This week is fair week--the parade, crazy rides, hawking dealers looking to separate me from my money, arts and crafts, Zip Line, art, music, and the unhealthiest food on the planet! Everything is death defyingly fried: hot dogs, corn dogs, funnel cake, candied apples, burritos, tacos, gorditas, Snickers candy bars, ice cream sandwiches, etc. And all the meat is barbecued: wings, turkey legs, pork loin, ham, ribs, etc. So much sugar: funnel cakes, candy apples, cotton candy, taffy, etc.. And salted: pickles, popcorn, and chips. There is not a vegetable to be found. Even the burgers do not have lettuce and tomatoes on them or even onions. (The onions are fried too).
What’s a passionately-determined-to-stay-healthy person to do in such a toxic environment? Bring my own food! I have never sneaked IN food to a fair in my life! But I did last night. I went to the student cafeteria beforehand and fixed a do-it-yourself luscious, large salad in a large container with delectable vegetables and fruits (lettuces, grape tomatoes, red and green bell peppers, cucumbers, red onions, radishes, and so on). I squeezed lemon wedges on top instead of using the oily salad dressings. Then I prepared a fruit salad in a smaller container with honey dew melon, cantaloupe, grapes, and pineapple. I put them in separate TO GO containers and I put them in a bag. Then I took the bag with me INTO the fair.
Sure, the fact that I had a vendor pass and could get in the separate vendor gate and park in the vendor parking lot (where I was not so conspicuous carrying a bag INTO the fair) helped a lot. Yes, I volunteered to sit at my employer’s booth and answer questions and give out promotional goodies. But I didn’t see any reason in the world that just because I was sitting in a food toxic environment laden with foods I have mentally classified as “poisons” for my body, that I should suddenly succumb to temptation and “feast” on the food poisons! I have the right to eat healthy—ANYWHERE. I have freedom of choice all the time, if I am creative and imaginative enough.
So while all around people were gouging and stuffing themselves with toxic food, I sat and ate my vegetable salad. Then I sat and ate my fruit salad. And I drank water from my water bottle. And I felt great! I did not experience that nausea, bloating, and fatigue that come from overindulging in greasy, sugary, salty, unrecognizable junk.
I know Dr. McDougall says we can feast once in a while, but I have worked so hard to regain my health, have sacrificed so much to get to this point of health, that I don’t want to relinquish even one inch in retreat back to where I was even a year and a half ago!
For me, there is such a thing as feasting on healthy food! Feasting doesn’t have to be on just toxic food. I feasted on that salad and that fruit because every morsel was delicious and delectable and energizing! I feasted on that fruit salad because the fruit was juicy and sweet and I can taste a cornucopia of exotic flavors that my taste buds did not even know existed in such simple food two years ago! For me every McDougall meal is a feast! I get to eat to satiation! I get to eat until I am delightfully full! Every meal is a feast! I never have to experience hunger or famine again!
I don’t need toxic food to make me happy anymore! I don’t need toxic food to make my life seem worthwhile anymore. I don’t need toxic food to feel that I am rich and have it made! I don’t need toxic food to celebrate a drab existence or to brighten a gray day or to make life worth living anymore. Life is NOT drab or gray. Life IS worth living. WHY? Because I am healthy! When you have your health, you have everything, as the saying goes? Why would I want to feast on toxic food that makes me feel sick, weak, fatigued when I can feast on healthy starches and fruits and vegetables that make me feel healthy, energetic and alive?
I am going to the fair again tonight. This time I am going as a customer, not as a vendor. I can’t carry a bag of food in and look inconspicuous. But I can carry a backpack IN loaded with baked potatoes, pita pizza, and apples. I can eat a bowl of Vegetable and Barley Soup before I go in.
I will be going with family who look forward every year to the fair so they can gorge on “fair” food. There will be pressure to have just a little bit; to live a little, to enjoy life because we will all die soon enough. Everything in moderation, they will say. You only live once, they will say. Live today, because tomorrow we die, they will say. But I have heard it all before and, yes, when I was not so far along down this road, I gave in. I suffered nausea, diarrhea, fatigue from that food that was supposed to help me “live a little.” It felt like I was dying a lot!
But I have since had many opportunities to say, ‘No, thank you” while I eat my oatmeal or baked potato. I have had a few more opportunities to resist. I have remained strong and, consequently, each time I resist successfully, I grow stronger. It becomes easier. So much so, that in the office, my co-workers have stopped trying to entice me with that piece of birthday cake or that donut or that chocolate cookie or that brownie. They know I will say no, so they don’t even try anymore. The fact that they recognize my past successes as future successes, helps ME become even stronger. Because there are times in my own mind, I hear the singsong of “live a little” or “Dr. McDougall says you can feast” and I am tempted to give in. I mentally line up my defenses and my excuses FOR indulging just THIS one time. But I am spared. They don’t even ask me. They have learned I am serious and determined. They have quit trying. That makes ME stronger in a weak moment.
The same with my family. I have gone to enough birthday parties with cake and chips and ice cream and Long John Silver’s fish or Church’s fish or French fries or broiled salmon, all stuff I used to eat even two years ago. But I have said “No” enough times, that they don’t even offer. Their recognition of my strength and determination makes me even stronger and more determined.
Unfortunately, my example (my strength, my determination) has not enticed anyone to join me. They just eat indulgently in front on me. I don’t know what to make of that—the fact that I have no influence. I lost the weight. I know I look fantastic. I know I look younger than my 61 years. I know I am a good example of health, but no one even asks me how I do it. They just think I am crazy for turning down such delectable, delicious, delightful toxic food. And I think they are crazy for indulging! So it is a standoff to see who is the craziest!
