmother’s barbecue yesterday. When she sent out the email saying that there was going to be a party there, I agreed to go, while secretly thinking I would just stick to whatever side dishes and figure it out on my own. I didn’t want to be a problem, you know?
Well, my sister Dolly sent an email back telling Robbie that I am a vegetarian now. (I hadn’t yet gone full vegan then.) She obviously took it to heart, because she not only made several vegetarian side dishes, but got portabello mushrooms to grill, so I could have a “burger” when everyone else had one. How cool is that?
The thing is, nobody made any comments about what I was eating, nobody acted like it was a big pain to make something different… after all, they were grilling several kinds of meats, why not throw a couple of mushrooms in the mix?
The only bad part of the day is that I really over-indulged way more than I should have. I ate until I was stuffed, then went to the movies and ate popcorn *with* butter. (And yeah, I can kid myself that movie butter isn’t real butter, but whatever it is, it is definitely not the non-processed, plant based, whole food diet that I am trying to follow here.)
Still, all in all, it was a good holiday for a newbie. I didn’t crave any of the burgers or brats. And I started fresh this morning with a healthy breakfast, nice salad for lunch and another new soup. Small steps, right?
Finnian Burnett 