Today we visited some friends we haven’t seen for almost five years. We had a wonderful time — and I have to say that I was truly surprised at what awaited me upon arrival.
As always, I packed my bag full of fruit before we hit the road, fully expecting to pretty much eat every bit of it during the trip (it was a day trip; we were home in about 10 hours, so it wasn’t too long a time). What I didn’t expect was a very nice plate of fresh fruit awaiting our arrival. Bananas, apples, oranges, and strawberries… And the strawberries were actually pretty good — not like the ones you usually get at the end of winter.
To make the day even better, they have a high speed Internet connection and let me download a bunch of files — almost a gigabyte in total. I only have a dialup at home; being able to download some large files was a huge blessing.
While some may think that having fruit available for somebody who eats only raw foods is to be expected, I don’t. I learned nearly ten years ago that if you have absolutely zero expectations going in to a situation, you are never disappointed.
It all started on October 11, 1997 — the day that a friendship started with a young woman in Poland who eventually became my wife. A friendship soon turned in to a serious relationship. We soon realized that we wanted to be married but many obstacles stood in the way. LOTS of them (I won’t elaborate here). I was in Germany, she was in Poland, and there was more than a border to overcome (trust me!). Both of us decided to continue to work hard to overcome the obstacles, yet we had absolutely no expectations about actually getting married. That way, when the obstacles were overcome, it was a true blessing.
And that’s pretty much how I viewed today’s situation — as well as a lot of other stuff in life. In fact, it’s how I’m looking at everything related to my new lifestyle as I move forward, including the trip I’m taking next week. I didn’t expect anything to eat when I arrived at our friend’s house today and would not have been disappointed had nothing been available. I was also prepared for that eventuality. However, seeing that our old friends went out of their way to ensure that I had something to eat was a pleasant surprise. I like it that way and will continue to think this way.
Incidentally, the only clue that they had about my new eating habits was a casual remark that my wife made while planning the trip yesterday with our friends. From that came this very kind gesture.
If you are hosting friends that you know are on a raw vegan diet, may I suggest that you also do something like this? It is deeply appreciated.
The visit with our friends was followed with a trip to the grocery store. The fruit bowl was pretty bare this morning: just a few bananas, a couple of apples, and a bowl of grapes, so my wife volunteered to do the shopping (I normally shop for myself).
When I shop, I tend to buy only what I need until my next trip to the grocery store. Not my wife! She came out with several bags packed full of fruit (and a few vegetables, too). While she did spend a few dollars on things for herself and the kids, she ended up spending a bit over $100 in the store. I know that I’ll have enough fruit (with the possible exception of bananas) until I depart for the States on Thursday.
For anybody counting, today is Day 11 of my new all raw foods lifestyle. Today is “Hump Day” on the road to making this a true habit. Ten days are past, ten days await, so after today, I’m “over the hump”, so to speak, and only have 10 more days until this becomes a bit more second nature (hopefully). As I said yesterday, I’ll continue to “force” myself to eat this way for another 10 days, then reevaluate where I stand and how I feel.
It seems as if the desire to eat cooked foods wasn’t as strong today as it was yesterday. As always, there were opportunities: cake and tea at our friend’s house — and we stopped at our favorite Imbiss so my wife could purchase a gyros plate. The desire simply wasn’t as strong as it was yesterday or the last time we stopped at that Imbiss (on Monday). I’m beginning to think that the “21 Days To Form A Habit” may be a key to transitioning successfully to an all raw foods diet. While I’ll be able to better gauge my own progress in another 10 days or so, for now I’m going to go out on a limb and recommend that anybody serious about switching to all raw foods commit to doing so for at least 21 days “at any cost”.
Of course, be sure to check out my blog post after the 21 days are over (that will be April 4, 2008) to get the rest of the story.
Smacznego,
Tom
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