The Social Component of Food

Take a look at it.
Along the way I decided that if I was to overcome the enemy within, I would have to attack it on many fronts, with herbs, vitamins,  baking soda and maple syrup, visits to naturopaths, and with diet and prayer and meditation. I stuffed everything down the barrel of the cannon and lit the fuse. But, it didn't take long for me to realize that the hardest thing for me to do was to attack it with a fork.

After I crossed the table to a vegetarian lifestyle I ran into a lot of unexpected problems.

Food is a central part of our social fabric.  We celebrate special occasions, with friends and family around food. How do you tell friends that when you visit them you won't eat the food they prepare for you. Or, in my case, I have had two family weddings in which I had a central place in toasting the bride and groom. How do you respond to your tired wife when she wants to have dinner in a restaurant after a day of shopping?

Do you want to know what  is guaranteed to bring tears to your heart? Try barbequeing steaks, hamburgers and hot dogs, at a summer party for your friends when they come for an afternoon visit?

Ok. Here is the journey I took.

I decided from the get-go, that it was too hard a journey to take.  So, I announced to my wife, family and friends that I would go along with the parade and eat what everyone else ate on certain occasions. I became a flexi-terian.  I would do my own thing at home, which was 90% of the time, but I would not make a big deal of it at other times. I would have a flexible lifestyle.

I have no doubt that are many people who take the baking soda - maple syrup (or molasses) route and take certain herbal supplements and there are lots of them out there, and they win the battle, without making changes to their diet.

I chose to attack the enemy within from every possible angle.

In my case, the price was higher then I anticipated. My wife wanted nothing to do with my diet. She refused to even consider preparing a vegetarian meal for me.  And not just that, she wasn't a happy mamma when I rejected her meals. Taking it a step further, when I began cooking my own meals, our meals were separately prepared and we ate at different times so we didn't eat together.

For me - food was second only to illness, as the hardest battle I had to face.  It took a lot of iron will and personal resolve to take charge of my life.